Not a collection of a muddled thoughts.
Instead, on display is a random collection of things that I’ve been noodling around for the last few days.
- We made the decision. My wife took the job. We’re moving again. (Anyone want to buy a house in Seattle?)
- Moving sucks. My wife is giving notice at her current job today. She is planning to be at the new job in mid November. Aggghhh. Lots to do. I will stay here, in the PNW, until June when my medic program ends. With luck, I’ll get hired at the new place. Yeah, that thought isn’t stressing me out at ALL. Neither is the idea that my best friend will be 2000 miles away for the next 8 months.
- I think EMS 2.0 is a great idea, but I’m sick of all the chest thumping and dick swinging. “My idea for EMS reform is better than YOUR idea.” The truth is, EMS needs are different in every area, and not one model will be a universal fit. It’s going to take a long time for change to come about and the priority should be on educating the public about what EMS is and, more importantly, what it is not.
- I did worse on that last quiz than I thought I did. I missed 12 questions. WHAT? Yep. 12. That sucks. The only light at the end of the tunnel? All of the quizzes in total are only worth 15% of the grade. And I’ve aced all of the others. Not something to stress over. So why am I stressed?
- I picked my 3 choices for ALS ride time. The first choice is an agency that’s 80+ miles from home, but one of the buisiest. Go big or go home.
- I hate flying. I’ve decided that airline travel, which used to be somewhat enjoyable, is now akin to riding an overloaded school bus in a third world county. Never before have I fell more like a sheep than I did on one of the flights I was on over the weekend. I hate being crammed in and treated like cargo.
- Some of my classmates need to be smacked. The bravado and ‘supermedic mentality’ is starting to grind on me. I want a t shirt that says, “It’s less about the skills and more about the relationship.” Most of the fire monkeys that are in my class simply for the patch would look at me with disgust and call me a hand holder.
- The is a person in my class that is on her THIRD run through the medic program. Why do they keep letting her in? As my Dad used to say, “You can’t polish a turd.”
- I don’t know how I’m going to find any time to work between class, studying and clinicals. How do people do this?
“the priority should be on educating the public about what EMS is and, more importantly, what it is not.” You’re exactly right! Nothing will change without a public outcry.
Finding time in P School comes down to a simple solution: there is none. cardiac flash cards haunt your dreams and the dopamine clock makes sense at 8 AM but confounds you at 1030. then one day you wake up from a quick nap in the front seat of the ambulance and *poof* you made it.
I have yet to find free time since P School. Hang in there, it only gets easier/harder.
Hang in there. I promise to take you to lunch on Mondays.
First off, take a deep breath and breathe!
I’m classically trained sheriff office. Went to PM school in Arizona with Fire/Rescue. I hear you!
Study your mistakes and figure out WHY you made the decisions you did. Once I put it all together in terms of pathophysiology-I understood all of it much better. Flash cards are just memorization….but do you understand it?
Hey, I’d much rather have a hand holder than a chest thumper any time, any place, any where!
Good luck in your months to come!
EMS needs more hand holders. You stick to your guns.