- Joined
- Mar 19, 2003
- Messages
- 2,212
- Reaction score
- 30
A while ago, when I was teaching EMTs, there were many copies of lists of "The Rules of EMS" floating around. Some listed the author, some did not. All seemed based on the Fat Man's rules from the "House of God". Anyway, here is the list I used, feel free to post yours here too.
"Always follow the rules, but be wise enough to forget them sometimes."
1. Air goes in and out, blood goes round and round, and any variation on this is a bad thing.
2. All bleeding stops? eventually.
3. All people will eventually die, no matter what you do.
4. There will be problems.
5. Skin signs tell all.
6. The patient is sick / injured / dead, not you.
7. If the child is quiet, be scared.
8. If it's wet and sticky and not yours, leave it alone!
9. If someone dies by chemical hazards, electrical shocks or other on-scene dangers it should be the patient, not you.
10. You can't cure stupid.
11. Truly sick people don't complain.
12. If you drop the baby, pick it up.
13. The first thing to do on the scene of a full arrest is to check your own pulse.
14. Your eyes can't see what your mind doesn't know.
15. Assumption is the mother of all errors.
16. There is no such thing as a bad call, but there are calls that didn't go the way you planned.
17. There is no such thing as a "textbook case", diseases don?t read textbooks.
18. If you don't take a temperature, you can't find a fever.
19. Paramedics save lives; but EMT-B skills save paramedics.
20. If you don't have it, don't give up - adapt, improvise, and overcome: then call for a second unit.
21. Any EMT, firefighter, police officer and / or scene commander who is more stupid than the patient is the real problem.
22. Heaven protects fools, drunks and those with a large "tattoo to teeth" ratio.
23. If there are no drunks at an MVA after midnight - keep looking - someone is missing.
24. If the patient vomits in the rig try to hold their head to the side of the rig with the disposable equipment, not the stuff you have to clean.
25. Every emergency has four phases: panic, fear, remorse and paperwork.
26. You are bound to get a call either during dinner, while you are on the can, or at 02:00 in the middle of a great dream.
27. If it is between 05:00 and 07:00 and you have yet to go to the bathroom, you will invariably get a call for a patient in a bathroom.
28. The severity of the injury(s) is directly proportional to the difficulty in accessing, as well as the weight of, the patient.
29. Never trust your rig, drug box, or airway bag to be fully stocked despite of the assurances of the off-going crew.
30. When dealing with patients, supervisors, or citizens, if it felt good saying it, it was probably the wrong thing to say.
31. Just because someone's license date is before yours does not mean they know what they are doing.
32. The more equipment you see on an EMT's belt, the newer they are.
33. "Newbies" have their own way of doing things.
- H
"Always follow the rules, but be wise enough to forget them sometimes."
1. Air goes in and out, blood goes round and round, and any variation on this is a bad thing.
2. All bleeding stops? eventually.
3. All people will eventually die, no matter what you do.
4. There will be problems.
5. Skin signs tell all.
6. The patient is sick / injured / dead, not you.
7. If the child is quiet, be scared.
8. If it's wet and sticky and not yours, leave it alone!
9. If someone dies by chemical hazards, electrical shocks or other on-scene dangers it should be the patient, not you.
10. You can't cure stupid.
11. Truly sick people don't complain.
12. If you drop the baby, pick it up.
13. The first thing to do on the scene of a full arrest is to check your own pulse.
14. Your eyes can't see what your mind doesn't know.
15. Assumption is the mother of all errors.
16. There is no such thing as a bad call, but there are calls that didn't go the way you planned.
17. There is no such thing as a "textbook case", diseases don?t read textbooks.
18. If you don't take a temperature, you can't find a fever.
19. Paramedics save lives; but EMT-B skills save paramedics.
20. If you don't have it, don't give up - adapt, improvise, and overcome: then call for a second unit.
21. Any EMT, firefighter, police officer and / or scene commander who is more stupid than the patient is the real problem.
22. Heaven protects fools, drunks and those with a large "tattoo to teeth" ratio.
23. If there are no drunks at an MVA after midnight - keep looking - someone is missing.
24. If the patient vomits in the rig try to hold their head to the side of the rig with the disposable equipment, not the stuff you have to clean.
25. Every emergency has four phases: panic, fear, remorse and paperwork.
26. You are bound to get a call either during dinner, while you are on the can, or at 02:00 in the middle of a great dream.
27. If it is between 05:00 and 07:00 and you have yet to go to the bathroom, you will invariably get a call for a patient in a bathroom.
28. The severity of the injury(s) is directly proportional to the difficulty in accessing, as well as the weight of, the patient.
29. Never trust your rig, drug box, or airway bag to be fully stocked despite of the assurances of the off-going crew.
30. When dealing with patients, supervisors, or citizens, if it felt good saying it, it was probably the wrong thing to say.
31. Just because someone's license date is before yours does not mean they know what they are doing.
32. The more equipment you see on an EMT's belt, the newer they are.
33. "Newbies" have their own way of doing things.
- H
