This episode is an open-access recording of educational content from a Prodigy EMS course which reviews a case of an undifferentiated critical pediatric patient. Prodigy's Director of Critical Care, Shane O'Donnell interviews Dr. Matthew Harris.

You are requested to transfer an intubated two-year-old. Thoughts go racing through your mind before the dispatcher finishes reading the information. What diseases can I expect? How do I ventilate this child? What medications should I prepare?

To watch the video of the interview and receive CE, visit Prodigy EMS.

Show Notes

Contact Ginger: [email protected]

Dr. Faroukh Mehkri walks us through a mindset reframe for the undifferentiated crashing patient. He theorizes that the pervasive language of “stay and play” versus “load and go” has conditioned and narrowed our thinking. 

Dr. Mehkri describes the evidence-based, predictable and preventable pattern of patients going into cardiac arrest in the early phase of a call when the patient has been physically moved to the ambulance too early.

He says there’s still a place for the “load and go” mindset but that there are also many occasions with the very sick patient where it would be more appropriate to start with a mindset of “stay and stabilize” before patient movement. 

Wherever you find your critical crashing patient, start where you stand and stabilize them there.

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Contact Ginger: [email protected]

Alex (Sandy) MacQuarrie, PhD and Paramedic, reflects on his move from Canada to Australia, principles of simulation in medical education & his personal experience with cardiac arrest.

Show notes at medicmindset.com

Connect with Ginger: [email protected]

Connect with Sandy: https://edgehumanperformancegroup.au

Dr. Casey Patrick, EM physician & EMS medical director at Montgomery County Hospital District (Texas), joins Ginger to discuss how he thinks during calls when the patient presents with rapid atrial fibrillation. Is the rapid A-fib the primary cause or a secondary result of another critical condition like sepsis, PE, DKA, hypovolemia, etc?

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"Some people love doing crosswords or Sudoku. I love finding my learner's cheat code. I love figuring out what really works for this person versus the previous people that I had. It's an opportunity for me to exercise my creativity." - Keith Velaski

This episode delves into the art of precepting in EMS. The episode features insights from Keith Velaski, a seasoned flight nurse with extensive experience in various clinical and transport settings. The discussion emphasizes effective preceptor-learner relationships, educational strategies, and essential traits for successful precepting.

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Love, Ginger

He's the White Tiger. Dr. J.R. Pickett. Or simply J.R. His teams follow him and in this episode he gives away some of the secrets of his leadership philosophies: How he gets buy-in from his team. What he understands about millenials. How he balances decisiveness with tactical patience. Why conflict is essential for successful teams. What he learned during COVID. 

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Paramedic, Taylor Kellogg (@kello011 on Twitter) joins us. This episode is a chance to take a break from clinical learning and listen to the story of a medic who has a passion for meteorology. Wildland fires in Southern California, a thunderstorm on a goat ranch, tornadoes while on shift, flooding that brought him eye-to-eye with a snake knocking on the station door & winter storms in Central Texas. He marvels at the good & the ugly that natural disasters provoke in humanity and how extreme weather makes us vulnerable in a way that connects us. 

Show notes at medicmindset.com

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Dr. Maia Dorsett joins us again! You may remember her from the Thinking: Lift Assist episode. This time she shares what she knows about the process of death notification. It's a passion-topic for her because she knows how important these conversations are for the loved ones of patients who have died... and for us. She frames a death notification as a procedure that can be taught, learned and practiced.

NAEMSP Article Bite #33: Is Death Notification Training associated with decreased burnout among EMS professionals

This YouTube video was made by the Monroe-Livingston EMS Region at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in anticipation of the rise of out-of-hospital death.

Paper outlining The GRIEV_ING algorithm in the Prehospital Emergency Care journal.

Kevin Hazzard reads 2 chapters from his latest book, American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became American’s First Paramedics.

Freedom House EMS is EMS’ origin story. It was almost erased until Kevin Hazzard meticulously researched the story so it can sit in the forefront of our our collective consciousness.

His first book, 1000 Naked Strangers, was recommended by Nyssa Hattaway in this Medic Mindset episode as the one book she’d give to a new paramedic.

Kevin Hazzard reflects on a TV show based on a book called "5 Days at Memorial" by Sheri Fink. In this story, the characters are faced with impossible challenges inside a hospital in the days after Hurricane Katrina. There are so many parallels between what they experienced and what out of hospital paramedics are presented every day.

The first time I heard Kevin's voice was in 2016 when he was a guest on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. They were discussing his book "1000 Naked Strangers" where he recounts memories from working for Grady EMS in Atlanta for over a decade. I was struck by this quote during that interview: "There are a lot of situations where it's just not practical to wait for it to be completely safe and you gotta just try to weigh the odds." With that quote, I knew he'd be a guest well-matched for Medic Mindset where we understand the grey in which decisions are made in EMS everyday.

Shownotes at medicmindset.com