Lauren Coartney's Page

That’s what Corey Slovis, MD, FACP, FACEP, and JEMS editorial board member told his “EMS Diagnosis and Treatment of AMI” audience Thursday in regards to reading 12-lead ECGs to catch acute myocardial infarction. Now, before you get mad, as Slovis cautioned many times throughout the talk, the same goes for most ED nurses and doctors. Divide and conquer is his advice for those up to the challenge of improving on this skill. He suggests comparing certain lead combinations in certain orders to… Continue

The JEMS Games team sequester room is not for the faint of heart. This is where the teams are locked in to wait for their turn. On one side of the room, members of the 2009 winning team, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, are doing pushups. And on the other, crowd favorite FDNY is holding court -- ever-present "Bubba" on oxygen no less. It was after I made my way past such JEMS Games luminaries, however, that I…

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I had heard before coming to the National Association of EMS Educators conference here in Orlando, Fla., that the number of required course hours for the new Advanced EMT level under the EMS Education Agenda was going to be a hot topic. So I had my ears pricked when I stepped into “One Year Later—Education Standards & Education Agenda, Where Are We?” given by Deb Cason, past president of NAEMSE. And by the looks of it, so were everyone else’s. No sleeping, no sneaking out, no checking… Continue

This is my first time at EMS Today, and my first time watching the JEMS Games. I may not yet know the excitement of watching the final scenario or the glory the winning team experiences (as well as the extent of the bragging they’ll participate in), but I know one thing: The JEMS Games are serious business. Both the competing teams and the organizers take this event very seriously, but that goes double for the judges, who must watch and listen carefully to make sure the teams hit all the marks… Continue