By EMS1 Staff
ESTILL, Ky. — A paramedic student struggling with the memorization of ALS drugs put his musical talent to work and created a song to help him study.
Estill County EMT Jouette Harrison, who is currently in paramedic school, said he was having a hard time remembering all of the required information for each advanced life support drugs.
An avid musician, Harrison said he “went back to his roots” and reformatted his note cards into lyric form, putting them to the tunes of his favorite rock and roll songs.
He eventually created a video of all of the lyrics, clocking in at 17 minutes and 46 seconds.
“That’s enough time to listen to all 15 drugs 3 times, go into class, and take our routine morning drug quiz,” Harrison said. The first day of school after I had posted my video, my drug quiz score sky rocketed. For example, I initially had a hard time remembering “diazepam is a benzodiazepine, primarily indicated for seizures, AKA Valium. One side effect is respiratory depression, adult dosage 2-10Mg IV/IO/IM/rectally.” But when I took that song and rewrote it to “Foolin’” by Def Leppard, I just got it.
Harrison provided a full list of the songs and the drugs attached to them:
- Activated Charcoal/ Good Riddance- Green Day
- Adenosine/ Black Dog- Led Zeppelin
- Amioderone/ All the small things- Blink 182
- Aspirin/ Money For Nothing- Dire Straits
- Atropine/ Don’t Fear the Reaper- Blue Oyster Cult
- Calcium Chloride/ Take It Easy- Eagles
- Albuterol/ All Along The Watchtower- Jimi Hendrix
- Dexamethasone/ Blinded by the Light- Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
- Dextrose/ Nobody’s Fool- Cinderella
- Diazepam/ Foolin’- Def Leppard
- Diltiazem/ Owner of a Lonely Heart- Yes
- Diphenhydramine/ Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap)- AC/DC
- Dopamine/ Cold as Ice- Foreigner
- Fentanyl/ Roxanne- The Police
- Epinephrine/ The Stroke- Billy Squier
Watch the full video below.