New Life As A Paramedic

It's time for an update on my new job.

In a nutshell, I'm loving it.

This past 4-day rotation has been awesome.  We've been busy every day, running 5-7 calls per 12-hour shift.  The patients are challenging and making me think.  Various medical problems, some interesting trauma calls, the whole gamut.   Psych patients, 'nosepickers', drug seekers. 

I'm getting the geography of the county down.  This county is much bigger than the county where I'll be working.  There is a lot of rural area, even 'frontier' country. 

I had a delightful patient today.  She's in her 90's, and was born in Berlin.  She told us some great stories, including the 5 boyfriends at the same time!  As I was looking for her medications in one of her bags, I found a partially empty bottle of vodka!  As I opened the second bag, the first thing I saw was a bunch of batteries.  I stopped there, as I was afraid to keep looking...

The first two days of the rotation were without my FTO, and so do not 'count' towards getting me out on my own.  Even though I missed two shifts this week, it looks as if I'll be released by the end of next week - a grand total of 10 shifts.  There is a rumor though, that I'll be held over for another week.  My FTO is getting a 2nd trainee, and will be taking a week off.  The training officer wants to keep me to help teach the new trainee while the FTO is gone.  So, after being here for less than two months, now I'm helping to orient new employees!  I'm definitely learning "The *** Way"...

The technology is impressive, too.  Equipment, communications tools, the electronic mapping system, even the charting program makes the job interesting and even easy. 

I'm getting to know my fellow employees and hospital staff.  Everyone seems happy to meet me and welcome me to the company.  The first responders (fire departments) are generally a pleasure to work with.  They are eager and for the most part, very knowledgeable.

However - there has been one recent interaction that left me scratching my head.  It was a typical syncope call.  The fire department was there ahead of us, assessing the patient.  Standing outside the room was a medic off the fire engine.  He appeared to be half my age, and his appearance, with his highlighted hair & 'soul patch' was definitely 'surfer', perhaps 'snowboarder'.  His contribution to the event was holding the clipboard and occasionally jotting down something of interest.  At one point, the patient was stood up while the crew reassessed her vital signs.  Surfer boy turned to me and said that they were checking out her 'hydrostatic vital signs'...   Uhm, 'dude', perhaps you should get your mind right with what the hell you are doing...

I'm hoping to get cut loose and back in the urban setting soon.  I can't wait to get assigned to a car and a permanent partner. 

I'm very happy I've made this move.