Combo Medic

When I first thought about this topic I was kind of skeptical about posting it, but then I remembered part of this blog was fun.  I have had several serious topics, but at some point we have to bring together something's that really soundly be brought together.  Kinda like chocolate and grasshoppers...really whoever though that was a good idea!  No my idea goes together like more like A&W Root Beer and Vanilla Ice Cream. Like that of a rabid wildfire, the news of a open executive level position has made its way through the news agency since being uncovered early this Sunday morning.  Even with my prior posts on professional develop might not help you prepare for this position, but like the tasty A&W Root Beer Float, this is a combination that I think would be excellent together.  It was reported that the head coach from the University of Southern California (USC) was informed that his leadership was not longer necessary on campus.  In fact, ...

Are you interested in taking on new opportunities in a department that covers an area of 119 square miles and runs 30000 calls per year.  Then Newport News Virginia is your area.  The International Association of Fire Chiefs is hosting a job posting for Fire Chief of Newport News Virginia Fire Department.  To find more information about this post you can find it here - IAFC posting To apply for the position you can go here - Application   Preferred Qualifications Requires any combination of education and experience equivalent to a Bachelor’s Degree in Fire, Public, or Business Administration, Human Resources, or a related field; Ten (10) years of progressively responsible experience to include 5 years supervisory and management experience as a Chief Officer; Chief Fire Officer (CFO) or Executive Fire Officer (EFO) certification preferred. Requires a comprehensive background investigation to include a local, state and federal criminal history check and ...

Really, two days ago I am telling you about a potential shutdown in the federal government and in the next I am posting a picture of cash across the top with a title of grant preparedness.  But I promise I will make you understand why, or at least I hope.  You know, when I think about emergency services I think about all the times that my brothers and sister are placed in the most unusual situations and they do it for the benefit of helping a member of their community.  Think about it, when somebody has something happen and they cannot immediately figure out what to do, they typically call 911.  The dispatchers are forced to think about who best to handle the situation and then they tones are activated and the crews start to respond.  I would ask about the most unusual call you have witness/responded to, but I want to make sure to keep my rating level down here.  After the call is done, responders will typically ask themselves why they were even al...

As I have been looking around the executive search companies, and the career center postings for interesting positions to post here on The Combomedic, I have started to see a trend in the preferred category of the application announcements.  Now, as we look at applications we know that there are typically two different categories of information on these announcements and that is required qualifications and preferred qualifications.  We know that while they don't state required, the organization is saying that they really really really want you to have them.  In the past we saw the movement of a Bachelors degree going from preferred to required and a Masters level education coming into the picture while other professional development certifications start creeping their way into the educational realm as well.  On the fire side, the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer Program (EFO) has moved from a lot of organizations wants list to their needed list....

If you haven't already heard, the government is heading for shutdown.  The politicians, and the media make sure that they tell us every change we get.  At one point I even think I heard a countdown comparing the governmental shutdown to of the space shuttle launches from NASA. We know that a shutdown of the federal government will affect the daily operations of the country, however what changes would be made when you arrive at your EMS or Fire Station on Tuesday 1 October 2013.  Now, if we go back a few years ago, the federal government was shutdown during the administration of President Clinton, and several state governments have shutdown since then.  One of the key things that remains once the government hits is...that's right!  Public safety.  No matter what, our public needs the services offered by Fire, EMS, and Law Enforcement.  So when you get on shift 0700 (or when ever your shift begins) on the 1st of October, you will put on the unifor...

Kenny Loggins took us through a lyrical danger zone while Maverick and Goose zoomed off the deck of the USS Enterprise in their F-14 Tomcat. So, I am sure that at this point you are already asking why I am talking about a great movie from the late '80s on an EMS and fire service blog.  If you have been keeping on eye on the new trends in emergency medicine then you will know what I am talking about. On the 19th of September, The United States Fire Administration released a document called "Fire/Emergency Services Department Operational Considerations and Guide for Active Shooter and Mass Casualty Incidents" which outlines the new trends in emergency medical care of patients involved in shooting events. (DOCUMENT) I don't think it would ever cross anybody's mind that if you delay patient care the outcomes will remain good.  That being said, the document looks at the current incident action plans for an active shooter event and changes the thoughts of most ...

