Posts by The Paramedic Hive
Paramedics: Why We Can’t Recruit the Next Generation
By Scott J. Ash, NRPThe Paramedic Hive – Beyond the Sirens I remember when people wanted to be paramedics. Being able to work medicine away from a hospital setting, make life and death decisions and save a life here and there was enough to draw an entire generation of young men and women to our…
Read MoreThe Ambulance You Never Think About
Things People Don’t Understand About EMS By Scott Ash You’re late for work. Coffee in the cup holder. Traffic is already terrible. Somebody three cars ahead apparently believe 42 miles per hour is an acceptable speed in the left lane. Then you hear it. A siren. You check the mirror. There it is. An ambulance.…
Read MoreParamedics vs. Nursing Licensure: Same System, Very Different Rules
By Scott Ash There’s an odd inconsistency in EMS that few people talk about. Paramedics are expected to work independently. To make real-time clinical decisions about patients we often know little about. Patients without diagnoses. Patients we treat in chaotic environments. Patients where we may be the only healthcare provider on scene. But when it…
Read MoreThe Last Call of Medic One!
For John There are certain voices you never forget. Your mother’s. Your father’s. The dispatcher who sent you to your first cardiac arrest. And the partner who sat three feet away from you in an ambulance for enough years that you could tell what kind of call you were going to just by the way…
Read MoreBuprenorphine on the Ambulance: Are Paramedics Ready to Treat Opioid Withdrawal Differently?
By Scott Ash For The Paramedic Hive For decades, the prehospital response to opioid overdose has followed a familiar sequence: Find the patient.Support ventilation.Give naloxone.Restore breathing.Watch the patient wake up. And often wake up miserable. The patient who was unresponsive minutes earlier may suddenly be vomiting, sweating, restless, anxious, cramping, aching, and begging you to make…
Read MoreThe Five-Year Paramedic
When Did EMS Become a Stepping-Stone Instead of a Career? By Scott Ash For The Paramedic Hive There was a time when becoming a paramedic meant you had found your profession. You went to medic school. You survived Clinical’s and field internship. You learned how to read an ECG bouncing down a freeway, you can…
Read MoreThe EMS Staffing Crisis Is Becoming a Public-Safety Crisis
And the Experience Gap May Be Making It Worse By Scott Ash For the Paramedic Hive For years, we’ve called it an EMS staffing shortage. I’m beginning to think we’ve been calling it the wrong thing. “Staffing shortage” sounds administrative. It sounds like empty boxes on a schedule, overtime texts going out at six in…
Read MoreThe Experience Gap: Why Your Next Paramedic May Have Never Seen What You’re Seeing
By Scott Ash, EMHA, BS, AAS, NRPThe Paramedic Hive™Built for Those Who Answer the Call Not too long ago becoming a paramedic was as much apprenticeship as it was education. Many new paramedics spent years riding as EMTs prior to promotion. They spent hours in vehicles with experienced clinicians who taught them more than just…
Read MoreA Life That Changed Thousands: Honoring EMS Pioneer John Osborn
By Scott Ash for The Paramedic Hive There are paramedics who answer emergency calls. Then there are paramedics who answer a calling. John Osborn belonged to the second group. For decades, John dedicated his life to a profession that was still finding its identity. He served when paramedicine was in its infancy, when protocols were…
Read MoreRandolph Mantooth: The Paramedic Who Never Wore the Patch, But Inspired Generations Who Did!
By Scott Ash, NRP The Paramedic Hive – Built for Those Who Answer the Call Some heroes wear badges and run into burning buildings. Some fly high above us and keep our skies safe. But few have run faster than Paramedic Johnny Gage. Some heroes never respond to a 911 call. Some never place an IV, intubate a…
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