Heart Association changes CPR guidelines

[ParamedicDiver1]

As an example, look at how pulse oximetry has gone from "The Fifth Vital Sign" to a backseat adjunct whose indications are dodgy at best.

Back when we first started using SpO2 it was always understood that is was dodgy at best and is not an indictor of how our patients were fairing.

 

[Wildcard]

There were a lot of things that were the "right" thing to do at the time then we moved on. What you don't seem to understand is everything we do today was built on a base laid long long ago. It's a progression. Someone comes up with an idea, we try it and it stays or goes. As an example, look at the title of this thread. How many changes have there been since 1979 when I started teaching CPR? Bout one every two years.
As far as training, don't fool yourself. I have learned and relearned everything we do too many times to count, As I will continue to do in the future as things change, and they will. If you last any length of time in EMS you too will look back at some of the stuff that was "magic" at the time and wonder what were we thinking?
Three things make up a good medic, training, field time and Pt count. Im guessing you have about two years in now? Oh ya, an ego, I don't know a good medic that dosent have one. I think it's a mental survival thing. Who the heck are we to decide if some one has a chance to live or die? We make these calls and have to live with them.
You need to realise that just becouse you are climbing the ladder right now dosen't mean that others haven't done it too. Been there, done that, got the tshirt.
Sorry If I got a little POed but your sarcastic remarks don't help either. Just becouse you have read the book dosen't make it law. Lets both stay open for discussion here huh?

 

[PairofMedics]

There were a lot of things that were the "right" thing to do at the time then we moved on. What you don't seem to understand is everything we do today was built on a base laid long long ago. It's a progression. Someone comes up with an idea, we try it and it stays or goes. As an example, look at the title of this thread. How many changes have there been since 1979 when I started teaching CPR? Bout one every two years.
As far as training, don't fool yourself. I have learned and relearned everything we do too many times to count, As I will continue to do in the future as things change, and they will. If you last any length of time in EMS you too will look back at some of the stuff that was "magic" at the time and wonder what were we thinking?
Three things make up a good medic, training, field time and Pt count. Im guessing you have about two years in now? Oh ya, an ego, I don't know a good medic that dosent have one. I think it's a mental survival thing. Who the heck are we to decide if some one has a chance to live or die? We make these calls and have to live with them.
You need to realise that just becouse you are climbing the ladder right now dosen't mean that others haven't done it too. Been there, done that, got the tshirt.
Sorry If I got a little POed but your sarcastic remarks don't help either. Just becouse you have read the book dosen't make it law. Lets both stay open for discussion here huh?

I have no problem staying open for discussion. I do have a problem being belittled because I'm a few decades short of your experience, and that shouldn't indicate t you that I am less of a medic than anyone else. I happen to enjoy a very good reputation as a strong & reliable medic by many I have encountered, worked with or taught. And That would include our state medical director. I just happen to be a **** magnet, and have been lucky enough to turn that fact into a learning tool. I run into things on at least a weekly basis that have changed, work better or less or that I wasn't aware of. And I pass that knowledge on to all of my fellow ems workers. Some of them are even doctors who appreciate the flow of knowledge to and from the street. We can all learn from each other. The day we can't we need to find something else to do. Truce?