As a first responder, you are used to making rapid decisions, acting quickly, and treating the acute symptoms of your patient’s illness or injury. Though your fast action is necessary, do you ever stop and think about your patient’s long term outlook? You should. Your actions in the present can affect your patient’s future prognosis.

As an emergency responder, you know what a vital role training plays in job preparedness. You can’t predict what the next call will be, so you had better be ready for anything your community throws at you. Some calls are standard: the unresponsive patient, the elderly person having chest pain, or the child who fell off his bike, breaking his arm. These types of calls come in with such frequency, that training for them can seem redundant and unnecessary.

As a paramedic, you have a lot of responsibility. You administer life-saving medications, restart damaged hearts, deliver squirming newborns, and manage mass casualty situations. And it’s not like you get to do all of this in the controlled setting of an emergency room. No, you are expected to function at three a.m. in the midst of a raging blizzard among the tangled wreckage of a ten-car pileup. It’s not an easy job.

The man had been mowing the lawn when he collapsed under the intense, midday sun. You arrive on scene to find an elderly man, pulseless and apneic, in the front yard of a small house. The neighbors have gathered in a worried huddle, dogs are barking from behind a nearby fence, and all eyes are on you to immediately remedy the situation.

Today’s emergency responders have a wealth of technology available to them, enabling them to provide the highest level of service to their patients. Cardiac monitors not only assess heart rhythms and rates, but also gauge a patient’s blood pressure and oxygen saturation; airway adjuncts that can administer 100% oxygen to those suffering from trauma or hypoxia; and an array of medications to treat just about any type of medical emergency.

Have you ever needed to clear a patient’s airway in a location where in-wall suction was not available? If so, you definitely recognize the importance of having a reliable portable suction unit. Not only do you want your unit to be lightweight and deliver appropriate suction, you want to be assured that your rechargeable battery is not going to fizzle out on you at a critical time.

We have previously discussed the importance of evaluating your hospital’s Emergency Operations Plan. Through a series of exercises that gradually increase in complexity, strengths and weaknesses of the plan can be identified.

The nightclub was packed when you pulled up front. The bouncers were waving frantically from just beyond the entrance as they stood over an unconscious male who was sprawled on the sidewalk. You and your partner grab the usual equipment: the airway bag, monitor, drug box, and portable suction unit. And it’s a good thing you included the suction. When you approach the patient, he’s unresponsive, frothing at the mouth, and barely moving any air.

The patient was practically comatose by the time you arrived on scene. A gastric cancer patient, he had lost his ability to effectively swallow and had regurgitated once he arrived home from his chemotherapy treatment. As your partner flips open the airway bag, you attach the monitor and note a bradycardic rate of fifty-four. You set up for an IV while your partner cranks on the O2, only to realize the tank is empty. He dashes out to the truck for a replacement while you attempt the IV. Valuable seconds tick by. The patient is breathing on his own, yet gasping, and you fail to notice the remnants of vomit and bile rimming his mouth. With each passing minute, he inhales more of the acidic stomach contents lodged in his airway. His prognosis is quickly devolving.

Depending upon where you work as an EMS professional, chances are you’ll respond to a natural disaster at some point in your career. In Florida, it could be a Category Five hurricane. North Dakota, perhaps a record-setting blizzard. California medics could face “the big one” – that catastrophic earthquake many experts say is long overdue. Or if you work in Kansas, where tornadoes are as much a part of summer as hotdogs and fireworks, that F3 could be just on the horizon.