I wasn’t kidding. This post was serious. Dead serious. There comes a point where you start looking at your paycheck and start realizing that you are actually getting PAID LESS TO TEACH than if you simply took an hourly job. I make more money at my entry level position at a donor bank than I do on an ambulance or teaching. When it is time to clock out I simply go home and play with my daughter instead of making a thousand phone calls, doing lesson plans, grading papers, and writing tests off the clock. Its freaking madness.

I do like teaching, but I nearly bankrupted my family doing it. It just shouldn’t be that hard. Bottom line: I have zero stress, work less, and make more money. The only thing that kept me going was this whole one-man-mission to make EMS care better…it was nuts. No one really cares about quality. The void I created was filled instantly. I had trouble getting out of the way fast enough.

What I plan on doing is this right here. I have 15 years of stories and experience to share. You will be reading it right here. It is fun to look back, and I will be writing my memoirs one post at a time. When I get settled into my new job, Copy Code Three will start up again. That’s where I will record other people’s stories. This is where you will read my stories. And of course the podcasting with Chris and the gang will continue. I also do online classes with Greg over at EMSBootCamp, so I get my fill now and then. I am not dead. I have just reinvented myself. I am happier. My daughter is happier. My wife is happier. And somehow, people still manage to get those little AHA cards without me around.

I’ve been fortunate to have some terrific instructors, and I’m fortunate to have a few classmates who care as much as I do. But I know that it’s a rarity and I’ve seen it in the field.

And it sucks.

Please don’t quit. We need you.

If it’s not the lazy students, it’s the AHA criteria for selecting new instructors: “As long as you’ve got a brainstem and an index finger to press the PLAY button, you too can teach ACLS!”

I’m lucky in that I’ve gained a clientele who expects just what you try to do in your classes – more than what AHA requires. They’re tired of quickie, cookie-cutter, bare minimum courses, and the keep coming back to mine.

Come on down to Louisiana. We need good AHA instructors and EMS instructors.

Not that my opinion counts for anything, but I do applaud you for maintaining your integrity in the face of so much dimwittery.

I also read your background as to what you are trying to do with the Code 3. Admirable, if the people who weren’t going to trek to your mike weren’t heavily weighted toward the Star of My Own Show variety. Maybe you can search for the stories; the ones who need to tell it the most are often the ones who aren’t clamoring for the mike on karaoke night. Good luck!

That is actually something that I have taught for people who show up for the routine peg tube transfer and find the sudden cardiac arrest patient or the respiratory distress patient. Now, with the evidence that ventilation is bad, I would discourage this for the arrest.

I have never been the ACLS coordinator at any of the places I taught, but I did give in once and talked one into allowing me to do a private PALS class for an EMS service. Things went smoothly during the class, but everything else was a huge headache. I could not apologize enough to the coordinator, who was only guilty of being a nice guy.

I love the rant.

I have always taught ACLS as tailored to the students. Some places have not invited me back to teach again. And yet, my ego and integrity survived.

The requirement for a pulse and a card includes all of the alphabet soup cards. This is not an evaluation of competence.

Anesthesiologists are horrible at intubating mannequins. ACLS requires that I evaluate the ability to intubate, for those with intubation in their scope of practice. This is silly. It is the duty of the director of the anesthesia department to evaluate competence, including the ability to intubate. Does it make any sense for an ACLS instructor to be evaluating the ability of anesthesiologists to intubate?

AHA card requirements are just another way that hands-off medical directors keep themselves ignorant of the damage they authorize.