Do you need critical calls to enjoy your work?

[iMac]

:pottytrain2:

[spenac]

:pottytrain2:

:shock:

[VentMedic]

Oh but I worked on an ambulance service, a few for that matter. Either way those same patients end up where I work darling.

Not your darling... I get your insult loud and clear since I also work in a hospital. And, I still work as a Paramedic even if it is just Flight.

Unfortunately, way too many in EMS never perfect their skills on the "routine" patients and are lost when they get a truly sick or injured patient. They think the only time "they really use their skills" is on a "trauma or MI". In reality, there are times when very few things get done in the field. Studies have shown the "stay and play" care for a trauma does little for the patient. A cardiac arrest should be worked in the field but many are just scooped and ran L/S to the hospital. Usually this happens most by those that live for the adrenaline rush and don't see the patient care aspect of their jobs.

Again, on the ambulance you are only with a patient for a few minutes. Having a "good trauma" for that short period of time can seem exciting and some do need that adrenaline rush. HEMS is a great adrenaline rush also but after a few minutes, you don't have to care about the patient again or ever seen their family.

Having that trauma patient for 12 hours, the adrenaline rush wears off. Taking care of 2 - 6 trauma patients for 12 hours can get frustrating and tiring especially if you know the outcome for some patients may be very poor. Many in healthcare see another side of trauma that those in EMS don't and that is the long road to stabilization and if they survive, recovery for somewhat of a normal life or placement in a LTC facility. Rarely do you hear experienced healthcare providers, who have seen a patient's long struggle for life, wishing for a "trauma" or "MI" since they now it means a dramatic life changing event for someone and their families. That is a bad wish to make.

If patients can still walk out of a busy ED because they can't get seen as quick as they would like, so be it. They will probably live to return another day... or call an ambulance. However, most don't call an ambulance or they wouldn't be enough trucks in the state to run just those calls.

crotchitymedic1986 quote

But what I really enjoy is being able to tell the new nurse or doctor what the patient's diagnosis is, or when i tell them that patient's gonna code in about 30 minutes, and they give you the deer in the headlight look, or the look of "yeah right, what have you been smoking", and then you are proven right -- with no lab, no xray.

I, as do those you think you are impressing, always get a good laugh at comments like these. The look they are giving you may be of astonishment at how short sighted or little knowledge of medicine you have when it comes to "fixing" a problem. The purpose of diagnostic testing is to find the cause(s) of the "working diagnosis" you are seeing and prevent the person from coding in 30 minutes. General diagnoses may be of some help but they may do little to correct the cause, hence, labs and X-Rays. CHF is a great term but it is a symptom from many other diseases. Rarely does a patient have just one simple little problem that lead up to that MI or CVA. Rarely is just one system affected from an MI or CVA. Treating the immediate as in EMS is great but if the root cause as in electrolytes, lesions or some form of HTN (systemic or pulmonary, primary or secondary) is not treated, you just keep chasing your tail.

Too many things can be missed if one does not seek the other causes as well as treating the obvious signs and symptoms until a (or many) true clinical diagnosis can be made.

[spenac]

As the frost thaws.