Do you need critical calls to enjoy your work?

[Christopher.Collins]

Good question... do I NEED critical calls?

I want to say no... and to be honest I love doing "routine" fyi I hate that word calls... and most of all I love pyschiatric/etoh/drug type runs also. I love the calls where you can just sit and talk to your patients... perhaps I should be a shrink instead?

But I do like to mix things up, granted no two patients will ever be the same even if the chief complaint is. I like the occasional multi-patient MVA, cardiac arrests, falls, GSWs and assaults etc.... but I dont need to be balls to the wall to be happy either. These type of calls means someone having a really bad day, and while Im there to help, Im not God.

edit: Also... critical calls and busy shifts = lots more paperwork. I recall a former co-worker (an EMTB mind you) who had a day like the above mentioned. Didnt catch one break.... by the end of the shift she still had 8 PCRs to complete. Think she wound up leaving about 1 1/2 hours late, for paperwork alone.

another edit: Damn, I hate remembering/forgetting things. Best thing about "routine" calls... is the interaction. I think there is can be just as much to learn from someone whos AAOx3 as someone in cardiac arrest. Hell, I learned more my first month working for a private sector agency than I did the prior 5 years of running 9-1-1's with a volly agency.

[Arizonaffcep]

... and most of all I love pyschiatric/etoh/drug type runs also.

Wow...I want what you are smoking!

[fiznat]

Wow...I want what you are smoking!

haha me too!

You do enough of these calls in a day and they stop feeling like "individual snowflakes" pretty damn quickly. Just my experience.

[spenac]

Guess I like a real rare adrenalin pumper, of course been there so long I've forgotten how that feels.

But I'm just as happy sitting back getting my paycheck not turning a wheel.

[sirduke]

The occasional "good" trauma call is nice, same for a real medical call, but not when they seem to come back to back all night.

I personally don't like sitting at the station with no calls, gets boring fast and the director starts finding little busy work jobs for you to do.

[jbanagas]

No, don't need any calls, just my pay, PERS, and benifits.

[sirduke]

No, don't need any calls, just my pay, PERS, and benifits.

Spoken like a true firemonkey

[Christopher.Collins]

[

haha me too!

You do enough of these calls in a day and they stop feeling like "individual snowflakes" pretty damn quickly. Just my experience.

Fiz, you wear the cranberry shirt and your not on a Crew shift you have your choice of psych or dialysiss runs. Wait no, DISPATCH has your choice of pysch or dialysiss. I was happy when I went to Crew. Of course you wear the blue shirt... so you probably know what freedom is like? You know, to not be ruled under Nazi dictatorship.

[firedoc5]

I just wanted to make another point. We are all trained for whatever is thrown at us, including the critical situations. As for me, I didn't want to waste that area of training.

[Christopher.Collins]

I just wanted to make another point. We are all trained for whatever is thrown at us, including the critical situations. As for me, I didn't want to waste that area of training.

Thats whats great about this job though, the spontanuity... errr spontaneousness (lol??) of it. One day we're doing ALS runs to Yale and then at the end of my shift bam! Now we're Pulling a guy off the street, torn open from his juglar down past his rib cage.