Student Third Rides

[hatelilpeepees]

I see alot of "students" in this forum, so I am wondering how you would rate your ambulance third rides ? Did you learn anything, were you allowed to do anything ? Did the service try to put you with medics who enjoy students or did they just put you with whichever crew was closest ? What could we do as an industry to make your clinical time more rewarding ?

[2Rude4MyOwnGood]

I see alot of "students" in this forum, so I am wondering how you would rate your ambulance third rides ? Did you learn anything, were you allowed to do anything ? Did the service try to put you with medics who enjoy students or did they just put you with whichever crew was closest ? What could we do as an industry to make your clinical time more rewarding ?

Definitely have been learning a lot on my rides, although it really depends on the preceptor i have. Most are very helpful and eager to teach but there are some who make us feel like we are in the way.

Not only are we 'allowed' to do help, we are required to. If you just sit back and watch you wont get credit for going on the call. We also have some numbers to meet (IVs, meds, intubations, etc.) so things are rarely boring.

We are scheduled to ride with whoever is available.

Things that the system could do better? Ensuring that we are with preceptors who are willing to teach. Its rare, but ive been stuck with people who clearly dont want me there. Its a waste of my time.

[DFIB]

My student rides were great. I rode with a great group of preceptors in Sealy, Tx. I was able to work my complete scope of practice. Al preceptors had been briefed and were prepared to interact with students. I was also privvy to the post-call debriefing so I got to see the good, the bad, and the ugly of the care we had provided. I got granny points because I am bilingual very self motivated, and am a little older than most students so I got to see the strings in the system. Maby they treat everyon the same but they made me feel very welcome.

The student riide alongs were very educational for me.

[Richard B the EMT]

Doing the preceptor role, my job seemed to just "do" next available on the roster, no "dedicated to role" ambulances or specific personnel (hence they don't have to pay extra).

Disclaimer: I am retired FDNY EMS Command, grandfathered in from NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation EMS in the 1996 "Merger". EMT-B "Cert" still active. Opinions and observations are mine, and may not reflect official positions of agencies mentioned, including the EMT City.

[tcripp]

Having graduated not too long ago, I very much enjoyed my ride outs for the most part. With the exception of a few calls and a few skills, there wasn't much I wasn't allowed to do.

As a preceptor, I have taken that forward and allow my students to do what they can with the expectation of full confidence in their abilities. I do the same for new hires fresh out of school. My motto...we all make mistakes, it's just what we do with those mistakes that makes or breaks a good medic.

[DwayneEMTP]

My original ride time was a horror and nearly caused me to quit EMS all together. I honest to God used to get sick to my stomach starting on Wed when I had clinicals to start on Friday.

After that I rode in the Springs (CO) where they had a mentoring program. Preceptors were educated in the role and paid for the time they spent preceptoring. Those rides, my next 4 144hr chunks, were each spent with a different preceptor team and did what they were supposed to, shaping the rest of my opinions on medicine, the morals and ethics of EMS, and the spirit of paramedic medicine as a whole.

Great topic, as I think that preceptoring is the Achilles heal of EMS. Many times services are providing the preceptorship as a 'favor' so the schools are afraid to rock the boat and chance losing them. Students become victims to limp dick ambulance teams that finally have some power to man handle those that are defenseless.

On my first rotation my preceptor would stand over me while I was trying to start an IV yelling, "You can't start an IV? Jesus Fucking Christ! C'mon! You wanna be a medic?? You'll never even make a decent basic!"

Crazy that I had put up with that, but my family had sacrificed terribly over the last three years and I couldn't imagine going home to tell Babs that I had quit. I also had no idea that I had options other than being kicked out of the program because, 'I couldn't hang.'

I've done very little preceptoring, but when people came to learn, I loved it, when they came to log time so that they could get their fire certs, I hated it. I was seldom given the task as, though I know this may come as a shock, I was considered too abrasive. I don't think the committed students ever felt that way..we had a great time. But those that I could find no way to motivate, well, they often got tired of being given a shitty task every time they tried to lay down in the back of the ambulance.

I've heard of few that do it well. Hell, at the last company I worked with you didn't need any type of preceptorship to be a remote medic. You went to a ridiculously simple class, the majority of which was spent explaining how macho you were for wanting to go offshore, and then away you go. No clinical time necessary, no significant EMS time necessary, no remote time at all....Craziness..

That's why when you see me gush over someone like Eric, maybe you can udnerstand. To run into another medic that truly gets what being remote means, takes it to heart, and works every day to be good at it...well, I'd rather spend my day looking for hens teeth than trying to find another...

Dwayne

...My motto...we all make mistakes, it's just what we do with those mistakes that makes or breaks a good medic.

I will take that a step further to say that, with few exceptions, it's only the mistakes that really matter. You may learn 50 things from a mistake, but how much do you learn from a success? That one line of thinking works. The real learning begins when things don't go according to plan..anyone can run the calls where things go right the first time... :-)

Dwayne

[BlueSkies]

I have precepted a lot of students in my time. At one service I was paid extra as an FTO and at another service I was the senior medic on my particular shift so it was laid into my lap with no extra pay.

Luckily I would do it for free anyway. I enjoy teaching new medics and EMT's. I still teach CPR, PALS and 12-Lead ECG for Zoll although being offshore I don't get to teach as much as I used to when I was still the PALS Faculty Member at UTMC. I basically was the one that taught all the new PALS instructors how to teach PALS. I got to mentor them and advise them on different teaching methodologies.

I have always considered it one of our assumed duties and an honor as a seasoned provider to teach and mentor the newbies that are coming into our field and show them that we are not the all powerful paragods that they had assumed.

I hate to hear stories from students that say their preceptors acted like that didn't want them around. It has nothing to do with you in most cases, it merely another person forgetting where they came from and that someone had to teach them how to be one of us. I think other medics may feel threatened by a student who can talk the talk sometimes better than they can. Its a sad story but please don't walk away thinking we are all like that.

Some of us love and even live to teach. We teach not only the art of paramedicine but how to deliver caring and compassionate treatment to the masses and bring order to chaos like only a paramedic can with just his body language and demeanor.

[CPhT]

I've enjoyed reading this topic so far. I wish I could have some of you guys as preceptors (Dwayne, wanna come to Michigan for a visit?), but I'm hoping that my crew(s) are as helpful (albeit to-the-point) as the folks around here.

I start my rides in November and have my hospital shifts in December for my Basic courses. It's a nervous anticipation, honestly. I WANT to do the clinical shifts, and I WANT to be in the ambulance with a crew. I WANT to see what the "real world" is like (quoted, because in class, the instructor is always talking about how things are in the real world... time to see it for myself). I'm nervous about the crew I'll be placed with most of all though. I've been a preceptor for several pharmacy students, so I know the attitude that our techs typically displayed to the new students, and I just hope I'm given a chance before I'm written off as "just another dumb student". I know there is a job to do and I just want to be able to learn as much as I can without getting in the way.

[Richard B the EMT]

I WANT to see what the "real world" is like (quoted, because in class, the instructor is always talking about how things are in the real world... time to see it for myself).

For the real world, just remember Mr. Murphy's laws:

Everything takes longer than expected.

Nothing is as easy as it looks.

(and the ever popular...)

If something can go wrong, it will go wrong, at the worst possible moment!

Pessimists are happier than optimists, because they can either claim that they were right, or be "pleasently surprised" that it wasn't as bad as predicted.

...and even with all this, somehow, most of the time, the system works.

[DFIB]

Pessimists are happier than optimists, because they can either claim that they were right, or be "pleasently surprised" that it wasn't as bad as predicted.

Pessimist are optimist with experience!