Click here for more information about the Gayla Gregory EMS Memorial Scholarship.

This survey will probably take you about 30 minutes to complete. Thank you in advance for your assistance with this very important project.

Click here to complete the survey.

Keith Edmonds, AEMTA President

TRAUMA!! Welcome to the world of the new Arkansas Trauma System!! I hope that everyone has had an opportunity to attend one of the Arkansas EMT Association events that we have put together to ‘roll out’ the new Trauma System for Arkansas. Needless to say, we have been extremely busy making these events happen in order to get the information out to you, the Professional that will make the Trauma System work in Arkansas.

Our events that have occurred so far have been quite educational and eventful. We opened up the Trauma Educational Blitz in Pine Bluff with the first ever Trauma Symposium to be held in Arkansas. We were blessed with several great lectures as well as several great lecturers. Many different realms of Trauma were touched on in some aspect there and those that attended had the ability to learn from these lectures and return to their homes with the information to share with other employees that were working during this event. What a concept!! We want as many as we can fit into a room to attend these events, however, if your job calls you first, then you must answer that call because the families in Arkansas need you.

I am sure there are only a few EMS Professionals in Arkansas that can now say they attended class in the men’s room. While our Symposium was being held in Pine Bluff, we actually had a tornado warning issued for that area with rotation and funnel clouds being spotted. All participants were removed from the Pine Bluff Convention Center into the men’s room of the building for safety purposes. Fortunately, all was well and no damage was reported at our location.

Our second event was a class that had not been taught in Arkansas since 1991, according to the records that we researched. This class, the Farmedic Instructor class, proved to be an exciting 16 hours. All 29 attendees had a wonderful time and my appreciation for the knowledge in the class was unremarkable. This class had become docile with several situations, including the buy out of the class by McNeil Publishing. Our Instructors came to us from the south side of Chicago and found that Arkansas EMS Professionals perform over and above several other states! Great job to each of you that attended and for those that could not make it, be prepared, there will be a class near you in the near future. Several of our instructors will be building class presentations to better suit the areas of Arkansas with the equipment we are working with each day.

This weekend, the PHTLS Instructor update is going on in Conway at the OEM Building. We have several Instructors in this class and we are really looking forward to the new information being shared with everyone at the conclusion of the update. Once again, expect an update on your PHTLS in an area near you soon.
Next weekend, we will be in the Harrison area of north Arkansas with our final Trauma Symposium of 2010. This is the same educational opportunity that we shared with those in the south portion of Arkansas at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. We wanted to ensure that this information was given to as many Arkansas EMS Professionals as we could reach. We also wanted to ensure that the costs associated with travel to these events were at a minimum to assist with the economical decline everyone has faced.

We will also be holding the PHTLS for First Responders on October 15 and 16 in Conway. This is a new class for Trauma education and adapts to those that are first on scene. We hope that this class is as full as the others and that our message reaches as many as possible.

The message that the AEMTA wants to ensure that we get to each of our members is this: We want to provide what you, the member wants as education, across the state of Arkansas. We want your input into these classes. We want your suggestions on how to improve our educational events. We want to know how we can reach ALL of the EMS Professionals in Arkansas. It is up to you to provide this information to us.

The AEMTA has received $66,666 for this fiscal year to spend on YOU, the EMS Professional in Arkansas and we want to ensure that you have had the opportunity to attend an event. We realize that some of the dates of our classes have fallen on special days and weekends that have effected our attendance on the events, yet with the time line that we have been faced with and the inability to begin these events until we had received the check from the state, we have had no other choice but to establish these classes and events on the dates that we have in place. If we have placed you in a situation with your families for having these events on these dates, I apologize.

Trauma 2011!!! We will be doing this for years to come! This was not a one time event and will continue as long as there are funds for a Trauma System in Arkansas and we maintain the great representation for EMS in this system. The AEMTA will be receiving in the area of $93,000 for education for the EMS Professional in Arkansas fiscal year 2011 and we, the AEMTA, will be spending it on YOU! Please keep an eye on the AEMTA website for further information on fiscal year 2011 and provide feedback to us on what you would like to see for Trauma Education next year.

A personal thank you from me to all of those who have worked so hard to accomplish the goals that we set out for the Trauma Education. We have faced some very difficult obstacles, both personally and professionally, and you guys have adapted and overcome in a phenomenal manner. It is a pleasure to work side by side with you guys in providing the optimum in education for our profession!

As always, should you have any questions or comments, please contact me by cell at 870-754-9521 or by email at keithedmonds@marioncounty.com. Be safe and keep up the great work you are doing for our state!!

PHTLS Instructor Update has changed dates. The June 5 class has been cancelled and replaced with another PHTLS Instructor opportunity.

We will now be offering a PHTLS Instructor Rollout to cover new material and program changes. NAEMT is giving the first rollout in September at a cost of $270. AEMTA will be offering a limited enrollment class, cost free, on October 16, 2010 in Conway Arkansas. The class will be held at the Faulkner County Office of Emergency Management, 57 Acklin Gap Road, Conway AR. The class will be limited to 60 current PHTLS Instructors and Instructor Candidates (taken the Instructor Class, awaiting check off).

