How much do you weigh in stones?

"We'll just pop 'round to the 'ospital and get you looked over, love, a'right?"
Today we visited an LAS training center and met an upcoming class of EMT-3s. I should take this time to explain the certification levels here in the UK. There are three levels of EMT in London only. EMT-1 is BLS capable, can administer oxygen therapy, and use an automatic defibrillator (AED). EMT-2 is an interim EMT-3 (for 12 months). EMT-3s can do everything a 1 can plus a few interesting skills. They are 3 lead and 12 lead capable. They can recognize ST elevation and basic heart rhythms. They can also administer nitroglycerin, aspirin, glucagon, entonox (nitrous oxide, believe it!), adrenaline (epi), parasetamol (pain reliever/fever reducer for children), and glucose paste. These drugs are all given subcutaneously, orally, or IM. Paramedics have a whole host of other drugs they can administer very similar to our drug scheme. They also perform decompression, intubation, and various other skills.
So where was I? We visited a class of students training to be EMT-3s. We walked in and one exclaimed “You’re from Baltimore!” (The blue uniform must be a dead give away). Everyone we meet has a copy of our schedule, and some people know it better than we do, which is really cool.
Anyway, this was their first day doing scenarios after all of their initial training. I could barely believe it was their first time putting it all together, they were very good. They have a great review system, getting the opinions from everyone in the room (including us). I joked that instead of taking pictures we could just photoshop green uniforms on our students and no one would know the difference. Everything is different and everything is the same.
Some fun facts about LAS: average 4.5 thousand calls per day (about 1 million per year.) Last Friday they had 4,996 calls, that’s crazy! New Year's Eve, 2000 they logged 1390 calls from midnight to 3 am. There are 73 stations in a 620 square mile area. During the working week, the London population swells to almost 8 million people. England has socialized medicine and the EMS system is paid for entirely by the government. (from the Mercedes ambulances, right to the socks that go with their smart green uniforms.)
Briticism of the day: Busking- apparently refers to performing music (original or not quite original) in the underground. There are specific places set up where this is accepted in the tubes. I also learned that one stone equals 14 pounds, what a handy fact!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Performing what exactly?
Anonymous said…
Ha, I was thinking the same thing... Interesting reading, btw. The LAS seems to have a pretty progressive EMS system, even with their nationalized health care. :-) Oh and PS: Paracetamol = Tylenol/Acetominophen. It's a wonder that EMS in the US can't give something as simple as that.
Anonymous said…
ellie updates are fun to read! (even when i dont understand all the medical lingo). we miss you around here!
Ellie said…
Performing music. It seems usually of their own making, but today we saw someone doing karaoke, weird. Thanks for reading!

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