I had a rather rude and self opinionated comment about the spelling and other such things within this blog. Two things; I normally write this blog as soon as I have finished my twelve hour stint of serving the public so my mental acuity is not going to be at it's best.
The other: This is meant to be a real account of my thoughts and feelings of being on the road as a newbie, so my attention to punctuation and spelling is not going to be of as much importance than it is in my university assignments. I want to put more emphasis on writing how I am feeling than if I have dotted all of the "i's" and crossed all my "t's".
Tuesday 23 September 2008
Screwing up! The easiest way to learn
So not been posting these last few weeks; it has been a hectic time at work and I am also gettinng prepared to go back for a week at university.
One thing has come to my attention these past few weeks; making mistakes is the easiest way to learn. I don't know if it is the fact that you make the mistake and you go through it in your mind, or that you do not wish to feel as crap as you felt when you made the mistake, thus not wanting to make it again!
Either way, it is true. I have learnt more from these weeks on the road than I did with the months in training. The strive of not wanting to kill a patient seems to sharpen the mind and information seems to pass through the mystical mental barrier into the long term memory.
In a way it is strange, as I look forward to making more supervised errors to enhance my practice for the better. However, I am also putting caution on this as no one wants to be the class "dimwit"!
One thing has come to my attention these past few weeks; making mistakes is the easiest way to learn. I don't know if it is the fact that you make the mistake and you go through it in your mind, or that you do not wish to feel as crap as you felt when you made the mistake, thus not wanting to make it again!
Either way, it is true. I have learnt more from these weeks on the road than I did with the months in training. The strive of not wanting to kill a patient seems to sharpen the mind and information seems to pass through the mystical mental barrier into the long term memory.
In a way it is strange, as I look forward to making more supervised errors to enhance my practice for the better. However, I am also putting caution on this as no one wants to be the class "dimwit"!
Tuesday 9 September 2008
Mentorship...and Drunkmanship!
One of the beauties of being new within the ambulance service is the opportunity you get to work with lots of different people, as you are often condemned to permanent relief (a shift pattern in the ambulance service that condemns the poor unfortunate to a very irregular shift pattern, at any station of a managers choosing, with anyone they feel like putting you with).
I am constantly reminded as a newbie that there is no bad practice, just differing practice between individuals. This in itself seems strange, but it is true. None of my colleagues that I have been with have bad practice, just different ways of doing things. The advantage then of being on permanent relief with so many different crew mates is that I get to pick the best parts of each persons practice and insert it into my own.
Further to improving practice, there is also the introduction of specially trained mentors, one of which I was crewed with today. They were absolutely brilliant, I was allowed to go through the complete patient care package, which boosted my confidence that I could in fact, do this off my own head.
Now to another less positive aspect of being a trainee, dealing with your first intoxicated (drunk) patient. Now this is not the bit that a trainee is looking forward to and was not an area that I enjoyed dealing with. The patient we were dealing with left me with a feeling of emptiness and despair.
With all the training, education, skills and equipment I have at my disposal, there was very little we could do for this patient. I felt sorry that this individual had no way of making her life better except drowning it in a cocktail of alcohol (and I very much suspected from a clinical perspective, drugs as well). What also scared me was the fact that this individual had no way of telling us what was wrong. You were on tenterhooks on whether she was going to recover or whether she was "going south" (a term I use to describe a patient deteriorating).
The sober realisation I had is this is now a common problem that the ambulance service faces. To this individual we are not an ambulance service, or knights in shining armor to come and save her but a collection agency to deliver them to hospital. Where they will no doubt discharge themselves and I will be back out to pick them up another day.
I think the point I am trying to make to any person joining the ambulance service, is that this is a bare reality of the job and something that we will be increasingly called to. Not quite as "Casualty" as the TV makes out.
I am constantly reminded as a newbie that there is no bad practice, just differing practice between individuals. This in itself seems strange, but it is true. None of my colleagues that I have been with have bad practice, just different ways of doing things. The advantage then of being on permanent relief with so many different crew mates is that I get to pick the best parts of each persons practice and insert it into my own.
Further to improving practice, there is also the introduction of specially trained mentors, one of which I was crewed with today. They were absolutely brilliant, I was allowed to go through the complete patient care package, which boosted my confidence that I could in fact, do this off my own head.
Now to another less positive aspect of being a trainee, dealing with your first intoxicated (drunk) patient. Now this is not the bit that a trainee is looking forward to and was not an area that I enjoyed dealing with. The patient we were dealing with left me with a feeling of emptiness and despair.
With all the training, education, skills and equipment I have at my disposal, there was very little we could do for this patient. I felt sorry that this individual had no way of making her life better except drowning it in a cocktail of alcohol (and I very much suspected from a clinical perspective, drugs as well). What also scared me was the fact that this individual had no way of telling us what was wrong. You were on tenterhooks on whether she was going to recover or whether she was "going south" (a term I use to describe a patient deteriorating).
The sober realisation I had is this is now a common problem that the ambulance service faces. To this individual we are not an ambulance service, or knights in shining armor to come and save her but a collection agency to deliver them to hospital. Where they will no doubt discharge themselves and I will be back out to pick them up another day.
