David Sheeks

While speaking with a relative last week, the topic moved to the opiate crisis and the use of Naloxone (NARCAN) to reverse the effects of opiate overdoses.  He said something that I have heard all too often: "I think that once they've been Narcanned three times, we should just let them die."  It's a common sentiment, and one that quite a few people share. I understand where they are coming from.  Opioid abuse and the fallout thereof are a great burden on the EMS system.  Most people who are "brought back" by NARCAN refuse to be transported for further evaluation at the hospital, meaning that the ambulance service generally bears the cost of the medication, equipment, and manpower required to save them. But I hope that those reading will consider something else: rarely ever has anyone woken up and said, "I think I'm going to get addicted to Meth today."  A shocking number of people who abuse drugs of any kind got into it through fairly v

While I have spent the last few months talking about my journey as an EMT, many of my readers are not aware that I also work as the financial director for Anew Alternative, a counseling center based out of Frankfort, KY.  Anew Alternative provides just that: a new, alternative way of looking at drug and alcohol counseling.   As an EMT I am often told, "Treat your patient, not the monitor."  If I obsess over just the numbers and readouts of the monitoring tools we use, I might risk missing something that I would otherwise have seen just by paying attention to the needs of my actual patient.  At Anew Alternative, we could just as easily say, "Treat the client, not the disease."  Addiction is a terrible thing, but it affects every person in different ways.  And while one strategy may work for one person, that same strategy might not work for another. Anew Alternative provides a "whole person" approach to counseling.  We realize that after becoming sobe

I am happy to report that I have accepted a position as an EMT in my childhood hometown of Estill County.  While it is a considerable commute, I am excited to begin this new chapter in my employment while being able to help members of the community I will always call home.

I am happy to announce that after a long wait (well, about 5 hours that seemed like an eternity), I have passed the NREMT EMT exam!  I am now an officially registered EMT, and by early next week I should be licensed to practice as an EMT in Kentucky! I can't express how happy I am to begin this new chapter of my life.  Although my job history has been varied, it has had one thing at its core: my desire to help others.  I can't think of anything that encompasses that goal more clearly than being first on scene to the worst day of someone's life, and doing my part to try and make that day a little better.

I have just completed the NREMT computer examination for my EMT certification.  The test cut me off at 73 questions...so as my instructor told me, "Well, either you did really really well...or really really poorly. For those unfamiliar with the NREMT, it is an adaptive test.  It works something like this: The first question you are given is of moderate difficulty--let's say difficulty level 3 out of 5. If you get question 1 right, you are then given a question of difficulty level 4. If you get question 1 wrong, however, the next question is difficulty level 2. The test continues, going up or down in difficulty, until it is able to determine with 95% accuracy the average question difficulty you would get correct. If your skill level is level 3 or above, you pass.  If not, back to the books. Because of the way the test works, it has a range of 70 to 120 questions it could ask you.  If the test only goes to 70, it means that you did well enough (or poorly enough) tha

I am happy to announce that I have just completed my psychomotor exam for my state EMT boards.  In the coming days I will be registering for, and sitting for the NREMT EMT-B examination.  Although I am confident in my ability to pass (I am currently the top ranking student in my class and have scored well on my practice exams) I admit I am still a little nervous.  Still, nothing worth having didn't come with a little risk, so it's time to put up that exam fee and make this thing happen!