Out of all of what’s listed above, I’m happiest about the new preceptor. If you read my “Lessons Learned” post, he was the medic on M11. After that call we talked for a while outside the ED and we really hit it off. Soon, the conversation turned into “Ya know, if you’re into it, I can to talk to our MSO and see if I can be your main preceptor.” Yeah. I was into it. I’ve ridden a couple of shift with him and the crew on M11 and it was a great move. He’s been a medic for 12 years and loves to teach. Loves to let students get in the thick of things and is still excited and interested in EMS, something that was rare with some other medics I worked with. It’s a really good thing.

We’re cranking through school. Toxicology, Environmental, OB/GYN all down and now it is all about trauma, pedis and geriatrics. PHTLS and PALS will be all I think about for the next few weeks.

We took a surprise quiz today that knocked everyone for a loop. At the end of the expected material there was an added bonus: two pages of drug calculations. Yikes. After not doing ‘em for a while it was a rude awaking. I’m digging out the drug calc worksheets and running through some problems this weekend. I won’t get caught out again.

Really, medic school is turning out to be a much better experience then I thought it would be. Everyone in the class is truly excellent. All are different, but each is a great patient care provider. I’m thrilled to work with all of them and I consider each a friend.

OK, it’s bed time now. I’m off to the ER tomorrow morning and then an OR shift on Monday Morning to try and knock out some intubations. Let’s hope everyone gets a tube and the Docs decide to NOT go with LMAs. Wishful thinking, I know.

Be safe friends.

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?

So, yeah. Math. Not a fan.

However, the medical math portion of medic school is surprisingly easy. I thought it would be a lot more complicated that it is. Of course, I haven’t had a quiz yet, but I’ve been able to figure out all of the drug calculations without too much brain sweat. My question is this, how many of you guys do the math in your head? Does it just kind of stick after a while or do you work the calculations out on paper or with a calculator every time? I mean, I know the Epi clock makes the drip rate easy, but you still have to get there…

We do our first round of skills check off in lab this afternoon. This is the precursor to us getting out of the classroom to do our first hospital and field sticks and tubes. We’ve got to get a lot of them, so they want us out there practicing the monkey skills as soon as we can. It nice to know that the “skills” portion of my program, while not minimized, is secondary to the education portion of the class. After all, anyone can learn how to tube a dummy, but not everyone can learn the rationale of when and why and what the possible repercussions of shoving that tube into someone will be. That’s the important stuff. Same goes for drugs or IVs. Some medics follow the cookbook and push a tan box during a code, but they never learned the why. In our class, it’s ALL about the why.

And that is why I love it. Fill my head!

There’s a big quiz tomorrow on pathophiz, acid/base, medical math and pharm. I’m feeling okay about all of it, but we’ll see how it goes.

The pace continutes to be fast and furious and we jump right into cardiology next week. That will continue, along with additional pharm, right up to the quarter break.

“What do you mean you’re not going to medic school?”, he ranted in a lengthy email. “You’re an idiot! You quit a great job to follow this path and now you’re not going follow through?”

Whoa. Chill turbo. I just said I’m not applying to medic school this year, here in the PNW. I doubt we’ll be living here in a year, and if we are…well, then I’ll apply then.

OK? So yes, I’m still planning on applying to Medic School, just not this April 1st.

I also wonder about coupling RT with a paramedic cert. It might help with getting a CCT job.

And finally, I’d like to be the guy that’s able to help that kid that can’t breathe. (I remember how scary it was when I was a kid with asthma.)

Hmm. I guess it’s worth looking into.

Anone have thoughts?