I think the point I am trying to make to any person joining the ambulance service, is that this is a bare reality of the job and something that we will be increasingly called to. Not quite as "Casualty" as the TV makes out.
Sunday 7 September 2008
From crew room to reality
Sitting in the crew room as a newbie ambulance technician (or any other new starter in the ambulance service) you get to hear alot of stories from the existing experienced staff. Alot of the stories you hear seem to be fairly obvious and you could believe that it does happen with alot of them supported by stories you hear in the newspapers, such as the popular "lets assault the paramedic" headline. But there are some you think "no, that can't really happen surely!"
As I am going through my weeks now of actually getting out there and experiencing this brave new job, the myths are slowly becoming reality. I focus specifically on an event that happened today. My crew mate and I were dispatched to a category A "Red" Call (this is a call that requires the most immediate level of response within the ambulance service, which we have to reach within eight minutes of being deployed).
On our arrival we found a PRU (Paramedic Response Unit - a car which carries a solo paramedic or emergency medical technician to the scene of an accident, usually quicker than the 4.5 tonne ambulances), we had no other option to park in the centre of the road, as the road was quite narrow with cars parked either side.
We enter the premesis and deal with the patient. Now the patient is not as serious as first thought, but our clinical impression is that she is generally unwell - e.g. she has something wrong with her but nothing that can be detected by the investigations available to ambulance staff, and nothing that requires immediate intervention but does need to go to hospital.
Anyway I deviate from the main point. Due to our ambulance being parked in the middle of the street we have blocked a car in. This person was not there as we began to settle our patient into the ambulance, but was shortly after thus only waiting a short length of time. The PRU clincian was now getting a volley of abuse from the member of the public, for blocking the road and we had no right etc. (i could go on).
Now from the banter in the crew room I could not believe that individuals could be so callous. But they can. Now this has not been the only crew room tale that has turned into reality. Unfortunately this is the reality of being a newbie technician, those "hard to believe it is true" tales that happen in the crew room gradually occur in real life. It is an exciting yet sobering time when you realise that alot of stuff like this does happen in real life.
As I am going through my weeks now of actually getting out there and experiencing this brave new job, the myths are slowly becoming reality. I focus specifically on an event that happened today. My crew mate and I were dispatched to a category A "Red" Call (this is a call that requires the most immediate level of response within the ambulance service, which we have to reach within eight minutes of being deployed).
On our arrival we found a PRU (Paramedic Response Unit - a car which carries a solo paramedic or emergency medical technician to the scene of an accident, usually quicker than the 4.5 tonne ambulances), we had no other option to park in the centre of the road, as the road was quite narrow with cars parked either side.
We enter the premesis and deal with the patient. Now the patient is not as serious as first thought, but our clinical impression is that she is generally unwell - e.g. she has something wrong with her but nothing that can be detected by the investigations available to ambulance staff, and nothing that requires immediate intervention but does need to go to hospital.
Anyway I deviate from the main point. Due to our ambulance being parked in the middle of the street we have blocked a car in. This person was not there as we began to settle our patient into the ambulance, but was shortly after thus only waiting a short length of time. The PRU clincian was now getting a volley of abuse from the member of the public, for blocking the road and we had no right etc. (i could go on).
Now from the banter in the crew room I could not believe that individuals could be so callous. But they can. Now this has not been the only crew room tale that has turned into reality. Unfortunately this is the reality of being a newbie technician, those "hard to believe it is true" tales that happen in the crew room gradually occur in real life. It is an exciting yet sobering time when you realise that alot of stuff like this does happen in real life.
Saturday 6 September 2008
Just like school
I have to say there is one thing I have noticed in my short time on the road; the crew room is just like being back at school. From the obvious observation, that myself, as a new ambulance technician is the new kid in school that every one is wary of and not sure if they are any good.
However, there are loads of other similarities. You have the different friendship groups, the micky taking, classroom pranks and of course as a newbie the uneasiness of having to prove yourself to fit in with this new "school".
Now I have felt like the new kid at work places before, but this has been so similar to school. I have been doing all the extra bits that you do as a "new kid" to fit in. Some of the best advice I can give is don't get on the wrong side of the locals; a few rules I have found.
@ Don't wake a sleeping ambulance bod - it doesn't bode well for future popularity
@ Always offer to make everyone else a cup of tea when you are making yourself one
@ Learn to do extra tasks without being asked - such as wash the ambulance (shows willingness.
Today I seem to have had a breakthrough, for the first time I feel as though I am starting to become a part of the mould. A part of the team a proper. I don't know what has happened, but the fear and trepedation and being the quite kid in the corner feeling has gone. This is a great feeling to have, and one that has been very much worth it. I am really starting to thoroughly enjoy this job.
However, there are loads of other similarities. You have the different friendship groups, the micky taking, classroom pranks and of course as a newbie the uneasiness of having to prove yourself to fit in with this new "school".
Now I have felt like the new kid at work places before, but this has been so similar to school. I have been doing all the extra bits that you do as a "new kid" to fit in. Some of the best advice I can give is don't get on the wrong side of the locals; a few rules I have found.