Registration information will be added to the website soon. Please visit www.aemta.org often to be first in line for this educational offering.

Go to  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LVYMNCV to register. Registration will only be available thru this link. Each Trauma Symposium will offer 1 night’s free lodging for a limited number of those first to register.

NO CHARGE FROM AEMTA is associated with any of the above listed educational opportunities. Breakfast, lunch, and afternoon break snacks will also be provided at each of the events. ALL DATES SUBJECT TO CHANGE, PLEASE REFER TO www.aemta.org FOR ANY CHANGES.

Click here to download a printable brochure to share with colleagues.

By Jamie Thompson
EMS1 Senior Editor

BALTIMORE — Transport is the most dangerous thing EMS providers do — but the full extent of the hazards involved have always been tough to prove.

The risk of occupational death is two-and-a-half fold higher for EMS workers, while EMS response is also statistically more dangerous than police or fire.

A session at EMS Today in Baltimore was told how a recent study on the forces that are applied to EMS providers during transport not only highlights the risks to responders but to patients as well.

Continue reading at ems1.com

By Jamie Thompson
EMS1 senior editor

BALTIMORE — A department’s firing of a firefighter-medic over a video he posted on Facebook was extreme but likely legally safe, a session at EMS Today was told on Friday.

Jason Brown created the three-minute clip — featuring a responder and a doctor — on an animation program before posting it on the social networking Web site.

Continue reading at ems1.com

The Jonesboro Air Evac Life Team landed at Medic One to recognize them for their excellence in emergency medical services.

Read the rest and watch the video at http://www.kait8.com/global/story.asp?s=12014409

In just over 3 years time I’m going to be driving through your jurisdiction just as you are sitting down to your first meal in 12 hours.  As your order hits the counter I will experience an odd tightness in my chest and dismiss it as gas.

When you take your first bite my wife of 35 years will watch me clutch my chest and stop the car on the side of the road.

Just as you begin to think your bad day is finally slowing down, the worst day of my life, and possibly the last, has just begun.

I’ve slumped over in the car, releasing the brake pedal and the car drifts into a signpost, discharging the airbags.

My wife is hit by the passenger side airbag as she is leaning over to help me, noticing my unconsciousness just prior to her own.

A passerby has stopped and is now describing a motor vehicle accident to your dispatcher.

Lunch is still warm in your hands when your radio alerts to the accident.

You are tired.

You are hungry.

The kids have been keeping you up late.

The rent is past due.

Big deal.  I’m about to die.  While you’re cursing me walking to your rig, my MI is moving and my wife’s head injury is complicating what is already going to be a difficult airway judging by the amount of teeth on the floorboards.

As your rig negotiates traffic, my respirations are rapid and shallow, my wife’s now non-existent.

When you pull up to the scene I need your A game.  I need you trained to the point where what you are about to do comes as naturally as breathing, because we’re having a bit of trouble in that department.

This is not about you.  It’s about me.  It’s about us.

So back to your studies, we’ll meet again before you know it.

Participation in capital punishment is inconsistent with the ethical precepts and goals of the EMS profession. NAEMT strongly opposes all forms of EMS participation in executions, by whatever means, whether under civil or military legal authority. EMTs and paramedics should refrain from participation in capital punishment and not take part in assessment, supervision or monitoring of the procedure or the prisoner; procuring, prescribing or preparing medications or solutions; inserting the intravenous catheter; injecting the lethal solution; and/or attending or witnessing the execution as an EMT or paramedic. The fact that capital punishment is currently supported in many segments of society does not override the obligation of EMTs and paramedics to uphold the ethical mandates of the profession.

NAEMT recognizes that endorsement of the death penalty remains a personal decision and that individual EMTs and paramedics may have views that differ from the official position of the profession. Regardless of the personal opinion of the EMT or paramedic on the appropriateness of capital punishment, it is a breach of the foundational precepts of emergency medical services, and a violation of the EMT Oath, to participate in taking the life of any person. Although we cannot forbid an EMT from participating in capital punishment, we voice our concern that the participation violates the medical ethic of beneficence.

“NAEMT was approached by one of our state affiliates to look at the issue of EMT involvement in capital punishment because they felt new legislation in their state may force them to participate,” says Connie Meyer, NAEMT President-Elect. “Although NAEMT believes each EMS practitioner has the right to personal views on capital punishment, we also believe that for an EMT or paramedic to participate would violate the EMT Code of Ethics. The Code of Ethics states: A fundamental responsibility of the Emergency Medical Technician is to conserve life, to alleviate suffering, to promote health, to do no harm, and to encourage the quality and equal availability of emergency medical care.”

To view the full position statement, please go to the NAEMT Positions page in the Advocacy section of www.naemt.org.

About NAEMT

Formed in 1975 and today more than 30,000 members strong, NAEMT is the nation’s only association representing the professional interests of all EMS practitioners, including paramedics, emergency medical technicians, first responders and other professionals working in pre-hospital emergency medicine. NAEMT members work in all sectors of EMS, including government service agencies, fire departments, hospital-based ambulance services, private companies, industrial and special operations settings, and in the military.