Hi all. New and need some advice.

[Seth412]

Seth: everyone handles the cumulative stressors of this profession differently.

Some play the macho man "nothing bothers me and end up eating a gun barrel , or drinking themselves into a stupor after work, others cope by doing the very best they can according to their training & knowledge , then afterwards find a healthy release of those emotions.

Anyone who has been in EMS for more than a few years will tell you there are calls that affected them deeply.

It's all in how you let those demons out that will determine whether or not you can continue to do this for a long time.

In over 4 decades in EMS I've seen and dealt with things that would make many "normal" folks run away screaming and learned how to deal with my emotions in a healthy release that doesn't involve alcohol, drugs or other destructive behaviors.

no one else can predict how you will be able to deal with them other than yourself.

Thank you. I really want to do this, and I'm going to give it a shot. It's going to be especially important for me to find a healthy outlet for the stresses of this job.

[medicgirl05]

I am well aware of what I'll be facing as an EMT/Paramedic. As I made clear, it wasn't the "doing the job" part that had me worried. I am confident in my abilities. It's the accumulated stress and how it will affect me. And why would I listen to the advice of someone who gives me a "better quit now" and "people with your problems can't do this job" response?

Ok. There is no way you can possibly imagine what you are up against as an EMT/Paramedic before even having stepped into a classroom.

Then even after you have become an EMT you still cannot imagine what you are up against as a paramedic. I'm definitely not bashing EMT's, I love them, but being a paramedic brings a whole different way of thinking and a whole new set of responsibilities.

I am still shocked at what I have to face and I have worked a 911 service for 8 years.

I'm not discouraging you, if you have the support and ability to try it out-go for it, but in my opinion you can throw everything you think you know about being an EMT/paramedic out the window.

Either way, good luck to you.

[Richard B the EMT]

Just don't release the stress by kicking your pets.

[uglyEMT]

I am well aware of what I'll be facing as an EMT/Paramedic. As I made clear, it wasn't the "doing the job" part that had me worried. I am confident in my abilities. It's the accumulated stress and how it will affect me. And why would I listen to the advice of someone who gives me a "better quit now" and "people with your problems can't do this job" response?

Seth first off let me say good job on asking the questions! Thats a big step alot of first timers don't do. They feel it would be a "stupid" question or a "beat a dead horse" question. When in fact they are not. Each person is different and asks the question for different reasons.

About the part of why would I listen to detractors. Well sometimes hearing or seeing things from a different perspective helps. You might not like what the person says but sometimes its the content of the response that needs to be looked at. Not saying you are not doing that but just dismissing all negative feedback, IMHO, is a disservice to yourself.

About your situation with the S&S you described. You will have to get that in check first and foremost. Double guessing yourself or nit picking every small detail will do two things, first drive you insane literaly and secondly prove a disservice to your patient. Some times in this profession you go on instinct and not just what the book says. You need to be confident in yourself and your decisions during times of high stress thus you need to remove the double guessing from the equation.

I will try to give you an example to show how double guessing could lead to problems. Say your dispatched to a gym for a female complaining of upper back/shoulder pain. Asking her your questions you also hear she has some tingeling in her jaw and after a hard workout is still having some trouble slowing her breathing down. All the while half the gym is staring at you and talking amongst themselves about you and your patient. What are you thinking is wrong? Strained muscles from a strenuous workout or heart attack? Are you walking the patient to the rig or possiblely not wanting her to exert herself too much more and calling for the cot or stair chair? Realize your doing all this in the first few moments before you even begin moving to the rig. For the sake of this example the women was having a heart attack and calling for the cot or stair chair was the appropriate call. See where second guessing and/or scrutinazing every detail might have had a detrimental outcome?

Now if you can handle something like that confident in your decision making skills and with the OC under control to stop the overanalysis then i don't see a problem with you being a good provider. If not then maybe wait until you do have things under control either chemically or mentally or some combination of the two.

As for after action stress and life. You MUST find a way to cope. This profession will eat you up and spit you out if you can't get the a handle on the emotional side. I am not saying you can't be emotional or that it won't happen even with the best coping mechanisims in place (just check out some of the threads in this forum to see even the best of us break down) what you need to be able to do is cope with the coping. You need to have a way to release the stress day to day but also have a way to handle it when you have reached the breaking point. If something as minor as say forgetting your favorite pen will throw your whole shift off and eat at you for days then it may be an indication that you need to find a better way to cope. It also helps to have these mechanisms in place outside the EMS community and before things start. Sometimes you really need to disconect from what we do to be able to decompress. Some say it doesnt matter as long as it is in place but I personally feel having it outside EMS helped me out alot.

Keep asking questions and hopefully you will get constructive responses that will better help you in your decision as to wether or not to become part of your great family we call EMS.

