Ridin'

Part of my RN-P bridge includes doing ride-alongs with the local EMS agencies. The idea is to get the nurses out of our proverbial comfort zone and out onto the streets. The medics think it is absolutely hysterical to watch us as fish-out-of-water. My goal is to look like an ass as little as possible! It helps that I did do some EMS in a former life before nursing school.
Yesterday was my first day on the streets. I hooked up with an old friend who is a paramedic near where I grew up. The upside of being "the nurse" is that I promptly got put onto the QRV (quick response vehicle) and away we went. The QRV is basically the county squirrel. We can respond to any call we want and if ALS is needed then it’s all me. Is it cheating? Maybe. I get to play with a minimum of bullshit.

After breakfast I got my corned beef hash settled to the bottom of my stomach and was ready to rock and roll. Our first call was a complete and total bullshit chest pain. Productive cough, FEVER (yeah, 99.1). Worse after smoking. She wasn't short of breath and was able to scream at her husband from across the room. We walked her to the ambulance and sent her 5 minutes down the road to the hospital. We followed in the QRV just for something to do. As we were waiting we got punched for a call in the medical office building right across the street from the hospital. Cardiac arrest with CPR in progress.
I did warn the guys that I have a decent sized black cloud, so my first "real" call being an arrest wasn't a big surprise. We arrived to find a surgeon that I remember well (and fondly) doing CPR in his office lobby. Fire had the AED on and he had a mask and oral airway in. My thoughts were... primary ABC's intact. I'm gonna tube this guy. Got my equipment out and ready, told the Battalion Chief that I wasn't going to use the King Airway (http://www.kingsystems.com/PRODUCTS/AirwayDevices/KINGLTSD/) and got ready to intubate. The paramedic on the fire engine tried to take the handle away from me! Oh hell no! I got the tube on the first pass without any trouble. The firefighter actually looked surprised when he heard breath sounds! WTF?!?!?! A couple of rounds of ACLS drugs (no amnio... my fault!) and we started across the street. The patient actually had a pulse on arrival to the ER, but quickly lost it. After 30 minutes more he was called. So I knocked out yet another ETT and a ton o meds. Talked to the Squirrel, my former work-husband on the helicopter and he was probably more excited than I was!!!
The rest of the day was pretty anti-climatic. Little riding around, no great calls. Still on the King Kong high from my code. Will be riding with another agency as well. I doubt they will let me be the princess in the QRV this time. I'll just ride in the back and learn from the best how to run circles around the back of an ambulance! I've really missed this!