The city of Alexandria Virginia has posted for a vacancy within their department.  This vacancy announcement was for the position of Assistant Fire Chief.  The City of Alexandria will be accepting applications for this position until 17 October 2013.  To find more information on this posting please visit (POSTING) . 

( www.amazon.com ) Tonight I began reading the Tony Dungy book "The Mentor Leader".  Everybody that has small knowledge of the NFL knows about Tony Dungy and his reputation and I can only wish that I was part of the Colts organization to be a fly on the wall to hear just a few words of his leadership style.  While I am still just in the beginning of this book I have already started to look at things slightly different than I did before.  So I started to look in my history and see who my mentors have been, or who they might currently be.  I looked at why I chose them, or why I considered them my mentors and I can really see that I jumped right into those because of their ability to get me where I want to be.  In the beginning of the book Coach Dungy states that most people look to get their leadership skills from those that have awesome bank accounts or tremendous winning percentages, but never for the way a leader is viewed, for what they really do....

This past week Apple released its latest version of the iPhone.  Pictures of Apples tires across the world bowed the Apple trend continues as people vie for the front spot and will wait in lines that wrap around city blocks just to update to the latest and greatest Apple device.  With the shear numbers in those lines I can safely say that there was at least one first responder (EMT, Paramedic, Firefighter, Police Officer) in those crowds, and I would venture to guess that there was an average of 1 in every line across the world. In addition to the release of the iPhone 5s and the newest iPhone 5c, Apple released the latest iOS known as iOS 7.  I will admit, I was quick to pull the trigger and updated both my iPhone and iPad to this iOS.  Really, who wouldn't want the newest if they weren't in the position to purchase a new device.  But are we as quick to upgrade our career field education as we are with updating the technology we use to keep in touch with...

Have you ever thought about all the creature comforts that exist in the world of fire and EMS.  Really, you haven't?  That's because we don't think about them until they are taken away.   Now, there are some of you that are going to argue with me that they don't exist, but I disagree.  I am not going to give a list of comforts that each agency has because each and every agency is different because the comforts are those that are created by a specific agency employee...wait, just flipped the page quickly.  Creature comforts are something that exist in each profession that exists in the world.  That is why things change with our careers as time goes on.  As individuals we take a look at our surroundings and say what can I do to make this more comfortable, more enjoyable.  We really do this in our entire lives.  The choices we make in housing, food sources, vehicles we purchase, and the pictures we put around us.  Think about it a li...

A quick glance at a search engine of your choice will net you a lot of results when you type in the statement EMS Commandments.  Over the years, our agencies have designed the rules of the trade when it comes to how a unit operates on a daily basis.  There are some of the commandments that are well known from agency to agency while others are a more local flavor.  As some of you that know me personnally know that I am a watcher of people.  I like to learn about the body mechanics of individuals and what each movement means, and it is always intersting to see what people are really saying.  In addition to that, it is really interesting in learning about how people think and operate.  Have you ever looked at how people act around other people.  When people look old and grungy they are less likely to speak to them, let alone give them something.  If they look clean and young they are willing to provide more of a hand-out and even more conversatio...

     There was a day that I was trying to get a podcast done, and had a blog post to submit all wrapped up in a busy work day.  In addition to all of this, I was trying to spend time with my family as that is my most important responsibility I have.  Then, in the midst of everything, I see the Podmedic Jamie Davis busting out daily podcasts (multiple avenues) and blogs like it was nobody's business.  I know that I am new and all, but I thought I was a pretty good scheduler of time, and I had none left!  The opportunties I had were limited and there was no current way to do what it was he was doing. Now, I don't want to replicate the work that Jamie Davis is doing, it would be pointless to have my own blog.  But I did want to know how such a busy individual had the opportunity to review, research and develop topics as well as type of narrate these hours worth of content.  So what did I do, I added to Jamie's workload and sent him an e-ma...