@ Don't wake a sleeping ambulance bod - it doesn't bode well for future popularity
@ Always offer to make everyone else a cup of tea when you are making yourself one
@ Learn to do extra tasks without being asked - such as wash the ambulance (shows willingness.
Today I seem to have had a breakthrough, for the first time I feel as though I am starting to become a part of the mould. A part of the team a proper. I don't know what has happened, but the fear and trepedation and being the quite kid in the corner feeling has gone. This is a great feeling to have, and one that has been very much worth it. I am really starting to thoroughly enjoy this job.
Friday 5 September 2008
Calm before the storm
The hallowed rest day is upon us before being back in work tomorrow!
It is a bit of an anti-climax really. You have been looking forward to it for the last few twelve hour shifts that now it's come, it is frankly, a bit of a let down. I have a list of work that I have to complete at home, where all I really want to do is stay curled up in bed, thankful that I don't have to get up at a godforsaken hour!
The purpose of a rest day, I have now found is far from as it is titled. There is no rest; just more mundane chores (a bit like being at station really). On the plus side though, at least I have the time and energy to cook myself a decent meal. That is one think I never really seem to be able to do when I have crawled in from work.
Well I am back in tomorrow, so the of getting out of bed at silly o' clock will resume once more, and once more I will get out of bed, trying to spark the energy I require before getting to station to look happy and enthusiastic to be there.
I shall report how it went tomorrow!
Thursday 4 September 2008
...and in the beginning!
What can I say, I have been crazy enough to join the ambulance service and train to be a paramedic. The reason I have started this blog is to document my training and experiences as to give an insight into what it is actually like to be a trainee with the ambulance service.
I hope to give an honest and real insight into what I see, hear and smell whilst out on the road.
So a bit of synopsis of what has gone before this blog was created. I am training at university to become a paramedic within the UK. This involves the academic element of university, with actually working practically on an ambulance responding to actual '999' calls. I have already completed a year of university training to date and have now been let loose out on the road as a probationary ambulance technician (where the real learning really starts).
The past year has had alot of ups and downs. I have had the stress and anxiety of tests and assignments and the related anxiety of awaiting with baited breath, the results of those exams. Then when you think you have just leaped the last big hurdle, you enter the crew room at the ambulance station on your very first day.
It was like being at school for the very first time; walking into the playground and seeing all the friendship groups and feeling very much out of place. I was then wisked off and given a swift tour round the station. I still feel like the new kid at school, even now being three weeks into the actual job.
One of my biggest fears, is messing up and appearing like a complete muppet infront of my new colleagues...
...this has happened, this has happened many times now I cannot count on one finger. Despite being reassured by several people that this is normal, you cannot help but feel that you are failing, especially with the thought running through your head that "I have been trained to do this". The training and the reality(I have found) are two very different things.
I await the day, when things start to seem a bit more natural and I feel that I fit in with the team a bit better. (I have been reassured that this comes with time, at the moment, I am sceptical.
One of the things I am enjoying at the moment is the driving. Not neccesscerially the "flying about with lights and sirens" but the driving in general. It is one area I think I am doing rather well at, which is a comfort when you are wanting to feel less like a "f**kwit".
Well this is a brief synopsis of where we are so far before this blog. I hope to update this daily and provide an insight into the in's and out's of being a trainee paramedic, not only from the actual job front, but the days off, the university work and other areas which might be of interest.
I hope to give an honest and real insight into what I see, hear and smell whilst out on the road.
So a bit of synopsis of what has gone before this blog was created. I am training at university to become a paramedic within the UK. This involves the academic element of university, with actually working practically on an ambulance responding to actual '999' calls. I have already completed a year of university training to date and have now been let loose out on the road as a probationary ambulance technician (where the real learning really starts).
The past year has had alot of ups and downs. I have had the stress and anxiety of tests and assignments and the related anxiety of awaiting with baited breath, the results of those exams. Then when you think you have just leaped the last big hurdle, you enter the crew room at the ambulance station on your very first day.
It was like being at school for the very first time; walking into the playground and seeing all the friendship groups and feeling very much out of place. I was then wisked off and given a swift tour round the station. I still feel like the new kid at school, even now being three weeks into the actual job.
One of my biggest fears, is messing up and appearing like a complete muppet infront of my new colleagues...
...this has happened, this has happened many times now I cannot count on one finger. Despite being reassured by several people that this is normal, you cannot help but feel that you are failing, especially with the thought running through your head that "I have been trained to do this". The training and the reality(I have found) are two very different things.
I await the day, when things start to seem a bit more natural and I feel that I fit in with the team a bit better. (I have been reassured that this comes with time, at the moment, I am sceptical.
One of the things I am enjoying at the moment is the driving. Not neccesscerially the "flying about with lights and sirens" but the driving in general. It is one area I think I am doing rather well at, which is a comfort when you are wanting to feel less like a "f**kwit".
Well this is a brief synopsis of where we are so far before this blog. I hope to update this daily and provide an insight into the in's and out's of being a trainee paramedic, not only from the actual job front, but the days off, the university work and other areas which might be of interest.
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