Steve Whitehead

Last night I watched a friend of mine break a stack of bricks with his bare hand. As a trained martial artist he’s no stranger to breaking things with his body. In fact, he’s been putting his hands and feet through wood, ice and concrete since he was a kid. You don’t just show up one […]

A good friend of mine is being sued by a former patient. I don’t know if that statement gives you anxiety the way it gives me anxiety. I’ll admit it, I have an underlying fear of having to defend myself and my actions in a court of law. I’m not scared of being held accountable […]

The AEIOUTIPS acronym holds a special place in my paramedic heart. It stands alongside OPQRST and SOAP as one of the three most useful acronyms I ever learned in medicine. I’m a believer in AEIOUTIPS for several reasons. Unlike mnemonics like my first cardiac arrest algorithm, (Shock, shock, shock. Everybody shock. Little shock, big shock, […]

I’d like to teach you how to take a pulse in three seconds or less. Yes it’s possible. I am, quite possibly, about to contradict everything you learned about taking a patients pulse in your EMT class. Hear me out on this one. In general, I think we overemphasize the importance of coming up with a […]

After I wrote a recent article on the benefits of the face flick for assessing level of consciousness, I received a string of questions and commentary on the effectiveness of another, more well known assessment for unconsiousness – the hand drop test. The hand drop test is considerably more well known than its cousin the face flick […]

I first heard the BCAPBTLS acronym sometime around 1998 while helping a group of EMT’s practice their skills. I hadn’t been involved in EMT education for several years and I had missed the whole inception of the DCAPBTLS acronym. Dutifully, each aspiring EMT moved from the head to the neck, shoulders, chest and abdomen. Each student […]

I want to share with you a quick technique I’ve been experimenting with for the past few years. I first came up with this while working as a supervisor in the private ambulance service. At that point I did a lot more interacting with bystanders on scene and it was often a challenge to get them […]

“Check for medical alert tags or bracelets.” Your EMT instructor probably made you repeat this phrase dozens of times through the course of your EMT class. Checking for medical alert bracelets is a staple of the EMT medical and trauma stations. It’s right up there with, “I’m wearing my BSI. The scene appears to be […]

A question that comes up frequently in our EMT class is, “How do we assess distal motor function in altered or unconscious patients?” It’s a fair question. We usually drill our EMT students on checking that distal neuro function before and after c-spine immobilization. You remember the drill, “Can you squeeze my hands? Can you […]

We sometimes overlook compartment syndrome while teaching isolated limb injury because it tends to develop hours to days after the initial insult. That late onset might suggest that it falls outside of the typical window of prehospital care. While I would agree that compartment syndrome is not a typical EMS finding, EMTs should be aware […]

If you know me, you know that I’m a sucker for good, useful mnemonics for prehospital care. Since we’ve been discussing pediatric assessment lately, I thought it might be a good time to review an excellent mnemonic tool for pediatric assessment. That tool is the tickles (TICLS) mnemonic. The tickles assessment is a cornerstone of […]

If you’ve been in and out of a few continuing education classes over the past four years, you’ve almost assuredly heard reference to the MEND neurological exam. Perhaps it was gone over in detail or maybe it was mentioned as a passing reference. Of course…now you’ve forgotten exactly what the MEND exam was, or perhaps, […]

As we develop our experience in EMS, we encounter certain statements that make us sit up and take notice. Sometimes we take notice because we remember a call where things started going down hill right after we heard that phrase. Other times, we’ve simply learned from the experiences of others to sit up and take […]

I learned a lot about observation from Phil Rigardo. Phil was the brother of a friend from high school. When he learned I was in the EMT class at our local community college he invited me on a ride along. Phil was working for the local 911 provider. A company called Santa Clara Valley Ambulance. […]

One of the nice perks I’ve found to blogging is that every now and then I get to rant. This piece might fit into that rant category. Not necessarily the full blown, foot stompin’, leave the caps lock key on, kind of rant, but a rant none the less. I’ve started a bunch of IVs. Some […]

Physical restraint techniques and procedures are a subject of debate and controversy in EMS. Few agencies have taken the time and energy to research and develop a comprehensive restraint guideline for field providers to follow. When violent or aggressive patients show up (and they always do) EMT’s are left to fend for themselves. In these […]

“But … It Was In My Hand-off Report“ Every EMS responder who delivers patients to the emergency room has experienced the frustration of feeling like the ED staff didn’t really get the whole picture. You came in, you told the story and you said your goodbyes, but somewhere along the way it felt like there […]

Patient rapport is something we can easily overlook in our quest for better medicine. Our book never touched on it. It was barely mentioned in class. It doesn’t make its way to the EMS conference circuit very often – outside of a few exceptional lectures by Thom Dick. So how important could it possibly be […]

good emt and sport

Once you understand the protocol / skill connection you might come to see a host of problems with the way we develop, use and teach our protocols. I’d like to tell you about two biggies. As we explained in the protocol / skill connection, we are dependent on our protocols to different degrees at different […]

If you’ve ever grown plants in pots you know that selecting the right size pot for the plant is essential. Put a plant in a pot that’s too large for it and the new life will struggle to find water and nutrients. Place the same plant in a pot that’s too small and it will struggle to […]