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I've lurked this site for almost two years now, with maybe 1 or 2 posts tops. Being an EMT for a whopping 7 years (and a baby medic going on 3 months now), I honestly felt I had nothing to add. I see an enormous wealth of knowledge here, and it has both humbled and educated me. That being said, I couldn't help but chime in on this topic. I came through medic class with a 3.95 GPA, more clinical hours than almost every other student, and passed my National Registry at 73 questions. I say all that to get to this: I had absolutely NO confidence. I was constantly being fingered out in class by other students, ie "Ask *****, HE knows", or "Well, once we are out in the field, we'll just call ***** if we can't figure it out" You know what that did to me? It added an undue amount of needless pressure. They were just as capable of spending the time necessary to study as I was. That all changed about 2/3 of the way through clinical rotations. I had, in my opinion, the best preceptor one could ask for. Our first meeting, he reviewed my skillset, asked questions about my grades, class, experiences, etc. Then he sat me down and told me this : "Right now, you have the basics. Nothing more. All the books in the world aren't gonna help if all that knowledge leaks out your elbows. You have to use that knowledge, and APPLY it. This isn't a classroom, and I'm not gonna tell you you've 'done your best', or 'good try'. If I see you doing something wrong, I'm gonna call you on it (In professional fashion I should add), and you're gonna have to explain to me WHY it was wrong. YOU are the medic on this truck, and I'm the safety net. The only way you'll gain confidence is by DOING IT. So you miss an IV? Don't blame the patients rolling veins, or the lighting, or the type of catheter. You missed it because you didn't hold proper traction, or you used an incorrect angle, or whatever. I will do my best to answer, explain, instruct, and guide, but I will not coddle, baby, or make you 'feel good'." I thought this guy was a complete a$$. It's been 6 months now, and we're best friends. My point to the story? He made me WORK to gain my confidence. He was willing to let me fall flat on my face (making sure no harm came to the patient obviously), but would take the opportunity to educate me as to WHY I fell on my face. I wasn't held by the hand like so many I've seen. I was expected to take the leadership role from the onset, not slowly lead into it. It may seem like an odd approach to most, but I for one will be forever grateful for it.

Good responses all! I wouldn't be worried about not being bummed after a call like that. I think that's probably a strength as long as you can still empathize and treat with care. I'm going to go ahead and be the wuss here, however, and say that I've been very affected by some of the calls I've had. One was a train-wreck of a call with two infant deaths, but others weren't that dramatic. I try to just use it to my advantage and really truly help my patients in any way I can (as I'm sure we all do). I think you can be a strong provider in either of these categories. Just accept who you are and how you handle it, keep the patient's well being as your main priority (after your crew), and you're on the road to greatness!

What I have come to find is after you've been through the schooling, EMT-B and Paramedic. You dont look at scenes as you would if you never went to school, instead of seeing a bloody mess, you see blood pooling in the lower areas of the body. You notice the the transitions the body goes through after death, as opposed to the horror of it. Maybe its just me but after school I never looked at scenes the same as say, people riding by or friends/family who found a deceased family member.

Isnt sex ed what we learned behind the toilet block at school????? Seriously, I think a lot of the problems we have in this area are generational. Many people born prior to the 60's & 70's have a very different view of sex & sexuality to what abounds today. We came from a 1950's clean living apple pie & mom attitude where we could pretend that sex outside of marriage didnt exist. This still exists now with people whose parents came from this era are in a 'limbo' about how they should teach & what they should teach their kids about sex. As a consequence we are being led by the conservatives who are looking into an idealistic world of their own. Reality tells us that people have been having sex outside of a relationship (cause it feels good) since the beginning of time. We also know now that there is more prevelence of STI's than ever before. I would much rather teach my children that sex can be enjoyed, & provide them with condoms so they can avoid un necesarry pregnancy & infection. I think in the years to come this will be a null & void argument as a lot of the old school 'die out'. We can teach out kids about absenence, self control & all that crap, but reality is, as we all know, that goes out the window in the heat of the moment. Lets teach them to protect themselves. Lets teach them to be safe.

Firefighter/EMT's work 24/48 in Chicago and make around 70/k a year with benefits and and pension. Medics are single role and work 24/72 with about the same pay and bennies. Privates services around chicago land pay about 10-15 $ hr with bad benefits and no pension

Why are we suppose to be mortified of death? It is the eventual outcome to life. Sometimes a death will make me angry or sad that the person is gone but that's about it. As far as leaving a mark otherwise I don't see why. If someone dies that we are working very hard on I suppose I feel disappointed. I do feel that if we are to be with a person that is in the last moments of there life we have a profound opportunity to give them dignity and grace at there end time.

