when does the rush go away?

[chbare]

thanks to all for the food for thought. my biggest issue is when I jump on a truck with the county. I see medic with (god like) skill and the experince to match yet for the most part they are just going through the motions. that is something that both saddens me and leaves me worried that I will loose the heart for the job. no matter how small my footprint in this world may be that is an unacceptable outcome to me.

You must also keep this in perspective. Regardless of how "exciting" our jobs may seem to others, we will inevitably have days where we can take things for granted or even hate what we do. I expect, even you have days where you would rather do something else? Even if you absolutely love your job, you will face difficult problems and experience periods of time where you are less than thrilled to be at work.

Another concept to consider is that many patients will receive similar management in the pre-hospital setting. We are far from "God like" and in fact are quite limited in the overall scheme of the spectrum of health care. I understand if people take offense; however, we play a small part in this movie. So, what you may interpret as "going through motions" may in fact be the proper way to manage patients. As a novice provider, it is easy to become wrapped up in "skills" and having to perform all kinds of interventions. In fact, I find my self taking more conservative actions when approaching patient care as I mature.

However, you will always run into providers who, for many reasons simply show up for a paycheck. Debating the ethics or morality of this is complicated and may be beyond the original point of this thread; however, these people exist.

In conclusion, some days I live a miserable existence and truly hate what I do, other days I absolutely love my job. Most days, I am somewhere in between. It is a dynamic concept. Try to be flexible as you look at how other people view their job on any given day, and understand that having different opinions regarding the same job may not be a bad thing.

Take care,

chbare.

[CharleeFoxtrot]

To answer the original poster's question if you are lucky, the rush never leaves you. Now there are days when you've only been at the base long enough to drop your gear and sleep is a distant memory when that 15th "general weakness" type call comes in. Well then the rush gets to be more like a muted growl through clenched teeth . But when that general weakness call turns into an active MI you are off to the races again

If you feel the need to up your skill level, try and ride more than twice a month or perhaps work out a training arrangement with a local dept or service where you could come in, use the mannikens, etc to keep fresh. A lot of this job is simply repetition that trains your hands and mind to do "this" when "that" happens. Think about trying to learn your skills initially, it took lots of reps until you had those basic skills firmly in your hands and mind. Keeping those skills is a matter of the doing. In order to get through the NREMT-P practical, I had to do some basic skills. Heck, I can't remember when the last was I used a KED board (other than as a handy splint for pelvic Fxs) :oops: so I had to arrange a refresher before I went and did it.

[firedoc5]

thanks to all for the food for thought. my biggest issue is when I jump on a truck with the county. I see medic with (god like) skill and the experince to match yet for the most part they are just going through the motions. that is something that both saddens me and leaves me worried that I will loose the heart for the job. no matter how small my footprint in this world may be that is an unacceptable outcome to me.

Some Medics unfortunately have a "god complex". So don't encourage it LOL :wink: . Medics put their pants on just like you. I've seen some seasoned EMT-A's (B's) that can run circles around some Medics doing a trauma assessment. So just because you are a Basic right now doesn't mean you don't have the potential for honing your skills. If you are going to be a Basic, then be the best Basic you can.

I agree that if you are serious, you need to run more often than a couple of times a month in the field.

Keep up the good work.

[ouch-sc]

i didn't mean to be encourageable. we don't want that. I take the opinions with great thanks. i have enjoyed this alot. I guess i'm to far off of center to have a clue.

thanks

[firedoc5]

i didn't mean to be encourageable. we don't want that. I take the opinions with great thanks. i have enjoyed this alot. I guess i'm to far off of center to have a clue.

thanks

You're not that far off. There's been many that have been didn't even hit the target, non the less the center.

[Asysin2leads]

I'm not sure exactly what the question here was. I'm not sure if you're asking why some experienced providers just seem to be going through the motions rather than being excited about the call. You'll have to understand, and for some people it is hard to understand that for some people, like myself, EMS is a job. Nothing more, nothing less. The point of a job is to do your job well, and to do your job well, you need to be focused. The "adrenaline rush", can actually be a real detriment to good patient care. To properly treat a patient, you need to think. Adrenergic reactions are well documented in the their abilities to produce "tunnel vision", to cloud judgement, and to react, not think. It makes your pulse stronger and quicker, which can lead to you feeling your own pulse instead of the patient's, and it can make your hands shake. In fact, this is so well documented, that some EMS texts even suggest regular cardiovascular exercise to increase the level at which your sympathetic nervous system kicks in for just these reasons.

Now, there are, for sure, those providers who just don't care. I've worked with them. I don't like them, and I don't care how many years of experience you have, once you stop caring, you need to do something else. But for others, there are those who are merely focused, and for others, they may just be coping. For some people, they need to distance themselves from the call so it doesn't interefere with their emotional health.

Dealing with your personal emotions is key to survival in EMS. We all deal with them differently. Maybe some of the providers you see aren't disinterested, but trying to do their job.