Yesterday one of the guys on my shift did one of my biggest pet peeves which is correcting me in front of a patient. I know that I shouldn't have any pet peeves since I have not been a career firefighter very long but this has been a pet peeve of mine ever since I got into the business as volunteer. I have no problem receiving constructive criticism, but unless I am about do something that is going to hurt or kill the patient, please save the criticism until after the call.
So anyway on to the call. We were dispatched to a house for a women that was dizzy. First of all let me explain that when we are dispatched to a medical call an engine is dispatched from the closest station to the call and all of the ambulances come from the central station. The engine gets on scene first. We arrived in the ambulance soon after. Come to find out yes the women is dizzy but she is also very anxious. We get the woman loaded on the cot and get her out to the ambulance. I told the women that I was going to start an IV and the women freaked out because she did not want to get poked by the needle. When I calmly explained to the women that if she let me start an IV I could give her some medication that would help to calm her down, she agreed to let me start an IV. So as I am starting the IV my partner from the ambulance draws up the Lorazepam that I am planning on giving her. As I sticking the needle into the patient she jerked away, hence making me miss the vein. I attempted to dig around a little bit in attempt to find the vein with no luck, well as I am digging around the patient starts to get very anxious and is asking me if I know what I am doing and asking me if I was a student. I again calmly explained to the patient that I am not a student and I do know what I am doing. I gave up on the IV attempt and I did not figure that the women would be happy if I tried another IV site. I explained to the patient that I could give her the same medication as an injection in her shoulder muscle. The women agreed to let me give her the injection. As I metioned earlier my partner had already drawn up the medication for the IV. Well the IV dose is diluted with saline and the IM injection is not. Plus it takes more medication for an IM dose to be effective and this was a big patient. The guy who was in charge on the engine sees me getting ready to give the injection to the patient, and right in front of the patient that is already anxious and already doubts my capabilites stands up and says stop what do you think you are doing you can not give her that much. I was pissed. This women then says see I knew you didn't know what you were doing, the patient still let me give her the medication and then as I am giving her the injection the ass on the engine is trying to tell me the procedure for giving the injection. As soon as I was done giving the injection I told my partner on the ambulance that we needed to leave. I had to have the guy from the engine get out or else I was going to stoop to his level and loose all professionalism. I am not too big on running and telling my company officer each time some little thing happens but this is not a little thing and this is not the first time that the jerk on the engine has done something like this to me. So hopefully my company officer will take care of the problem. Sorry about the rant but I had to have a source to vent. If any other medics have had the same problem let me know how you have handled it.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Ok I promise I will post more often
I didn't realize that it has been close to a year since my last post. My how the time has flown. In My last post I had mentioned how I had gotten hired by the fire department. Well it has definetly been a year of highs and lows. I went from being very excited about getting hired at the fire department and really enjoying the job, to wondering if I was going to have a job. I am overweight, I always have been, but I am in alright shape for my size. Well about six months into the job we had to do one of 2 yearly physical agility tests, and I did not very well on it. The test involves putting on an air pack and crawling around in a maze that is supposed to simulate a house. I used a lot more air than the rest of the crew. I had a big come to Jesus meeting with my Battalion Chief and basically was told I need to step it up with my physical fitness or my job could be in jeopardy. I think my problem was that I became fat and happy. I worked my butt off to get in shape for the physical agility test that I had to take to get hired and once I got hired I slacked off with working out. Don't get me wrong I was still working out but I was not as dedicated as I was before. So my little come to Jesus meeting with my Battalion Chief was an eye opener and since I have gotten back on the work out train and have lost 30 pounds. Now things are great we are getting ready to take the second physical agility test and I feel like I am in pretty good shape right now and I shouldn't have any problems with it. The second test is the same test that I took to get hired which involves an obsticle course where you do a lot the activities that you would be expected to do at a fire scene...I will bore you with the details some other time. Now I am happy as can be again at my job. It has been one heck of a roller coaster ride. I will be happy when my year is up that way it is next to impossible for them to get rid of me unless I do something really stupid.
At my fire department we also have to be on the ambulance. Most of the guys think that I need a mental examination because I actually like being on the ambulance more so than fighting fires. I really enjoy the ambulance because on the ambulance you have to think. Don't get me wrong when you are fighting fires you have to think as well but it is a different type of thinking. On the fire ground you have to think about the stuff that you need to do to keep yourself and the rest of your crew from getting hurt but to solve the actual problem on the fire ground is pretty simple...you put the wet stuff on the red stuff. On ambulance calls you have to think about all kinds of things to solve the actual problem. However, there is a much bigger adrenaline rush going into a fire. So no that I sit back and think about I guess it is an even trade off.
