Loud & Clear: EMS Guiding Principles - Advanced Continuing Education for Paramedics, EMTs & Prehospital Care Providers

By Ross Orpet, Paramedic turned EMS PhysicianEducation

Loud & Clear: EMS Guiding Principles - Advanced Continuing Education for Paramedics, EMTs & Prehospital Care Providers episodes

August 03The Pursuit of Mastery: Preparation, Mentorship, and Learning From Mistakes
Most people picture a master clinician as the person in the room who knows every answer. In reality, mastery looks like the opposite, and admitting what you do not know.

Ross talks with FlightBridgeED co-founder Eric Bauer about the “rage to mastery”, the advice that kept him in EMS after a series of difficult calls nearly drove him away, why expertise is perishable, and how ego creates resistance to learning.

Then, Will speaks to Master Your Medics founder Geoff Murphy about a medication error that changed how Geoff understood team culture. They explore what happened, and why psychological safety does not lower the standard.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why sustainable learning habits are more valuable than ambitious goals
How experienced clinicians can model vulnerability without undermining their credibility
What to look for in a mentor who will challenge blind spots
How to turn an uncomfortable call into action-oriented preparation for the next patient

Resources:

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Want individualized coaching and mentorship? Check out The Loud & Clear Fellowship.

Just have a question and want some personalized help? Book a free coaching call with us.

Interested in ABLS Now? Our listeners get 10% off through the end of August.

Guests:

Eric Bauer, CEO and Co-Founder of FlightBridgeED

Geoff Murphy, Founder and Lead Educator of Master Your Medics
49 min
July 27Mass Casualty Readiness, Burn Decisions, and the Fundamentals That Save Lives
The calls that scare clinicians the most are often the ones they have the fewest opportunities to practice.

So what happens during a rare, high consequence emergency? First, Jennifer Barnhart of Austin-Travis County EMS and Sergeant Luke Serrato of the Austin Police Department discuss the response to a mass casualty shooting on Austin’s Sixth Street.

Then, Ross talks with Allen Wolfe about three unusual burn and blast-injury cases. They discuss when a smaller burn may still warrant transfer to a burn center, how to recognize an airway that may require an early surgical approach, what a blast mechanism can reveal about hidden injuries, and why protecting burned tissue cannot come at the expense of protecting the airway.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
How shared language and closed-loop communication help EMS and law enforcement move together
Why responders may need to pass ambulatory or vocal patients to reach those who cannot self-rescue
What disrupted tympanic membranes, clothing patterns, circumferential facial burns can reveal

Resources:

Want more? Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Confidence Dispatch.

Want individualized coaching and mentorship? Check out The Loud & Clear Fellowship.

Just have a question and want some personalized help? Book a free coaching call with us.

Interested in ABLS Now? Our listeners get 10% off and a chance to win a free subscription. Enter before August 1, 2026.

Guests:

Jennifer Barnhart, Clinical Specialist, Austin-Travis County EMS

Sergeant Luke Serrato, Austin Police Department

Allen Wolfe, Senior Director of Clinical Education and Clinical Nurse Specialist at Life Link III
1 hr 4 min
July 20What the Evidence Really Says About Cervical Collars with Dr. Jeff Jarvis and Dr. Ben Abo
The hardest part of evidence-based medicine is not finding a paper. It is deciding whether that paper should change what you do on your next shift.

First, we talk with Dr. Jeff Jarvis about how to evaluate medical literature beyond the headline, abstract, conclusion, or p-value. You’ll hear about the PICO framework and why patient-oriented outcomes should matter more than the numbers that are easiest to measure.

Then, Ross talks with emergency physician Dr. Ben Abo about the evidence surrounding rigid cervical collars. He also shares how his EMS system removed collars from its ambulances by involving trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, emergency clinicians, and frontline providers in the change.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How to use population, intervention or exposure, comparison, and outcome to decide whether a study applies to the patients you actually treat
Why return of spontaneous circulation, p-values, and national benchmarks can distract clinicians from the outcomes patients care about most
What the literature suggests about cervical collars, spinal cord perfusion, airway compromise, aspiration risk, intracranial pressure, and pressure injuries
How to bring research to a medical director and change a long-standing protocol

Resources:

NAEMSP Trauma Compendium: Prehospital Management of Spinal Cord Injuries

Want more? Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Confidence Dispatch.

Want individualized coaching and mentorship? Check out The Loud & Clear Fellowship.

Just have a question and want some personalized help? Book a free coaching call with us.

Interested in ABLS Now? Our listeners get 10% off and a chance to win a free subscription. Enter before August 1, 2026.

Guests:

Dr. Jeff Jarvis, MD, MS, EMT-P

Dr. Ben Abo, DO, EMT-P

Guest Host: Matt Hedlun, Battalion Chief of Education at Thompson Valley EMS
1 hr 17 min
July 13 The Three Building Blocks of Trust in EMS
Trust is the architecture behind every patient interaction you run.
Dr. Cory Scheer, author of Closing the Trust Gap, has identified three evidence-based building blocks of trust: competency, problem-solving, and care for others. It turns out EMS providers already use all three the moment they step on scene.
In this episode, we unpack the gap between senior leaders and frontline EMS workers, what your "trust signature" reveals about how you naturally lead, and why imposter syndrome might be a signal worth listening to instead of pushing through.
Book a Free Coaching Call · Sign up for the weekly newsletter · Check out The Loud & Clear Fellowship program.
1 hr 9 min
June 29 The Skill Is Not The Hard Part
The hardest part of a bad call is rarely the algorithm. In two different interviews I explore some human traps of running an EMS call. I talk with Danny and Rance from DNR Prehospital Education about a choking arrest, a difficult field intubation, and the trainer-trainee dynamic that made the call more complicated than the procedure itself. Then Bobby breaks down the CAFE pneumonic of heuristic traps: commitment, acceptance, familiarity, and expert halo. This episode moves from the protocol and algorithm to the human challenges of running.
Want more? Sign up for our weekly newsletter The Confidence Dispatch
Want individualized coaching and mentorship? Check out The Loud & Clear Fellowship
Just have a question and want some personalized help? Book a free coaching call with us.

