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Three Days of Training

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So, after 30 hours of “training”, I’m being turned loose as a crew member at IFT Ambulance. Of course, I still don’t have my county EMT cert, so I’m relegated to the role of “BLS Driver” until my card shows up. I mentioned in a previous post that I would be able to really get a good read on the company once I got on the road. I was right. Here’s what I found. Training is minimal, morale sucks and with some big exceptions by some outstanding crew members, the overall team level of professionalism is almost non existent.

Over the last three days I was the third rider with an FTO and a different partner every day. The FTO is a really nice guy, about 16 years younger than me, and he’s been working at IFT for a little over a year. His goal is to become a fire fighter and it’s all he can think about. He was recently accepted to Fire Academy and his every waking minute is consumed with studying the IFSTA book to make sure he does well. I remember when I went to fire school to become a FF-I … Gear and hoses and friction coefficients and spanners and SCBA… Wow. It seems like it was a million years ago. He asked me if I ever missed the fire department. I thought about it for a second and said, “Nope.”

See, I look at it like this. I don’t want to be a firefighter; I want to be a paramedic. I really have no interest in learning (or, relearning) the science behind applying wet stuff to hot stuff, and I never did. To me, forcing a paramedic to also become a firefighter is akin to asking an airline pilot to train as a carpenter. Why do we continue to insist that EMS must be a branch of Fire?

Anyway, over the past three days we ran about 5 calls. Some dialysis drops and returns and a hospital discharge. The rest of the time we spent driving and posting. I got to know the local hospitals, dialysis centers and SNFs. On Sunday, I spent almost the entire day in the back of the rig, getting car sick as the driver whipped the truck around like it was a NASCAR qualifier. (You really learn a lot when you ride in the back of the rig and the crew up front ignores you.) On the plus side, I also learned where to find free internet, good coffee and quiet spots to post. As a matter of fact, yesterday we posted in the area of my house and had a zero call day. I studied my anatomy text, the FTO buried his nose in the IFSTA book and our third read sci-fi. We drank coffee and just hung out. Around 4 we radioed to dispatch and asked about anything that might be pending. She had nothing on the docket for us and said, “You guys can just clear and prep for OD (going off duty)”.

Well, alrighty then. 3 days, 30 hours, some practice with the Stryker gurney, an online driving check off and a quick “here’s how to do the paperwork” lecture and I’m free to go. I guess it’s a good thing that I have past EMS experience and I kind of know what I’m doing, otherwise it would have been a Charlie Foxtrot. It seems like there’s no standardized training plan for new hires that actually cover all of the stuff one needs to know. Rather, it was the “oh yeah, you should know that… glad you reminded me” kind of training. Of course, my FTO just turned in his letter of resignation, so he had a few other things on his mind. He’s going to work for another company on a CCT rig and I think he’ll be happier. More pay, more experience, closer to home and as he put it, “I can drive code!”

Being a 38 year old surrounded by a crew of 22 year old EMTs is certainly an enlightening experience. The lack of professionalism and displays of inappropriate behavior are just amazing. I’m no prude, but I do know what’s right and what’s wrong and a lot of the stuff that’s going on at IFT when there’s no sup around is really wrong. Well, I’ll just keep my nose clean and make sure I do the best I can to keep the patients safe. I don’t know if the managers know what’s going on and turn a blind eye or they’re just oblivious. I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough.

Posted by medic22 on January 21, 2009 • Filed under: EMT, FTO, Training, new hire

I wish I was this eloquent..

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I’ve been reading Peter Canning’s blog for a while. Peter is a Paramedic in Hartford Connecticut, and he’s got a gift. Not only does he seem to be a good, caring medic … but the guy can write. He’s published a few books full of “stories of the street” and I find a little pleasure in knowing that I know where he’s going when he mentions places in Hartford. I know what it’s like to talk to the North Central C-Med dispatcher on Med 10. It’s familiar. It’s what I want to do and yeah, the stories are exciting. There’s a little adrneline junkie in all of us, otherwise, we’d be taxi drivers.

But, I read one of his posts called “The Line” earlier this evening, and I think it really summed up why I want to be a medic. It’s not because I want to be the guy in charge, or the medic that always gets the tube. Instead, I want to continue to learn from every call and give future patents the gift of past experience.

Learning how to be a better medic every day. That’ll be my goal.

Posted by medic22 on December 14, 2008 • Filed under: EMT, Peter Canning, paramedic

EMT Finals

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A couple of days ago, I wrote this:

I’ve been reading EMS message boards. I always see a bunch of posts about “the test”. How the thought of it is making them nervous. How they failed the last test twice. How hard the practicals are. How difficult the written test was…

Amazing.

If you can’t master the basic EMT skills after 3 months of class, there’s something really wrong. It’s not rocket science.

OK. Maybe I was a little too cocky. I didn’t fail my practicals, but did come pretty close.

When the practical testing started, my partner and I jumped into it and we smoked both the major and minor medical stations. I mean, we were on point. It was flawless. We worked like a well oiled machine. High Fives all around. (Jake, you are the MAN!)

Then came the major trauma station.