Like all good firefighters, I got a part time job for my days off (which for the record, we are off 20 days per month). I am working at a very small hospital about 20 miles from where I live as a paramedic on their ambulance service. It is very different from my full time job as far as call volume. At my full time job we run an average of 14 calls a day and at my part time job we run about 40 calls per month. The cool thing is when we do have calls at my part time job they are usually pretty cool calls. When I say cool calls it is kind of a paradox, for me to have a cool day at work someone else has to have the one of the worst days of their life whether it be a bad trauma or medical emergency or someones home or business catching fire. At the part time job I have got see a patient that had 3 fingers amputated, and I came as close to delivering a baby as I ever want to. We were called to a residence for a woman in labor, when we pulled up to the house a small child comes outside and said to hurry becuase the baby is coming out. As I walked into the bedroom, the baby had just finished coming out so I got to the suctioning an clamping and cutting the umbilical cord. It is a very different job knowing that a lot of the time I am the only paramedic, because most times it is just myself and an EMT-Basic. At my full time job we always send an engine with the ambulance so there are always 3 other paramedics and myself to share the responsibility. I have only been a paramedic for about a year and half and I think that working at the part time job is making me a better paramedic since most of the time I have no one else to fall back on.
So between being a full time firefighter/paramedic, part time paramedic, volunteer firefighter/paramedic in the town I live in, and a reserve police officer in the town I live in I get my fill of adrenaline. I would not trade all the things I do for anything. Thank goodness for a very understanding wife.
I have rambled on for long enough however, let me leave you with the story of one the weirdest calls that I have been on so far which just happened last night at my full time job. We were dispatched for a male subject that needed water for humidified oxygen. When we got the call my partner and I were thinking okay this is strange why would someone call us for this. We arrived at the residence and we made contact with the patient, it turns out that the patient was indeed on oxygen but he did not need water for it at all. The patient was thirsty and needed a drink of water. The patient has terminal cancer and is very weak, he was in a small room that appeared to have been a porch at one time and there is a door seperating the room from the rest of the house. The patient had tried to yell for his caretaker to get him a glass of water. The caretaker had fallen asleep and could not hear the patient so the patient was really thirsty and called 911 for an ambulance. The patient was so weak that he could hardly talk and it turned out that the dispatchers could not understand what he was saying so that is where the water for the humidified oxygen came from. All of got a good chuckle out of this call when we cleared.
Well I as mentioned at the start of this post I promise to post more often. Take care and stay safe.
At my fire department we also have to be on the ambulance. Most of the guys think that I need a mental examination because I actually like being on the ambulance more so than fighting fires. I really enjoy the ambulance because on the ambulance you have to think. Don't get me wrong when you are fighting fires you have to think as well but it is a different type of thinking. On the fire ground you have to think about the stuff that you need to do to keep yourself and the rest of your crew from getting hurt but to solve the actual problem on the fire ground is pretty simple...you put the wet stuff on the red stuff. On ambulance calls you have to think about all kinds of things to solve the actual problem. However, there is a much bigger adrenaline rush going into a fire. So no that I sit back and think about I guess it is an even trade off.
Like all good firefighters, I got a part time job for my days off (which for the record, we are off 20 days per month). I am working at a very small hospital about 20 miles from where I live as a paramedic on their ambulance service. It is very different from my full time job as far as call volume. At my full time job we run an average of 14 calls a day and at my part time job we run about 40 calls per month. The cool thing is when we do have calls at my part time job they are usually pretty cool calls. When I say cool calls it is kind of a paradox, for me to have a cool day at work someone else has to have the one of the worst days of their life whether it be a bad trauma or medical emergency or someones home or business catching fire. At the part time job I have got see a patient that had 3 fingers amputated, and I came as close to delivering a baby as I ever want to. We were called to a residence for a woman in labor, when we pulled up to the house a small child comes outside and said to hurry becuase the baby is coming out. As I walked into the bedroom, the baby had just finished coming out so I got to the suctioning an clamping and cutting the umbilical cord. It is a very different job knowing that a lot of the time I am the only paramedic, because most times it is just myself and an EMT-Basic. At my full time job we always send an engine with the ambulance so there are always 3 other paramedics and myself to share the responsibility. I have only been a paramedic for about a year and half and I think that working at the part time job is making me a better paramedic since most of the time I have no one else to fall back on.
So between being a full time firefighter/paramedic, part time paramedic, volunteer firefighter/paramedic in the town I live in, and a reserve police officer in the town I live in I get my fill of adrenaline. I would not trade all the things I do for anything. Thank goodness for a very understanding wife.
I have rambled on for long enough however, let me leave you with the story of one the weirdest calls that I have been on so far which just happened last night at my full time job. We were dispatched for a male subject that needed water for humidified oxygen. When we got the call my partner and I were thinking okay this is strange why would someone call us for this. We arrived at the residence and we made contact with the patient, it turns out that the patient was indeed on oxygen but he did not need water for it at all. The patient was thirsty and needed a drink of water. The patient has terminal cancer and is very weak, he was in a small room that appeared to have been a porch at one time and there is a door seperating the room from the rest of the house. The patient had tried to yell for his caretaker to get him a glass of water. The caretaker had fallen asleep and could not hear the patient so the patient was really thirsty and called 911 for an ambulance. The patient was so weak that he could hardly talk and it turned out that the dispatchers could not understand what he was saying so that is where the water for the humidified oxygen came from. All of got a good chuckle out of this call when we cleared.
Well I as mentioned at the start of this post I promise to post more often. Take care and stay safe.
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