Lizzie: Parents do that, that's why you see more and more kiddie shoes with velcro ties instead of laces. The bigwigs will never get the clue because we as a profession don't stand up for ourselves. In the grand scheme of things, we're the kid wearing the suspenders and the pocket protector trying to try out for the All-Star football team (or Futbol for those over the pond)
New EMT's and Medics feel that they don't have to try. Things are constantly being dumbed down for us. Take the advent of the new airway adjuncts; the LMA, King LT, Combi-Tube, and so on. Their marketing ploy: "So easy a trained monkey can do it." Everything is being made idiot proof. The standard is being lowered to meet the needs of people who shouldn't have been allowed to pass medic class in the first place.
Why can't we as a profession stand up for ourselves and raise the bar. We need to quit allowing ourselves to be "dumbed down." Doctors and Nurses fight like hell the minute one of their skills are taken away no matter how little they use it. When we went through our trial separation from the ET tubes, I remember sitting in the meeting with other members of other services and my own. Everyone groaned and complained about it, but the minute they whipped out the new, shiny toys (Combi-Tubes and the King LT's) everyone was okay with it!
The premise of those adjuncts promotes irresponsibility in managing the advanced airway as well. "Oh, it's okay if you jam this tube in the esophagus, you'll still put air in their stomache and bloat it up, but this ballon here will keep them from throwing up..." We were taught that putting any tube in the esophagus outside of a gastic tube was a bad thing, now you're telling me it's okay to do that?
It's a never ending cycle, but until we stand up for ourselves, we'll just have to keep taking the hits against us.
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