Also now that I thought about it, see if you can do a ride along or two. I know some services and squads do allow ride alongs so that may be an option so you get to see exactly what needs to be delt with and also if you can handle it. Not just during the calls but afterwards. See if you can go home and let it go or if it stays with you for a long time and if so how you handle yourself.

Edited August 2, 2013 by uglyEMT

[Just Plain Ruff]

I am well aware of what I'll be facing as an EMT/Paramedic. As I made clear, it wasn't the "doing the job" part that had me worried. I am confident in my abilities. It's the accumulated stress and how it will affect me. And why would I listen to the advice of someone who gives me a "better quit now" and "people with your problems can't do this job" response?

Are you ready or do you think you will be ready to be the only medic on scene of a car full of kids who went in to the water. Your backup is 25 minutes away and you have 4 firefighters on a single pumper there to help. 3 were pulled out, CPR in progress and you have two more kids in the water. Which kids do you work? Which ones do you call? Do you go into the water for the kids in the car or wait for assistance?

Are you ready for the family of the above victims to be screaming at you, threatening you if you don't work their kid? Which kid do you let die because HELL you are the only medic and your resources (YOU) are finite and you cannnot do it all.

Are you ready to face that kind of situation?

[triemal04]

And why would I listen to the advice of someone who gives me a "better quit now" and "people with your problems can't do this job" response?

Because being told something that you don't want to hear doesn't mean you were given incorrect information. Just because you don't like the answer doesn't make it wrong.

Now, you again have made it clear that you don't want any real advice and will only listen to things that confirm what you want to do, but hey, maybe somebody else will get something out of this.

I am well aware of what I'll be facing as an EMT/Paramedic.

No, you aren't. You may have a very general idea, but until you have done either for quite awhile you don't have a clue. You don't know what your responsibilities will be, what your reactions will be, how your body will react to different types of stress, how your mind and emotions will react to different types of stress, you don't know what your real role will be in various situations and how that will effect you, you don't know what you will see doing this, what you WON'T see doing this, you don't know how your view of all of these things may change over time, you don't know how your view of regular life may change over time, and so on and so forth.

As I made clear, it wasn't the "doing the job" part that had me worried. I am confident in my abilities.

It should be. You don't have any abilities yet. You may have been through an EMT class before, but that is not the same as actually practicing in the field.

Yes I believe my medication has "pooped out."

I believe that the meds I'm on have lost their effectiveness

Perhaps before you go any further you need to get your medications sorted out. Forget EMS, isn't this something that you should do so that you can improve your daily quality of life? Get that taken care of first, until it is everything else is moot.

For me it's more like silly worries about insignificant things that I blow way out of proportion and spend insane amounts of time thinking about. It can be rational or irrational, and it's hard for me to tell the two apart

it manifests itself as a near constant worry about something. When I stop worrying about one thing, I immediately jump to another.

There are lots and lots of "insignificant" things that you will come across that will have bearing on your patient care. There are lots of "significant" things that you will come across that will have bearing on your patient care. I'll ask again, if you are constantly worrying about these things and are unable to seperate what you should actually be concerned about from what doesn't matter, how will you be able to effectively treat your patient?

It's great you are worried about the cumulative build up of stress; that is something that everyone should worry about, but your bigger concern should be your other problems. As you describe them, and since you are currently not able to control these problems with medicine, you have issues that make you a poor fit for medicine.

Get them under control, and maybe that will change.

Or just continue blithely down your road of only hearing what you want and pretending that nothing else matters.

[Seth412]

Because being told something that you don't want to hear doesn't mean you were given incorrect information. Just because you don't like the answer doesn't make it wrong.

Now, you again have made it clear that you don't want any real advice and will only listen to things that confirm what you want to do, but hey, maybe somebody else will get something out of this.

No, you aren't. You may have a very general idea, but until you have done either for quite awhile you don't have a clue. You don't know what your responsibilities will be, what your reactions will be, how your body will react to different types of stress, how your mind and emotions will react to different types of stress, you don't know what your real role will be in various situations and how that will effect you, you don't know what you will see doing this, what you WON'T see doing this, you don't know how your view of all of these things may change over time, you don't know how your view of regular life may change over time, and so on and so forth.

It should be. You don't have any abilities yet. You may have been through an EMT class before, but that is not the same as actually practicing in the field.

Perhaps before you go any further you need to get your medications sorted out. Forget EMS, isn't this something that you should do so that you can improve your daily quality of life? Get that taken care of first, until it is everything else is moot.

There are lots and lots of "insignificant" things that you will come across that will have bearing on your patient care. There are lots of "significant" things that you will come across that will have bearing on your patient care. I'll ask again, if you are constantly worrying about these things and are unable to seperate what you should actually be concerned about from what doesn't matter, how will you be able to effectively treat your patient?