I sat in a class once with a very interesting and entertaining individual who took the participants through a world of medical practices that were no longer proven to work.  In this he discussed medications, techniques, and procedures that had lost favor in the medical community, but some facets of the field would not, or could not let them go.  I have been in multiple conversations where I was the sole spokesman against certain techniques, but the argument against removing it was because they had seen it work.  One of the first was the argument of the trendelenburg position.  Dr. Trendelenburg was a famous surgeon in his day and created a position that would make it more feasible to conduct abdominal surgery.  Soon people thought the position would help treat those in hypovolemic shock by increasing pressures back to the heart and brain.  This was a large part of the treatment of hypotensive patients until the past decade.  Even the Doctor that cr...

The #COMBOMEDIC is back after a short hiatus...sorry about the delay, but I took a couple days off to recoup.  And yet, I remain tired...still!  I guess that is a sign, I just don't know of what yet.  There are times in which the significance of the events are overwhelming in and of themselves and yet when you combine them with something else it is even better.  For me this past weekend was just that...a weekend of such significance that it was overwhelming.  Mountain Man Memorial March On Saturday the 20th of April I has the privilege of walking for soldiers that have given their lives in the defense of a grateful nation.  I was asked to participate in the Mountain Man Memorial March and was part of a team that comprised military members, family members, and high school guys and girls.  On this day we took part in a 13.1 mile march around a terrain composed of flat areas and a large amount of mountainous hills.  This isn't supposed to...

Wow, this week has been a difficult week for the country.  If you listen to the KLOVE radio station, they have been talking about the situations this week in Boston and Texas and have been trying to continue providing positive and encouraging radio.  It is really easy to get into the effect of these incidents and lose perspective of what is going on.  The tragedies of this week have been significant.  If you look, we lost several lives and injured many more in the bombings during the Boston Marathon, and several lives were lost and more were injured after a fertilizer fire/explosion in West, Texas.   In addition to that, a Senators office and the Presidential post office received letters that contained a highly potent biological warfare agent named Ricin.  Furthermore, a large business close to where I work was raided and under investigation for defrauding customers across the northern hemisphere and then Boston has been on lock-down all day today ...

I have been at this active blogging environment for about the last two months.  During that time I have written about many topics, and a couple of them were providing updates of scenes that were going on around the country.  The two that I covered almost live were the hostage taking of 5 firefighters in Georgia, and the Boston Marathon explosions this week.  While I have never served as a true PIO, I know a little about the value of publishing accurate information.  I had the opportunity to watch (electronically) the hostage situation play out in Georgia a lot more closely than I was able to do with the marathon explosions, but I knew I had several readers out there that liked to get information together in a single location.  Now, when I started publishing information I was quick to start looking for multiple links to confirm the information that I was publishing, and during the firefighter rescue it was easy because the on-scene sources were great with in...

Hello #COMBOMEDIC follower...sorry about the weekend hiatus.  This weekends lack of posting was brought to you by the our good friend, the GI bug...and that is all I have to say about that! As I was catching up this morning I saw a report that was broadcast on EMS World  related to an event in Santa Rosa California over the weekend. I am not sure if we can ever over express the need for the general public to learn the aspect of how to conduct CPR.  The designers of the new CPR processes have come up with a method that prevents people from having to put their mouth on people in order to limit those detracting factors that were keeping people from doing CPR.  SO WHY SHOULD WE ALL KNOW CPR!!! The hyperlink that I posted above will take you to a story where an 8 year old boy was hit in the chest by a pitch.  He started to take his base when he collapsed along the first base line.  The child was experiencing sudden cardiac arrest.  In the stands ...