As someone who has been in EMS for more than 6 months to a year, I can say that I don't have any problem working with those younger than me, those that aren't trained to my level, or those that have more education than I do. What I find that really sets the teeth on edge and the jaw out of line are those that you can't teach because they 'know it all'. No one in EMS will ever 'know it all', and the moment you start harboring that attitude, you're selling yourself short and denying your patient the care that they deserve. Part of our job is patient advocacy, and that means helping them get the very best treatment that we can. I've seen too many that will deny the patient access to the ALS services that would definately improve their condition for no other reason than attitude and ego. Having spent more than a coule years at the BLS level, I've never hesitated to 'disturb the medics' when the patient needed more aggressive care than I was able to give. I've also seen providers that think they can handle anything that comes down the pike at the BLS level. My personal view on working with partners that have more experience, better education than I do, is to shut up, and learn from them. Most ILS/ALS providers I've come in contact with are more than happy to pass on knowledge; but you have to be willing to admit that you dont know it all, and never will. To do this though, requires that you swallow your foolish pride and actually be HONEST with yourself. By the same token, since I've been able to learn from those with more experience, better education....I have an obligation to help those that are less experienced or have less education than I do. I don't want to come off like I'm the that 'know it all', but if we don't share the education; how can we help ourselves by helping each other?

Well I guess the whole idea of a good story really got lost yet again. Please dont post crap about volly or paid that isnt what this was suppose to be about.

Never understood volunteers, or why a community would not shell out cash to pay for medical professionals. It's quite sad really. I don't hear much about volunteer RNs and MD's...or volunteer hospitals for that matter. In my city volunteer fire/ems is unheard of.....This is a pro career, and we earn the money to prove it.

basically take how ever much a year you think a fast food fryer makes a year and substract double that from $0 and walah but fear not for you truelly will love your job,i know i do,as the shirt,sticker, etc says ems the hardest job youll ever love. the pay sucks,most of the time the hours suck,alot of times the patients are rude as hell but guess what youl love what you do,is it worth it, that all is up to you.

I think that it simply illuminates that fact that politics has everything to do with obscure agendas and very little to do with creating a safe, healthy country for us to live in. I think that we should show Deep Throat to kids in about the 5th grade. There's not a girl on the planet that will have sex before she's 30 after watching it. (Ok, not really.) This attitude simply shows a blindness for real life. kids ARE having sex. Regardless what we tell them, they are drinking, getting stoned, exploring their sexuality. It's unavoidable with the constant exposure to sexuality in our popular media. And I personally think that it's a good thing. Sex is real life. It's vital to passionate, loving relationships. It's not evil, we're all doing it, and sometimes in ways we'd just as soon not talk about to others, yet we want to pretend that it's only good when 'we're' doing it, for others it's wrong and dirty for some reason. Perhaps we stop short? Maybe we should, along with teaching the use of contraceptives, teach oral sex techniques? (Heh, I could just hear Republican sphincters slamming shut all across the City.)I'm actually being serious here. Children are hardwired to begin to distance themselves from their parents at puberty. The most logical way to separate is to rebel against adult rules and thinking. Tell your kids that they can't have sex, and they'll use that to distance themselves from you. Tell them that they're not mature enough to have sex and they'll use sex to prove you wrong. As an act sex isn't good or bad. It can be made either by circumstances. Children need to learn how to mitigate those circumstances, to come to understand it as a vital part of life, though one that requires more thought and care than most other things. I loved the line, "Southworth is trying to censor what students learn, usurping the role of parents." I don't really get this. Teaching your children about sensuality, sexuality, and eroticism is the role of parents, both through instruction and example. If you've left that to the schools, yet find that they will no longer be doing your job, then I'm afraid you'll either be forced to step up to the plate, or send your kids out into the world unprepared. And we know the decision that the majority of parents are making by the abhorrent attitude on these subjects many young people are expressing. Too often they're expressing it with unwanted pregnancy, casual sex, sexual disease and sexual crime. Tell kids that they have options. That sex is awesome and amazing but that it comes with responsibilities. Explain those responsibilities, how to approach them responsibly and how to mitigate the possible consequences and most kids are going to listen. They truly aren't the ignorant little beasts that the adult media would lead one to believe. In many, if not most cases they are kind, intelligent, inspired young people that have been left adrift by past generations that have 'cared' for them by censoring necessary information from their upbringing, I vote a pretty much straight Republican ticket. But just watch, it won't be long before Mr. Republican, Christian, church going "Don't teach kids about condoms because it will make them have sex" will have pics of him being spanked on his bare ass by a transvestite wielding a Ken doll floating all over the internet. A byproduct of the "Sex is dirty so let's not talk about it" generation. Great article Matty. I hope it generates the discussion it deserves. Dwayne