If dozens of hours in the ED has taught me anything...

We received a call to response to a possible stroke. On the way there, I called dispatch and asked if the nurse that called us told them when the patient began presenting with symptoms. She didn't know. I told my partner that "when the symptoms came on" was going to be the only question that the nurse had.


On scene we arrive, get a short history from the RN that called, after multiple attempts and finally establishing what the patient's baseline mental status was (See, I learned!). Symptoms started approx 3 minutes before. The patient had a GCS of 9, -1 eye, -3 verbal, -1 motor(is that how you are suppose to explain it?). But we were off to the ED. Once there, we transfer the patient who gets hooked up to all the monitors and whatnot...I give a history, my findings, and what the facility told me, then she asked...

"Do you know when the symptoms began?"

I thought I was the cat's pajamas until....


"Do you know the patient's code status?"

Damn, maybe next time. The patient didn't have the documentation we needed as EMTs to withhold resuscitation efforts, but that doesn't mean the patient is a full code either, and I didn't ask the nurse, because I was so certain that all that matter was when the symptoms came on, oh well....next time.


Other than the needle sticks, tubes, and drug pushes, my time in the ED has really taught me what the Nurses and Docs really want to know, and any way I can help facilitate that just makes their job easier and helps improve patient care. EMS gets tons of primary information about what is going on with the patient, we get to see what is happening where it is happening, and that makes for a much clearer clinical picture.