EMT student seeking some advice :)

[A_Messick1]

Hey y'all! I'm Arabella from Maryland. I am currently enrolled in an EMT-B program with a vollie fire department in Eastern Shore MD. My class and I are at chapt. 28 in the pre-hospital emergency care 10th edition (not sure what everyone else learns from). We've basically finally moved from our A&P, legal/ethical, and medical assessment studies. We are now entering trauma assessment and care. We are also finally halfway through.

I did have some questions about starting out, if that hopefully doesn't over extend my greeting?

Q: If you could give any advice to an EMT student, what would it be? With riding in the ambulance doing my patient contacts (required a certain number of contacts to pass) I hear a lot of different things from different crews from things that make me second think like "this profession is the kind that chews up and spits out the new and isn't the best thing for someone new" to great advice like things from keeping yourself from burning or techniques to make things easier than what the textbook says.

Q: How many young EMT's do you really know? I recently turned 18, I have retarded growth, and pretty soft spoken. In other words I look about 16 in person :-/ ... during my medical contacts I have a good amount of patients that ask for my age and obviously are all surprised in my answer and don't really believe I am an EMT student. Which this sort of puts me down because it makes me a little more nervous (which I am pretty nervous to start out with) because I feel as if the patient doesn't trust and/or have faith in me. Once I graduate and I am the only one in the back of the ambulance without my FTO there I don't know how patients will react.

Q: Going back to the nervousness, do you still get nervous? If not, did it just fade? Or did you find a way around it? I feel as being nervous sort of effects my performance and I can't effectively work as great as I picture in my mind. This is a question I haven't shared with my FTO or classroom instructors yet. I feel as if it might make me out to look weak and incompetent to preform the duties of an EMT.

Anyways thanks for your time

[medicmole]

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I have been doing this job for 27 years and still love going to work; it is what you make of it. If prehospital care is what you want to do don't let burnt out paramedics sway you from your goal. Yes there will be some hard calls and you will run into people that want to make you quit, but you could find that in a lot of professions.

I would suggest you work hard and aim towards moving forward with your education, I believe you will find this career more rewarding with advanced education.

I would be concerned if you were not nervous, and yes the more calls you do the more confident you will become and the nerves will lessen, no matter how long you have been in there will always be those calls that get your heart pumping.

I wouldn't worry about looking young, one day you will find it a compliment . I injured my shoulder and had to go to a physio, when she walked in I thought she was a student, she looked about 16, she was 31.

If part of your retarded growth means small in stature then I would recommend a gym membership, there is a lot of lifting in this job and injuring yourself at a young age would not be good.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your career

[A_Messick1]

Thank you much for the advice. I will for sure try out a gym. The stretchers are a tad heavier than I thought, especially even with the ones that go up on their own!

[scubanurse]

You'll be fine . I started in MD and was a volly at 16 and faced that some with my patients. I found that if you're confident and reassuring, age doesn't matter. Best of luck to you, I love the eastern shore!

[island emt]

like many here , I started at a young age and continued on in EMS for over 44 years until I retired last year.

It can be a rewarding career , but there are days where you will ask yourself why didn't I choose to do something/anything else.

You will be called upon to help people who are having " the worst day of their lives"

Maintain your calm demeanor and always act like you can help them.

will you be nervous at time ??? Most definatly !!!

don't let your age be a hindrance to being a good EMT. Let your knowledge be your shining star.

Don't ever get complacent in the job, and don't ever stop learning

[kwalker]

Best advice I was given when I first started in EMS was to always remember why you got into this field to begin with. There will be days when you're just tired, where you're physically, mentally and emotionally just exhausted; but if you're heart is in the right place and the passion to help others is your goal, those feelings will pass, and things will be a lot easier. Take " me days " and reset yourself, always be open to talking to Co workers and friends about things you see or feel and never for a second forget that you, just like your partner and your patients are all human. Lol, we all like to play hero and be the one to save the day, but take care of yourself first. As for the feelings of nervousness and stuff, believe me we've all been there. With time and experience your confidence will increase greatly, not to mention continuing your education and learning new skills are always a plus! Just when you get out there, try and remember, that that very moment and situation is your patients emergency, not yours, you're there to do your job and help them through it, you'll be fine! Good luck to you!

[Just Plain Ruff]

like many here , I started at a young age and continued on in EMS for over 44 years until I retired last year.

It can be a rewarding career , but there are days where you will ask yourself why didn't I choose to do something/anything else.

You will be called upon to help people who are having " the worst day of their lives"

Maintain your calm demeanor and always act like you can help them.

will you be nervous at time ??? Most definatly !!!

don't let your age be a hindrance to being a good EMT. Let your knowledge be your shining star.

Don't ever get complacent in the job, and don't ever stop learning

Island, in your original post, the words Shining Star were highlighted. I clicked on them and was sent to a amazon.com page where I could order this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M96H3L2?tag=viglink24986-20

Now I'm as metrosexual as the next guy, well not really but what the heck are you trying to pull here.

[island emt]

wasn't my highlighting . it's an automatic thing that the site does to many things. something to do with the google ads software

[Just Plain Ruff]

wasn't my highlighting . it's an automatic thing that the site does to many things. something to do with the google ads software

Sure brother Island, sure. If that's the way you want to spin it, I'll let you.

[A_Messick1]

An update!

Hey ya'll I didn't mean to leave everyone hanging on here but I appreciate the advice! I've just been pretty busy. I'm loving every second of (except the seconds sitting around the station not doing anything that feels like years going by lol). But I only have three more weeks left before my final and psycho-motor skill stations! Plus I am maintaining an 87% average which puts me in the top 5 within our class

I haven't gotten much more comments on my age except every now and then. I've practically met all the other EMT's in my area from talking with them at the hospital. Some are nice and some not so much, but I suppose you get that anywhere you go! My patient contact performance has gotten a lot better since I last posted, in fact so good the driver and FTO lets me run the show myself. I even have my own radio to talk with the coms center, do the radio reports and then they let me give the oral report to the nurses at the hospital I plan on being more active here now on.

I had a quick question! I don't know how many people on here have seen the TV show "night watch" that follows the police officers, firefighters, and paramedics throughout the night in New Orleans or not. But on the season finale the one paramedic had an older man that had cancer and I believe was in septic shock? Anywho the patients heart rate was extremely high and abnormal. The medic tried pushing a few rounds of meds but did not work. So he called into med control and the physician advised to shock the patient at 50 joules, there was no change so med control advised one more round at 100 joules. Neither treatments worked so med control just told the medic to bring the patient in. The patient obviously looked in distress and pain from the shock delivery, and I know defibulating is commonly used to put the heart into a better rhythm but do medics ever try pushing pain meds before delivering the treatment? Or is the electrical shock so strong it doesn't matter if you push pain meds or not? Thanks!

Edited April 10, 2015 by A_Messick1