EMS Avenger Podcast

Elizabeth has it all! A great career! Influence in that career. She's a wife and mother. She has a home. She has recognition and brought the house down at EMS World. But at one point in her life she lost it all. Liz suffered from opioid use disorder, and her story from addiction to freedom is an inspiring account of how being offered kindness and compassion at your lowest point can be a seed that's planted that eventually sprouts and fuels recovery!

Link to Liz's Paramedic Scholarship Organization: https://www.paramedicpathways.org/

Podcast GOAT Ginger Locke of Medic Mindset joins me to discuss introversion in EMS. What is an introvert? Do introverts even like people? Are introverts barely surviving in an extrovert's EMS playhouse or are we actually the thrivers? Come recharge your batteries with Ginger and I as we settle into some quiet introspection and explore the minds of both introverts AND extroverts that make up the field of EMS. That's right extroverts, we saved a spot for you!

In the second episode of season 2, I discuss the successes, failures, lessons, and challenges of being an educator on social media with the always amazing Nurse Gwenny. We talk about the rewards of the job, navigating community engagement, disparities in the way men and women are treated in the creator space, what to do when you get it wrong, and what it feels like to get it right.

There is an overwhelming sense amongst EMS providers that they are trapped in EMS. They got in not quite knowing what the reality VS the promise of EMS was. That feeling was only intensified during the pandemic. Now they feel like there is no way out. It can almost feel like a prison sentence without a released date. Former inmate and now advocate Jesse Crosson relates to this as he served a considerable amount of time in prison (More so than sentence guidelines recommended) and found that while he couldn't change his surroundings, he COULD change his mind and his attitude. Hopefully this can inspire others to build resilience and internal change in order to rise above unfavorable circumstances.

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Ben Abo, a well known physician and researcher (Who maintains his Paramedic license) about a recent paper that he co-authored that found absolutely no evidence to support the practice of spinal immobilization, including the use of rigid cervical collars. This paper was a comprehensive review and meta-analysis, which is the highest form of evidence on the hierarchy of evidence. We dive into the data, the dogma, and how patients' quality of life and well-being are being ritually sacrificed to the use of these devices.

EMS Avenger teams up with fellow EMS Podcaster Dan Mouring of Paramedic AF in a TikTok Live to discuss what our system paradigm currently is, how our system is failing, the ethos we should have in EMS, what is standing in the way of fixing it, and what we can do to turn things around. We aren't holding back or pulling punches in this episode. And as a bonus we're joined later in the episode by Ashlynn O'Dell and Redbeard the Medic!

In this episode I speak to Dr. Peter Antevy about Palm Beach County Fire and Rescue's (PBCFR) Cardiac Arrest Practices, and how he sets them up for success as their medical director. We cover what they're measuring, what they're performing, and most importantly, how many lives they are saving!

Did you think We were finally starting to make headway on the fight against Epi in cardiac arrest? Did you think bicarb was finally out of the minds of providers now even though it hasn't been in the ACLS algorithm in recent history? Are you tired of explaining why Narcan isn't indicated in cardiac arrest? Well hold up! Because Dr. Jeff Jarvis are about to make you BIG MAD with some new data.

In this episode I talk to FlightBridgeEd's Eric Bauer about what happens after we intubate a patient. Eric, with the help of Dr. Michael Lauria, has been developing a way to organize post-intubation management with the PHACTORS mnemonic. We go through these factors one letter at a time and break down managing that patient once they've been intubated. That patient that you've intubated? They are now more dependent on your management than they were before, so it's vital that you be constantly thinking about that ongoing management.

EMS rehearses and drills cardiac arrest care repeatedly. We have HP-CPR and resuscitation academies. We are ALWAYS looking for ways to improve survival rates. But...we are way more likely to encounter a patient with sepsis, something that will kill as many people as survive cardiac arrest. But we have a much greater ability to improve those numbers. So why don't we OWN sepsis? Dr. Peter Antevy and I dive into why EMS doesn't have High-Performance Sepsis care and Sepsis academies and bragging rights to our amazing sepsis survival numbers.