It's great you are worried about the cumulative build up of stress; that is something that everyone should worry about, but your bigger concern should be your other problems. As you describe them, and since you are currently not able to control these problems with medicine, you have issues that make you a poor fit for medicine.

Get them under control, and maybe that will change.

Or just continue blithely down your road of only hearing what you want and pretending that nothing else matters.

Sounds like someone is a little worked up about my responses. I'll have you know, I have been hearing all of the responses on this thread. So chill out. While it is true that because I don't like an answer, doesn't make it wrong. I happen to know the particular answer I responded to, the one you're so worked up about, is wrong. It isn't as black and white as "take medicine, can't be in EMS. Don't take medicine, can be." That was a garbage response, and I treated it as such. I'm a very comforting person, that's something that I believe will help me in EMS. If you need a hand to hold or a shoulder to cry on to help you through this thread, I'm here for you buddy. Thank everyone else for the replies.

Because being told something that you don't want to hear doesn't mean you were given incorrect information. Just because you don't like the answer doesn't make it wrong.

Now, you again have made it clear that you don't want any real advice and will only listen to things that confirm what you want to do, but hey, maybe somebody else will get something out of this.

No, you aren't. You may have a very general idea, but until you have done either for quite awhile you don't have a clue. You don't know what your responsibilities will be, what your reactions will be, how your body will react to different types of stress, how your mind and emotions will react to different types of stress, you don't know what your real role will be in various situations and how that will effect you, you don't know what you will see doing this, what you WON'T see doing this, you don't know how your view of all of these things may change over time, you don't know how your view of regular life may change over time, and so on and so forth.

It should be. You don't have any abilities yet. You may have been through an EMT class before, but that is not the same as actually practicing in the field.

Perhaps before you go any further you need to get your medications sorted out. Forget EMS, isn't this something that you should do so that you can improve your daily quality of life? Get that taken care of first, until it is everything else is moot.

There are lots and lots of "insignificant" things that you will come across that will have bearing on your patient care. There are lots of "significant" things that you will come across that will have bearing on your patient care. I'll ask again, if you are constantly worrying about these things and are unable to seperate what you should actually be concerned about from what doesn't matter, how will you be able to effectively treat your patient?

It's great you are worried about the cumulative build up of stress; that is something that everyone should worry about, but your bigger concern should be your other problems. As you describe them, and since you are currently not able to control these problems with medicine, you have issues that make you a poor fit for medicine.

Get them under control, and maybe that will change.

Or just continue blithely down your road of only hearing what you want and pretending that nothing else matters.

By the way, I live in the great Northwest as well. With any luck, I'll end up working in your ambulance

Thanks for the replies everyone. I appreciate you offering me some perspective. All advice has been noted.

Are you ready or do you think you will be ready to be the only medic on scene of a car full of kids who went in to the water. Your backup is 25 minutes away and you have 4 firefighters on a single pumper there to help. 3 were pulled out, CPR in progress and you have two more kids in the water. Which kids do you work? Which ones do you call? Do you go into the water for the kids in the car or wait for assistance?

Are you ready for the family of the above victims to be screaming at you, threatening you if you don't work their kid? Which kid do you let die because HELL you are the only medic and your resources (YOU) are finite and you cannnot do it all.

Are you ready to face that kind of situation?

I don't think anybody is ready to face that situation, or ever will be.

[island emt]

You've got points going for you already Seth.

Many folks come here and get the kind of responses your getting and fade away to never be heard from again.

+1

[Seth412]

You've got points going for you already Seth.

Many folks come here and get the kind of responses your getting and fade away to never be heard from again.

+1

Thank you! Can't scare me!

But for real, I figure it's worth a shot. I have the class all paid for. I'll do a few ride alongs with the fire department, see how it goes. If it's too much for me, I'll do accounting or something. Already have a few credits toward that. I'll balance the books of an ambulance company and pretend like I'm part of the team.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Thank you! Can't scare me!

But for real, I figure it's worth a shot. I have the class all paid for. I'll do a few ride alongs with the fire department, see how it goes. If it's too much for me, I'll do accounting or something. Already have a few credits toward that. I'll balance the books of an ambulance company and pretend like I'm part of the team.

Seth,I faced just that scenario I posted and I was not ready for it and I hope to never face it again. That is the type of situation that you need to understand that you will be faced with but it won't happen with regularity thank goodness.

But death, sick people, injuries, crazy bat shit people, idleness and boredom are all waiting to be your friends. Some will be better friends to you than others will be. You just need to be aware that Triemal is very very knowledgable and what he speaks is truth and you shouldn't discount what he has to say.

I wish you luck in your career and it's a good thing to have a fall back plan. Good people and good medics have that avenue available to them.