Leaderboard

Great advice from all! Every basic partner I've had, specifically the new hires, get used to this saying... Q: "What's the first thing we do upon arrival at every call?" A: "Nothing!" Silly I know, but I've seen so often that people get worked up over the dispatched report, despite it very rarely having any resemblance to the actual call. (Not bagging dispatchers as I know that this is seldom their fault.) I do find that people new to the field, as I was not so long ago, tend to believe that thought can be replaced with motion. They often seem to feel that when they're confused that no one will notice as long as they just keep moving, whether the motion is productive or not. And trying to create so much motion when thinking, and not action, are what's called for, brings about an amazing amount of stress. At least it does for me. Ignore your dispatch report, unless it regards something you are unfamiliar with. For example, dispatched to "18 month female, difficulty breathing, lethargic." This often won't be the same call as it would be in an adult so you might want to mentally review the ways you may assess this pediatric emergency when compared to an adult. And when you show up to find the call is actually a 34 y/o that broke his leg trying to show his son a new trick on his skateboard you haven't really lost anything, but have gained a ped review. :-) Slow down, breath, don't do anything that you haven't decided is necessary. Don't allow yourself to freak out about thing that you have no information on. Sometimes gathering information will bring a bit of anxiety, but being anxious over what "might be" is hard on your body and terminal to your thinking. So when my partners say, "Nothing!" they don't literally mean nothing, they understand it to mean that they should stand still, take a deep breath, look around the scene to see who is where, who is doing what, and formulate a logical initial plan to approach. 'Nothing' refers only to their motion....stop the motion and you will be able to think more clearly, when you can think more clearly you will see and understand more, gather and analyze information more efficiently and you will make better plans, and once you can trust your initial plans, a great deal of the anxiety will resolve on it's own. See? Great question man! Thanks for participating! Dwayne Does that make you asexual?