How to actually learn and retain key EMS concepts

Hello friends,

Recently, I’ve been feeling like I’ve been “slipping” with my cardiology skills. I feel a bit clunky looking at ECGs and feeling like a probie again. I study and train at work (and at home) frequently, including a lot of solo training at work, just going through EMS concepts, protocols, and hands-on skills.

To combat my perceived cardiology weaknesses, I’ve made a plan and wanted to share some insights with you.

About a year ago I read a book called “Ultra Learning” by Scott Young (I have no affiliation or link to him, I just loved the book). Here’s what I took away:

1. Unless you’re really struggling/needing to deeply focus while studying, you’re not learning.

   “Reviewing” a textbook by casually skimming pages is literally as useful to your studying as watching netflix. It makes you feel like you’re productive, but it’s not helping.

2. You need to consistently get back into difficult topics to “retain” them. Overtime, you won’t need to do this as frequently.

   He digs into the science behind “spaced repetition systems” and making sure you come back to certain topics and drills enough to make them stick, but I keep it simple: Don’t study it once and act like it’s locked in forever. That’s not how it works.

So here’s how I’m doing that:

Every shift, I’m writing out my grid of all 12 leads, labeling which coronary regions they tell me about, then I’m drawing out a heart (very poorly) and labeling coronary vessels as well as valves. It’s awful art.

Then I’m drilling through 6 real ECG examples, and looking at them just like I would in the field, then I’m reviewing them, then I’m writing down what I’m weakest at for that day and then reading about anything that’s giving me trouble.

I have an ongoing log of this, and I know I’m improving because 1. Drills are getting easier each week and 2. I can just feel the discomfort of that really deep work of uninterrupted study.

Maybe you already do this, maybe you were looking for some tips like this, but regardless - I’m sharing it with you. I hope studying has been good. As always, let us know what we can do for you.

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Have a great weekend,

Reed from 🚀 LaunchPoint