Younger Partners

[EMS49393]

Younger people make up a majority of my current department. Having recently become an ALS service, the youth is expected as most people I know do not remain at the EMT-B capacity into their middle ages. Many will never become paramedics, but all of the older EMT's at my service have outside careers, i.e. pastor, funeral director, registered nurse. They work as an EMT because they enjoy the work environment (I hope) and because it's actually a fun place to be employed. The younger EMT's in the service are fine to work with, and of the 20 or so very young EMT's (under 25 is pretty young to me), there is only one that I cringe at the idea of having to work with and it's because he has an attitude.

Listen, I don't care if your daddy and your daddy's daddy was a paramedic and attended to Jesus at his Crucifixion. That does not make you, as an EMT with 120 hours of basic first aid, eligible for Sainthood. It makes you lucky that you have someone that close to you that can show you the ropes, or unlucky for the same reason if you're daddy or granddaddy is a tool. The latter happens to be the case with this kid.

When I was a young EMT, I thought medics were the bees knees. I loved working with a medic, and I was lucky, I rarely got a medic with a God complex. Most would be more then happy to show me or teach me anything I wanted to learn. They never put me down or made me feel inferior. They took up for me when I needed help. They were great partners, and they were my role models. Unfortunately, most of the younger EMT's I see today have little to no respect for paramedics and that makes it pretty hard for me to be kind. Personally, I don't get the 'tude, and as far as I'm concerned they can park it in the bushes outside of my station.

I'm lucky to get along fine with even the young ones at my station. I have to admit though, that I prefer to have conversations with older people. I really just don't have anything in common with the younger generation because I'm on the cliff of and old codger. You generally won't find me hanging out in the room with the xbox screaming at the TV with the under 25 crowd. I'm usually cooped up in an office doing paperwork, or in the general lounge with the other old farts talking about the good old days.

[stcommodore]

I'm 24 my partner is 31...no problems.

[Lone Star]

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?

[Richard B the EMT]

Attitudes vary, from the newjack thinking they know it all due to just having come out of school, to the experienced but overbearing long-timer who wants to teach all by a "watch what I do and you'll never go wrong" 'tude.

There is the good newjack, does some, and asks "what do I do next?" and the good long-timer who probes them with "You've done this so far, what else can you do to make it even better?"

Of course, there should be some code wording between partners, to let the tech know the other feels they are losing the picture and wants to take over ("Hey, partner, need a bit of help here?"). I have had partners who have done that with me, if it is something new to me, or if I start doing the wrong thing, and I have, with that same partner, returned the favor. This is followed by a review in the ambulance outside the ER, along the lines of "What did you see, or think you saw, that you started going in that direction?"

When I have had newjacks, and they are working with numerous partners aside from myself, I tell them that all of us long-timers have our own styles of doing the job, and we do the job well, but "You, newjack, will eventually form your own 'style', in a formatting you'll be comfortable with, inside the protocols and laws we work under. Take from us various ideas on forming up your own 'style', and soon, someone will learn parts of your 'style' when you are teaching a newer newjack than you are now".