Loud & Clear: EMS Guiding Principles - Advanced Continuing Education for Paramedics, EMTs & Prehospital Care Providers

What differentiates heat stroke from heat exhaustion? Once central nervous system dysfunction appears, every minute spent at an elevated core temperature increases the risk of permanent neurologic injury or death.

Ross and Will talk with emergency physician and wilderness medicine specialist Dr. Greg Doctor about the full spectrum of heat-related illness – from heat cramps, rash, and edema to syncope, exhaustion, and life-threatening heat stroke.

They discuss how to avoid anchoring on the heat when a patient loses consciousness and what the critical dividing line between heat exhaustion and heat stroke is.

They also examine exercise-associated hyponatremia, drug-related hyperthermia, fluid selection, and the patients who may remain at risk even after they initially appear to recover.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How to distinguish heat syncope, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke

Why central nervous system dysfunction and an elevated core temperature matter most

How to choose between cold-water immersion, continuous water and fanning, ice sheets, and ice-water slurry techniques

When transport should be delayed for on-scene cooling, and when cooling should continue

 

Resources:

Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention & Treatment of Heat Illness: 2024 Update

Unlocking Syncope with Matt Mendes

The Critical Care of the Sick Runner: A Comprehensive Guide with Dr. Whitney Barrett

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Guests:

Dr. Greg Doctor, emergency physician and wilderness medicine specialist

Most people picture a master clinician as the person in the room who knows every answer. In reality, mastery looks like the opposite, and admitting what you do not know.

Ross talks with FlightBridgeED co-founder Eric Bauer about the “rage to mastery”, the advice that kept him in EMS after a series of difficult calls nearly drove him away, why expertise is perishable, and how ego creates resistance to learning.

Then, Will speaks to Master Your Medics founder Geoff Murphy about a medication error that changed how Geoff understood team culture. They explore what happened, and why psychological safety does not lower the standard.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why sustainable learning habits are more valuable than ambitious goals

How experienced clinicians can model vulnerability without undermining their credibility

What to look for in a mentor who will challenge blind spots 

How to turn an uncomfortable call into action-oriented preparation for the next patient

 

Resources:

Want more? Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Confidence Dispatch.

Want individualized coaching and mentorship? Check out The Loud & Clear Fellowship.

Just have a question and want some personalized help? Book a free coaching call with us.

Interested in ABLS Now? Our listeners get 10% off through the end of August.

Guests:

Eric Bauer, CEO and Co-Founder of FlightBridgeED

Geoff Murphy, Founder and Lead Educator of Master Your Medics

The calls that scare clinicians the most are often the ones they have the fewest opportunities to practice.

So what happens during a rare, high consequence emergency? First, Jennifer Barnhart of Austin-Travis County EMS and Sergeant Luke Serrato of the Austin Police Department discuss the response to a mass casualty shooting on Austin’s Sixth Street.

Then, Ross talks with Allen Wolfe about three unusual burn and blast-injury cases. They discuss when a smaller burn may still warrant transfer to a burn center, how to recognize an airway that may require an early surgical approach, what a blast mechanism can reveal about hidden injuries, and why protecting burned tissue cannot come at the expense of protecting the airway.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How shared language and closed-loop communication help EMS and law enforcement move together 

Why responders may need to pass ambulatory or vocal patients to reach those who cannot self-rescue

What disrupted tympanic membranes, clothing patterns, circumferential facial burns can reveal

 

Resources:

Want more? Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Confidence Dispatch.

Want individualized coaching and mentorship? Check out The Loud & Clear Fellowship.

Just have a question and want some personalized help? Book a free coaching call with us.

Interested in ABLS Now? Our listeners get 10% off and a chance to win a free subscription. Enter before August 1, 2026.

 

Guests:

Jennifer Barnhart, Clinical Specialist, Austin-Travis County EMS

Sergeant Luke Serrato, Austin Police Department

Allen Wolfe, Senior Director of Clinical Education and Clinical Nurse Specialist at Life Link III

The hardest part of evidence-based medicine is not finding a paper. It is deciding whether that paper should change what you do on your next shift.

First, we talk with Dr. Jeff Jarvis about how to evaluate medical literature beyond the headline, abstract, conclusion, or p-value. You’ll hear about the PICO framework and why patient-oriented outcomes should matter more than the numbers that are easiest to measure.

Then, Ross talks with emergency physician Dr. Ben Abo about the evidence surrounding rigid cervical collars. He also shares how his EMS system removed collars from its ambulances by involving trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, emergency clinicians, and frontline providers in the change.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How to use population, intervention or exposure, comparison, and outcome to decide whether a study applies to the patients you actually treat

Why return of spontaneous circulation, p-values, and national benchmarks can distract clinicians from the outcomes patients care about most

What the literature suggests about cervical collars, spinal cord perfusion, airway compromise, aspiration risk, intracranial pressure, and pressure injuries

How to bring research to a medical director and change a long-standing protocol 

 

Resources:

NAEMSP Trauma Compendium: Prehospital Management of Spinal Cord Injuries

Want more? Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Confidence Dispatch.

Want individualized coaching and mentorship? Check out The Loud & Clear Fellowship.

Just have a question and want some personalized help? Book a free coaching call with us.

Interested in ABLS Now? Our listeners get 10% off and a chance to win a free subscription. Enter before August 1, 2026.

 

Guests:

Dr. Jeff Jarvis, MD, MS, EMT-P

Dr. Ben Abo, DO, EMT-P

Guest Host: Matt Hedlun, Battalion Chief of Education at Thompson Valley EMS

Trust is the architecture behind every patient interaction you run.

Dr. Cory Scheer, author of Closing the Trust Gap, has identified three evidence-based building blocks of trust: competency, problem-solving, and care for others. It turns out EMS providers already use all three the moment they step on scene.

In this episode, we unpack the gap between senior leaders and frontline EMS workers, what your "trust signature" reveals about how you naturally lead, and why imposter syndrome might be a signal worth listening to instead of pushing through.

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