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So here it goes..
![[image loading]](http://www.worh.org/CommunityBlog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/EMS-star_of_life.jpg)
When I was growing up as a kid my schools have always had Firefighters and Police Officers in to speak with us. For this reason I guess, growing up I always had a good idea of what Firefighters (water goes on fire..  ) and Police Officers do and what their job entails. It wasn't until I've talked to a few people in the profession and got accepted into the program that I became fully aware of what the career entails. I am a Paramedic, I love my job and I laugh at T-Shirts like this..
![[image loading]](http://images5.cpcache.com/product/223305305v4_480x480_Front_Color-Black.jpg)
and this..
![[image loading]](http://images5.cpcache.com/product/405046195v3_480x480_Front_Color-Black.jpg)
I've always kind of liked the Public Relations aspect of any job I've ever had, so I wanted to know, from a general public audience, what kind of questions you would be interested in knowing about the profession. What do you assume when you think Paramedic. I'd kind of like to get a presentation put together eventually and present at schools to various age groups.
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United States11637 Posts
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On September 20 2010 09:36 boesthius wrote:
How do you, personally, deal with the death(or possibility of death if you haven't experienced yet) of a patient, whether it's doa or on route? My mother had a hard time with her first one even after briefing.
Was about to ask this myself.
Does the job ever psychologically effect you or do you keep life/job completely separate?
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How fast do people burn out?
How often do you go on really serious call? (and what kind of area do you work in, rural? city? town?)
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I use to be the type of person who would vomit even if I heard someone vomiting. I guess I can say working for a movie theatre that sold cotton candy and kool-aid combos to kids solved that problem.
I've fortunately never had a patient vomit into my mouth while doing CPR or while providing care, I've been puked on and all that other fun stuff. I'm usually very vigilante with my PPE (personal protective equipment; goggles, masks, etc) gear and decontaminating the bus and equipment after use.
It's hard to explain the emotions involved in the job, I've gone to quite a few bad calls where when the call is over you have to take a step back.. I'll refer back to this in a moment. People die, it's inevitable, bad things happen out there.. I'm usually so focused on the task at hand that the emotional feelings don't affect me at the time being. My example is this; 5 day old Cardiac Arrest. Doing CPR and feeling the ribs give way when you begin compressions is one things, wrapping your hands around a baby and doing CPR with your thumbs is a whole other story. I was so focused, I hadn't realized that the Police Department were escorting us and had closed off three major intersections for us en route to the hospital.. The outcome was unfortunate. It's after the call, for me, that I step back, depending on the situation I may go off by myself and shed a tear or two, constantly going over the call to make sure I did everything I could. This is when those emotions come to the surface. Everyone handles it differently.
I'm actually extremely lucky, my fiancée is also a Paramedic and it really helps to be able to talk to people. I know we talk to each other constantly if there is a bad call that one of us goes on, or someone dies, etc. I guess in the end I take solace in knowing that I've done everything that was possible to give that person the best potential outcome. So it's hard to keep work/life separate and in this profession I don't think it does much good. We see things that people should never see, hear things that people should never hear, if you don't have someone you can speak to, it makes it really hard to deal with that internally.
@LSB
It really depends on the person, I've heard of people quitting after one call and I know people who have been doing it for 30 years. The burnout is entirely how you handle things, stress, etc. You need good stress mechanisms, there's a lot of pressure on you.
As for work, I work in several larger cities and a few very small communities, our system is provincial wide and I can pick up shifts all over. The smaller, more distant communities are harder because when you have a serious call, you're that much further from definitive care. An example would be someone who is experiencing Ischemic Chest pain. In the city the chances of us getting off all four sprays of Nitro is slim, out in some places, those four sprays are going to go fast and you're still going to have a long time before you hit the receiving facility.
Serious calls come and go, depends on the season, holiday, local events, really there are a ton of variables. Large gatherings of people are never good haha.
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What is the closest job that an RN (Nurse) can get to a paramedic?
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Do you get shakes coming off of adrenaline highs a lot in your job?
Also, a story that has a question at the end:
About half a year ago I got an infection of some kind in my eye. It was massively bloodshot, and I had pretty bad pains anytime I tried to look vaguely directly at a light. Obviously, I was rather worried - but upon investigation, I discovered that it "could" have been anything from pink-eye to a glaucoma (namely, "who cares" to "holy fuck I'm going blind").
How the hell am I supposed to deal with that? I can't be running to the doctor every time there's a chance that I have a medical emergency, because thats like every week.
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I'm not really sure what the options for an RN would be. I know a fellow medic who was an LPN and had to go back to school and take the Paramedic program, so I think you may have to do the same thing if you were interested in becoming a Paramedic. I know in my area I take RNs on LDTs (Long-Distance Transfers) quite a bit, mostly because they are more familiar with the sensitive equipment that can accompany the patients, like the pumps, etc.
I guess I wouldn't call it the shakes, but I do have like a "winding down" period where I'd head off by myself to reflect on what happened, the actions I took, the outcome or fate of the patient. Just because I don't get the shakes isn't to say that the job is not nerve racking, it most definately is.
@kzn
I think I would be fairly weary if I had anything going on with my eyes, I'd probably want to get it checked out as soon as I could, even if it were something small. Nothing is really more important than your health.
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EPT