Our patient was a guy that had a wall collapse on him at a construction site. I was holding C-spine and was trying to talk to the PT. From where I was crouching, it looked as though things were going well, but I was stuck at the head. The other guys were thorough, did a good exam but just took too long to get the guy rolled on to the board and get moving. The instructor stood up and shook his head. “Thanks for playing.”

OK, so we went back out into the classroom to regroup, clear our heads and work on team strategy. We took another shot at major trauma and I screwed it up. Yep, it was all me. While I was bagging the PT, a car vs. ped, I didn’t maintain c-spine. WTF? What was I thinking? Am I an idiot? Apparently, yes. Not maintaining c-spine. What a rook mistake.

OK, so later on we did wind up making good on the major trauma and rocked it… shortly after that a different partner and I went in to do the minor trauma station and that went fine as well… but, that fact remains, I did something really stupid, screwed up the team and almost kept us from passing the final. I’ve been kicking myself for two days.


The written test is tomorrow and I’m sure I’ll do fine. I’m just upset that I made such a dumb, newbie mistake.

OK. Rant over. Now I’ve vented and feel better. A little.

Posted by medic22 on December 13, 2008 • Filed under: EMT, North Seattle

Books anyone?

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I registered for Fall Quarter classes at North Seattle this morning.

I’ll be taking Anatomy and Physiology I, a coordinated studies class and the EMT program. All told, I’ll be rockin’ 25 credits this quarter.

Whew.

I then went to the bookstore to pick up what I needed.

When I got home, I dumped the books on my kitchen counter and snapped a photo. These are the REQUIRED books for the Fall quarter.

Hear that Folks? REQUIRED.

That means there are even more additional books that are recommended, but this God-awful stack is the required, “gotta have it” material.

Thre are nine, count ‘em, NINE books for the Coordinated Studies class, a shrink wrapped package consisting of a textbook, study aids and lab manual for A&P (which alone was $285, thank you very much) and a combo pack of Text and Workbook for EMT. And yes, I was told that they grade the workbook.

Whew. I’m close to $700 dollars lighter now. And that’s just for the books… many of them used!

Posted by medic22 on August 21, 2008 • Filed under: EMT, North Seattle, Textbooks

Decisions, decisions…

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As I mentioned in a previous post, before I can be accepted into a paramedic program here in Washington, I have to have a current EMT certification. As I’ve also mentioned, my certs lapsed about 5 states and 15 years ago. (My old Connecticut EMT number started with an “89″ if that’s any clue as to how longs it’s been.)

It turns out that I now have a couple of options. I was planning on the accelerated W-EMT (Wilderness EMT) class in Leavenworth in October, but last week, on a whim, I took the entrance exam for the North Seattle Community College EMT Class. What do you know? I passed.

So, now I have to decide if it’s North to Leavenworth or North Seattle.

As an aside, I was kind of surprised when I found out that North Seattle had a pre-class test. When I took EMT back in the late 80s, I just applied, sent in my 200 bucks and I was in. It’s not so easy today. Apparently the EMT class at NSCC is so popular that several hundred people test for the 30 available class slots and the 10 alternate slots every quarter. Most of those folks testing are Seattle firefighter hopefuls. It’s a plus if you’re already an EMT when you apply, as it’s a condition of employment.

But, I made the cut and now I’m leaning toward North Seattle for several reason. One, it’s much cheaper. Two, it’s closer. Three, the credits will go toward the elective portion of my degree. Seems like a no brainer.

If I do decide to attend the Fall quarter at North, I’ll also be taking the paramedic prerequisite A&P (Anatomy and Physiology) and an Integrated Studies course that is required for the degree program.

Posted by medic22 on August 19, 2008 • Filed under: EMT, North Seattle, WEMT, paramedic

Testing, testing..

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It’s been a while since I posted anything new, so here’s what’s going on. As you may or may not know, before I can be accepted into a paramedic education program, I have to be a current, working EMT for a year. So, that means I have to get re-certified as an EMT Basic. (I knew I never should have let those certs lapse!)

Last night I took the pre-test for the North Seattle EMT class. Everyone I talked to said it would be a killer test, but I thought it was pretty easy. It was all based on the Red Cross Emergency Response Curriculum, which is the basic DOT First Responder criteria. So, it turns out that there’s 40 slots for students in that class and about 150 people were testing last night. Most were guys that looked like they were young firefighters, hoping to add EMT skills to their repertoire prior to getting on with a local department. There were only a few older guys like me. I was planning on taking the WEMT course at Remote Medical in Leavenworth and banging it all out in 20 days, but after talking to my adviser, she suggested that I take EMT at North and apply those 10 credits toward my degree. Duh! At any rate, if it should happen that I don’t get accepted into the North Seattle program, I can either still take the Remote Medical class in Leavenworth in October (which I’m actually registered for) or apply for the King County EMT program in Bellevue that Search and Rescue sponsors, and thus will cost me nothing! There’s lots of options. I’m also excited because I didn’t realize how close I was to getting most of the AA degree requirements knocked out, so I can move on to a regular university. Radio… gotta love the fact that you can work in the business, make a ton of money and do it without a degree. The real world is a little different.

Posted by medic22 on August 12, 2008 • Filed under: EMT, North Seattle, WEMT, paramedic