performance improvement – Page 2

Medic Up! Episode #7 – Aaron Dix – The Greenwood Nursing Home Fire

September 18, 2017 Chris R. Medic Up!

Medic Up! Episode #7 – Aaron Dix – Greenwood Nursing Home Fire

This week I’ve got my good friend, Aaron Dix on the podcast. Aaron comes to the Upstate of South Carolina by way of Hartford Ct. We have very similar experiences in EMS from being brought up through the Exploring program to having solid mentors at very early points in our EMS careers. We share a lot of the same viewpoints and share the same solid knowledge of 80’s & 90’s rap beefs.

Aaron has written several articles for EMS1 that center around the topic of simulation in healthcare. He is currently the Director of Simulation Education at the Greenville Health System Simulation Center. He is a regular speaker at state and National conferences on many topics. He also puts on one helluva 2-day prehospital medicine conference every year. Check out the link below to the Swamp Rabbit Prehospital Medicine Conference. Aaron is still heavily involved in prehospital care as a paramedic and as a firefighter in the Upstate of South Carolina. He does / has done a lot of other stuff too. Too much to type. He’s a part time ninja. He was the back-up pilot of one of the Voltron lion robots in the 80’s. He’s Chuck Norris’s stunt double in Walker Texas Ranger; the list goes on-and-on but I digress.

At approximately 0240 on a freezing February 26^th morning, fire was reported at the Greenwood Nursing Home in Hartford Ct. It would later be concluded that a 23-year-old resident who suffered from mental illness set her bed sheets on fire while playing with a butane lighter that another resident gave her earlier that day. The resulting fire and toxic smoke killed 10 residents that morning and 6 others died within the week following the fire.

Aaron was the Medical Incident Commander for this job on that 6°F morning. Listen to him as he recounts what was going through his head while managing this incident. Pearls, pitfalls and lessons learned.

Things you should know:

This episode runs a little long. Longer than most EMS people’s attention spans. THAT’S WHAT THE PAUSE BUTTON IS FOR!!
This episode features spicy (NSFW) language. If you like the F-word, then you’re in the right place!
This episode contains a CrossFit reference.
The Dave Matthews Band was responsible for civil unrest in Hartford, Ct.

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Get at us if you have an idea for an episode or a topic you want covered.

Thanks for listening.

Here’s some show notes:

Greenwood Nursing Home Fire

List of Deadly Nursing Home Fires in the USA

Mike Rowe: Safety 3rd

Greenville Health System Simulation Center

Exploring

List of 10 classic 80’s and 90’s rap beefs

GHS Swamp Rabbit Prehospital Medical Conference Save the Date: 2018 conference dates have been released; May 31st and June 1st with a Laerdal sponsored simulation education pre-conference May 30th.

DISCLAIMER:
The views and opinions expressed on the Medic Up! Podcast are those of the individual host and guest (s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the host’s or guest’s employer(s). Any content provided by our guests are of their opinion, and are not intended to malign any religion, ethic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything anywhere. The Medic Up! Podcast is not responsible for the accuracy of any information contained in the podcast series available for listening or reading on this site. The primary purpose of this podcast series is to educate, inform and entertain. This podcast series does not constitute other professional advice or services.

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Medic Up! Episode #6 – Shawn W. – 2017 Paramedic Graduate & Me

September 7, 2017 Chris R. Medic Up!

This week is the final week of the “Recent Paramedic Graduate” or whatever I’ve been calling it week-to-week series. I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to these guys and girls as they shared their experiences from medic school and their first few years in the career field.

Shawn stopped by the Medic Up! studios to talk about being a “Baby Medic” who actually has a paramedic card that he has to be careful with because the ink is still wet. This guy literally walked down the aisle to graduate 100 days prior to recording this episode.

This is probably one of my favorite episodes to date which is mostly due to the openness and sincerity that Shawn brought to the episode. I have no doubt that Shawn is going to get a lot out of his career choice because it is evident how much he is willing t put into it. If you’re a student going through school I am sure you can relate to much of what Shawn talks about.

Thank you, guys, for listening. We passed 1,000 downloads this past week which is 999 more than I thought that I’d ever get. If you keep listening, I’ll keep creating.

I am always open to suggestions as to what or who you want to hear. Contact Medic Up! by leaving a comment or messaging us on Facebook by searching for @Medic.Up.Podcast.

-Chris

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Medic Up! Podcast Episode #5 – Kirstin (Not Kristen) 2012 Paramedic Graduate

August 31, 2017 Chris R. Medic Up!

Kirstin (not Kristen) is the EMS Veteran of the group having just completed her 5th year in EMS practice. She sits down to share some insights of being a very young student paramedic with very little life experience, progressing through paramedic school and being a new medic in a busy system. She started EMT school, taking the “Zero – to – Hero” route right out of high school and becoming a medic at 20 years old; effectively putting her in a position where she can administer narcotics but not buy a drink at the bar!

We talk about mentors, waiting 5 years to cardiovert a patient in the field, goal setting to progress though an EMS career and that stomach butterfly / flip-flop thing when the tones drop.

If you’ve been listening to the series I think you can easily draw parallels between each of these “new” medics who shared similar experiences coming up in EMS. I think you can hear the difference between the 2 year medic vs the 5 year medic. In the next and final episode in the “Recent Paramedic Graduate” series we will hear from a brand – spanking – new paramedic in the middle of his survival year. He’s straight forward and honest about his journey and I know you guys will dig it. Stick around!

-Chris

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Medic Up! Podcast Episode 4: O.B. – 2015 Paramedic Graduate & Me

August 23, 2017 Chris R. Medic Up!

Welcome back boys and girls to the Medic Up! podcast. This week continues with the 3rd installment where I sit down with some of my former students who are now practicing paramedics to get their thoughts on making the transition from paramedic student to prehospital clinician.

O.B. stopped by this week to hang out for close to an hour. He’s a 2015 graduate but he just recently got his NRP certification. O.B. is the picture of persistence! He didn’t give up, he put in the work and he earned that disco patch statistically beating the odds and I couldn’t be more proud of this dude!

Thank you to everyone who has listened, downloaded, liked, shared, reviewed and sent me texts and PM’s. This thing is taking off way faster than I could have imagined. Subscribe on iTunes or Google Play Music. Search for Medic Up! on your favorite podcast app.

One, maybe two more weeks of former paramedic students and then we’re going to switch gears and hit some fun topics with some really awesome people. Stick around!

Thanks for listening.

-Chris

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Medic Up! Episode 2: Rita F. – 2014 Paramedic Graduate & Me

August 9, 2017 Chris R. Medic Up!

Episode 2

I have finally gotten around to getting the podcast going. It’s still a little rough around the edges but I am learning.

Episode 2 starts a series of interviews with 5 “recent” paramedic school graduates. I think that most students have similar experiences during school that bring them together as a class/cohort. The real learning begins after they graduate and begin to work in the career field. I lovingly refer to the first year of paramedic practice as: “The Survival Year.” After The Survival Year, the paramedic starts to develop into their own clinician; figuring out what works, what doesn’t and how they like to do things.

In this episode we’ll here from Rita F. who has a fantastic story of oppurtunity, overcoming adversity and the realization of her dream.

**These episodes are largely unedited and the guests were not given the questions in advance as to illicit more spontaneous visceral responses.

I think most medic students and practicing paramedics can relate to most

everything my guests talk about.

I hope you dig it.

-Chris