Video from Finish Line Boston Fire Live Feed UPDATE - 15 APRIL 2013 - 1934HRS Right now, emergency responders are still checking the area after multiple bombs exploded around the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and a couple of additional devices have been found and disarmed prior to them harming others. Reports now show 2 confirmed deaths in this tragic terrorist attack on American Soil. In addition to the fatalities, dozens more have been injured (too varying degrees)and their conditions are uncertain at this point. Some reports (CNN) state that more than 110 are being treated with 8 critical and 14 serious, but overall unknown. CNN is compiling a list of confirmed statements/actions that are surrounding this evening and those can be found . Evidently, the news sources are announcing that investigators "close to the investigation" are announcing this as terrorism, but no clues are available as to domestic or international because of a lack of informatio...

Ok, so I just referenced the Lion King...don't judge me. It was the last hand drawn animated movie done by Disney, and in my opinion one of the best. I have been watching several reports come out lately about the deadly crash of an Air Methods helicopter back in 2011. (Video Below)   In the report federal investigators are saying that a distracted pilot was the potential cause of this fatal incident. More specifically, the federal investigators are saying that a personal text chain between the pilot and another individual was the potential cause of the pilot not realizing that he was low fuel which resulted in the crash. Many states have adopted a no texting policy when driving on the roadway, and many more have adopted legislation that states individuals must use headsets just to talk on the phone while driving. Fire and EMS services in many areas have gone well above that and said no cell phone use while driving at all, especially during an emergency vehicles. In...

I know that many of you are tired of hearing about the budget and the sequestration, fiscal cliffs and many many other things that are occurring in the federal budget.  Some of you don't care because it isn't currently affecting your department.  This is one budget update that you may want to pay attention to.  In the President's 2013 budget, the SAFER and Assistance to Firefighter grant programs are not being funded to previous years levels.  Now that cut currently sits at 2.5 million out of a total of 335m per program.  However, and this is where I caution you any cuts can be a dangerous sign to the future of this program.   As you know, emergency services (police, fire and ems) serves of America's first line of defense when it comes to dangerous situations.  These are the groups that are running towards the danger while others run out...i've always hated that quote, but it works.  Videos from the tragic events at the World Trade Ce...

So, when you wake up in the morning, take a shower, get ready for another shift; what do you think about as far as how that shift is going to go? Emergency services folks always know in the back of their mind they may be giving their last full measure of devotion today. Every year, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation pays tribute to those wearing the bunker gear that lost their life in the past year. Having been through a firefighter funeral, I will say that losing a brother or sister in the service is not a good thing, but most of us don't think about it on a daily basis. More specifically, many of us don't even think about it when we arrive to a house that is raging from all sides knowing we still have to do our jobs. So really, what do you think about? I would always start the shift by taking a shower and getting my uniform on. Many days, the next question would be what are we doing for breakfast, unless I was bring it in that day. We checked off the tru...

I am not sure that anybody can truly appreciate the position of public information officer without walking in their shoes for a day.  That is true for many other positions as well, but public information officer is one that is constantly overlooked and probably under appreciated. What does the public information officer do?  Well, that is a tremendous question.  One of my favorite television shows was one that ran for 7 years starting back in the late 90's.  I actually didn't start watching it until the 2002-2003 time frame and even then it took a while for me to get into watching it in its complete state.  Now, I own the DVD's and have watched the entire series more times than I care to really admit.  The show was the West Wing.  A show that followed the Presidential life of Josiah Bartlett, a democrat from New Hampshire.  Now the show followed all the senior staff almost equally, but one face that consistently stood out was that of CJ Cra...

5 Georgia Firefighters Currently Held Hostage LIVE VIDEO/AUDIO LINKS REMOVED Press Conference UPDATE:  0721hrs 11 Apr 2013 Reports are coming out that the incident resulting in five firefighters being held captive, 4 receiving minor injuries, and 1 SWAT operator being shot in the hand or arm was all because the individual with the gun wanted his power and television turned back on.  In the financial crisis this individual had lost their ability to pay for services and the home was foreclosed upon in November (estimates) of 2012, this individual still wanted to be able to utilize those services.  So he devised a plan that would allow him to lure in individuals who he could use as negotiating tools.   As emergency responders, the ways that people come up with the harm us know is difficult to determine.  From the FIRE PIO last night, the initial call provided no information about the potential use of force, nor did they have any reason to believe...