You probably know this already, but enjoy!
Murphys Law Of EMS 2
The Gross Injury Rule:
Any injury, the sight of which makes you sick,
should immediately be covered by 4x4s and Kerlix.
The Rule of Funding and Donations:
All funding and donations are received in amounts
which are inversely proportional to need.
The First Law of EMS Supervisors:
Given the equation: X - Y = Quality of Care,
where "X" is the care that you render and
"Y" is the assistance supplied by any Supervisor. If you can
eliminate
"Y" from the equation, the Quality of Care will improve by "X".
Corollary 1 - Generally, Field Supervisors have no business in
the Field.
Corollary 2 - The level of technical competence is inversely
proportional to the level of management.
Corollary 3 - Technology is dominated by those who
manage what they do not understand.
The Law of Protocol Directives:
The simplest Protocol Directive will be worded in the most
obscure
and complicated manner possible. Speeds, for example,
will be expressed as "furlongs per fortnight"
and flow rates as "hogsheads per hour".
Corollary 1 - If you don't understand it, it must be intuitively
obvious.
Corollary 2 - If you can understand it, you probably don't.
The Law of EMS Educators:
Those who can't, teach.
The Law of EMS Evaluators:
Those who can neither do nor teach, evaluate.
The Paramedical Law of Light:
As the seriousness of any given injury increases,
the availability of light to examine that injury decreases.
The Paramedical Law of Space:
The amount of space which is needed to work on a patient
varies inversely with the amount of space
which is available to work on that patient.
The Paramedical Theory of Relativity:
The number of distraught and uncooperative relatives
surrounding any given patient varies exponentially
with the seriousness of the patient's illness or injury.
The Paramedical Theory of Weight:
The weight of the patient that you are about to transport
increases
by the square of the sum of the number of floors which must be
ascended to reach the patient plus the number of floors which
must be descended while carrying the patient.
Corollary 1 - Very heavy patients tend to gravitate toward
locations which are furthest from mean sea level.
Corollary 2 - If the patient is heavy,
the elevator is broken, and the lights in the stairwell are out.
The Rules of No-Transport:
A Life-or-Death situation will immediately be created by driving
away from the home of patient whom you have just
advised to go to the hospital in a private vehicle.
The seriousness of this situation will increase as the date of
your trial approaches.
By the time your ex-patient reaches the witness stand,
the Jury will wonder how a patient in such terrible condition
could have possibly walked to the door and
greeted you with such a large suitcase in each hand.
The First Rule of Bystanders:
Any bystander who offers you help will give you none.
The Second Rule of Bystanders:
Always assume that any Physician found at the scene
of an emergency is a Gynecologist, until proven otherwise.
Corollary 1 - NEVER turn your back on a Proctologist.
The Rule of Warning Devices:
Any ambulance, whether it is responding to a call or traveling to a hospital,
with lights and siren, will be totally ignored by all motorists,
pedestrians, and dogs which may be found in or near the roads along its route.
Corollary 1 - Ambulance sirens can cause acute and total, but transient, deafness.
Corollary 2 - Ambulance lights can cause acute and total, but transient, blindness.
Note: This rule does not apply in Massachusetts, where all pedestrians
and motorists are apparently oblivious to any and all traffic laws.
The Law of Show-and-Tell:
A virtually infinite number of wide-eyed and inquisitive
school-aged children can climb into the back of any
ambulance,
and, given the opportunity, invariably will.
Corollary 1 - No emergency run will come in until they
are all inside the Ambulance and playing with the equipment.
Corollary 2 - It will take at least four times as long to
get them all out as it took to get them in.
Corollary 3 - A vital piece of equipment is missing.
The Rule of Rookies:
The true value of any rookie EMT, when expressed numerically,
will always be a negative number. The value of this number
may be
found by simply having the rookie grade his or her ability on a
scale from 1 to 10.
For rookie EMTs in the back of a vehicle:
1 = Certified Health Hazard, 10 = Member, ACEP,
and for rookie EMTs driving the vehicle:
1 = Obstruction to Navigation 10 = Mario Andretti.
The true value of the rookie is then found by simply
negating the rookie's self-assigned value.
Corollary 1 - Treat any rookie EMT assigned to your
Unit as you would a Bystander. (See The First Rule of
Bystanders, above.)
The Rule of Rules:
As soon as an EMS Rule is accepted as absolute,
an exception to that Rule will immediately occur.
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