Interested in ABLS Now? Our listeners get 10% off and a chance to win a free subscription (giveaway on July 1st, 2026).
30 min
June 15 Treat Mom First: Amniotic Fluid Embolus and Other Peri-partum Emergencies
A postpartum patient does not need to look dramatic to be in real danger. In this episode from FAST 26, Ross talks with Amy Loucks about pregnancy-related deaths, maternal care deserts, postpartum warning signs, hypertension, cardiomyopathy, infection, and the calls EMS can easily miss. Then Elizabeth Garchar walks through amniotic fluid embolism, now often framed as an anaphylactoid reaction of pregnancy: sudden cardiovascular collapse, right heart failure, DIC, TXA, whole blood, AOK, and the principle that matters most when everything goes bad: treat mom first.

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Episode Resources-
CDC: Preventing pregnancy-related deaths — https://www.cdc.gov/maternal-mortality/preventing-pregnancy-related-deaths/index.html
Amniotic fluid embolism overview — https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/15463-amniotic-fluid-embolism
AOK regimen for amniotic fluid embolism — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9477128/

https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/
https://www.marchofdimes.org/research/maternity-care-deserts-report.aspx
https://saferbirth.org/
https://www.nmperinatalcollaborative.com/

55 min
June 07 Pressure Matters: Oxygenation vs. Ventilation in Pre-Oxygenation with Scott Weingart
Pre-Oxygenation is not just putting oxygen on the patient and hoping the sat buys you enough time. In this episode, Ross talks with Scott Weingart after his FAST26 talk on preventing peri-intubation arrest.
They get into why many peri-intubation arrests are predictable and preventable, why shunt physiology requires pressure and not just FiO2, and how EMS clinicians can build a field-ready setup with a nasal cannula, BVM mask, PEEP valve, and continuous pressure. Scott also walks through low-, moderate-, and high-risk patients, why high-risk oxygenation patients may not be good RSI candidates, and what changes for asthma, aspiration risk, and morbid obesity.
Book a FREE Coaching Call with Us Here
Learn More About the Loud & Clear Fellowship
American Burn Association ABLS Now giveaway and 10% listener discount
PREOXI trial: Noninvasive Ventilation for Preoxygenation during Emergency Intubation
PreVent trial: Bag-Mask Ventilation during Tracheal Intubation of Critically Ill Adults
EMS World Live + FAST 26 conference coverage
Guest: Scott Weingart / EMCrit — https://emcrit.org/
31 min
May 31 Your Checklist Is Making You Worse: Why Pilots Use Checklists and Paramedics Don't
A checklist should reduce cognitive load. So why does yours make things worse? Airline pilot and safety officer Glenn Fisher breaks down how aviation refined checklists over decades of crash data and human factors research — from verification-only flows to abnormal read-and-do procedures to defining the criteria for what should actually earn a spot on the card.
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NASA papers on checklist design-
Human Factors of Flight-Deck Checklists: The Normal Checklist
COCKPIT CHECKLISTS: CONCEPTS, DESIGN, AND USE
Design Guidance for Emergency and Abnormal Checklists in Aviation

American Burn Association / ABLS: Enter the ABLS giveaway by June 30, 2026; the winner will be selected July 1, 2026. Loud & Clear listeners also get 10% off ABLS Now through August 31, 2026. Details: https://bit.ly/aba-loud-clear
1 hr 7 min
May 21 Pediatric Sepsis with Dr. Peter Antevy
Pediatric sepsis is easy to miss because the first hour often looks ordinary. Kids compensate, until they don't. In this episode, Will Berry talks with Dr. Peter Antevy about the case that still bothers him and why fluids, vasopressors, antibiotics, and hospital feedback all have to be treated as one resuscitation system.
Book a Free Coaching Call with us at emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call
Sign up for our weekly newsletter The Confidence Dispatch at emspodcast.com/newsletter
American Burn Association / ABLS: Enter the ABLS giveaway by June 30, 2026; the winner will be selected July 1, 2026. Loud & Clear listeners also get 10% off ABLS Now through August 31, 2026. Details: https://bit.ly/aba-loud-clear
33 min
May 14 How to Build Procedural Skills - That Actually Stick
Most EMS skills training creates an illusion of competence. You drill a procedure, check a box, and move on. But what does the research actually show about competency and retention?
Dr. Jason Hine (EM physician, SimKit founder) breaks down the actual science of procedural skill acquisition: S-curves, encoding and consolidation, retrieval practice, and why expensive simulation labs often underperform cheap, high-rep lo-fi tools.
Plus: a big announcement about SimKit and The Loud & Clear Fellowship.
Book a Free Coaching Call at emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call
Sign up for the weekly newsletter at emspodcast.com/newsletter

SimKit - https://simkit.co
Made to Stick - https://amzn.to/4d5B5qA
American Burn Association / ABLS: Enter the ABLS giveaway by June 30, 2026; the winner will be selected July 1, 2026. Loud & Clear listeners also get 10% off ABLS Now through August 31, 2026. Details: https://bit.ly/aba-loud-clear
1 hr 38 min

About Loud & Clear: EMS Guiding Principles - Advanced Continuing Education for Paramedics, EMTs & Prehospital Care Providers

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