Reddit reviews Manual of Emergency Airway Management

Fail.

The management of patient's with respiratory/airway issues doesn't begin and end with intubation/surgical airways. In fact it encompasses a pretty wide swath of BLS airway maneuvers, proper BVM ventilation, proper medication administration, use of CPAP, SGAs, proper ventilator use, and the use intubation and crics. The fact that you immediately retorted to my comment by bringing up intubating/cric makes me think you have a relatively narrow view of the management of respiratory issues.

Here is something better to ask instead of how many tubes I've had in the last year, why don't you ask me how many people I have avoiding intubating secondary to proper management. Because, to me, that is the mark of a competent practictioner. Obviously first pass success is equally important, but I'll take a medic who can properly manage a pt and avoid a tube, then one who gets one every time.

And again, the management of cardiac pts doesn't begin and end with STEMIs or cardioversions. Even those are pretty straight forward in terms of treatment/management.

The fact is that there are two main types of patients that EMS has the most effect on, those are respiratory and cardiac. Look at any departments meds or equipment and you'll see that probably 80% of the stuff carried on the box are aimed at these pts. So yes these two subgroups are the bread and butter of EMS and to say otherwise is ignorant.

So you seem to me like you're really green, here are some resources that you may find useful in curving your nervousness in managing these patients:

Manual of Emergency Airway Management by Ron Walls

Life in the Fast Lane

Dr. Smith's EKG Blog

EMCrit

Manual of Emergency Airway Management

I just ordered it so I can't vouch for it yet but it seems to get good reviews.

This is a good question - and your situation isn't unique. I can suggest the following: listen to podcasts that are relevant. I can suggest a few - EMCrit, Prehospital and Retrieval Medicine, Sydney HEMS are the ones I listen to. They have great discussion about advanced airway management, including changing ideas in the realm of airway management. Also, read about it. It sounds silly as you just finished medic school, but I can promise you that there is so much more out there on the topic then you were exposed to in school. I've suggested this book before, and I'll suggest it again: Manual of Emergency Airway Management. It's a wonderful place to start when you really want to get good at advanced airway management. Also, run through scenarios, and procedures in your head. Practice airway assessments on patients you'll likely not have to intubate. Use your time at work to learn all the cerebral aspects of managing an airway. It's such a critical skill, we as Paramedics need to be better at at.

Your job, this profession, expects you to be a very proficient "Laryngoscopist". If you only got to preform 1 intubation in school (which boggles my mind! No OR time at all?), then you've got a lot of catching up to do. BUT, knowing you've got work to do to improve is HUGE. Many medics think they know it all, and end up hurting people, and lo-and-behold, eventually they get ETT's taken away from them. You seem to know you need work. Start with my suggestions, and I promise you, you will get better. Just never get complacent.