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emt12resq

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Spenac,

Thanks so much for sticking up for me. haha One thing I wanted to reply to you though. I know you said stop Volunteering. I've tried. I applied for a job in Alexandria Va to become a paramedic. They give you all the training. I got past the HOBET test, The physical exam, And the panel interview. I guess the next step, I just wasnt what they were looking for. I gave it a try anyway. I plan on applying for more jobs soon but I really think I need more education and more experience first. I dont want to jump into something I cant handle first. City calls compared to my little country town calls I for a fact are A LOT different. I still get excited for call probally because where I live we get 1 maybe 2 calls A WEEK! Sometimes we have more but its not likely. So .....

Keep trying for a job. It will help your self worth and help you gain experience. Your doing 1 or 2 runs a week will not build your skills. In fact the limited education received as a basic will be forgotten quickly if not used more. I actually started as a volly, but now I see that giving my services away for free hurt everyones chances for better income. We had a good discussion on here about turning a service into a paid one. Now I work in a very rural area paid. I'm 90 miles to the nearest hospital. I speak small town rural american too. Look forward to hearing about your progress.

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Its just some of the people i run with just cut in front of me when im trying to question or take vitals and makes me not very confident. I mean Im good with vital the questions are coming a little slow and they jump right in.

A LOT of volunteers do that...

I volunteer with a department in Florida and there are some people there that even though I am one of 3 EMTs on the department, some guys with no formal training will jump in front of you and start working a pt and calling all the shots because they have a higher rank.

Do not let them cut you off, make them respect you by not being squirly on scene and showing the idiots on your department who is the boss.

If you are an EMT and the other members of the department are not, YOU are in charge of that PT until another EMT arrives or a Paramedic arrives.

Take control of the Pt and keep it by showing confidence and a little good ego

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Thanks so much for the advice guys. Please keep it coming. Like i told some other people I only get like 1-2 calls a week but you can bet im going to be using some of the advice you've given me.

Now on a diff note, One of the medics that I run with in a town close to me boosts my confindence everytime I run with him. He pretty much makes me take control and when he feels i cant handle it he take over. "I dont let my confidence level show to patients" anyway when I first started running with him he noticed a habit of me clinging to the PPCR so everytime i run with him he takes it away from me. But as soon as I come back home and run with the EMT's in my town I go right back to clinging to it because they intimidate me so much. For a volunteer company wanting to get young people involved they dont really show it through work. Meetings, calls, everything someone is always mad at someone else and the environment is horrible. You can cut through the tension with a knife. I guess thats why I dont feel confident around my own company. Theres no encouragment, mentorship, no one pushing the young ones like me. I just want to be confident around my own company. Then I feel I can be confident around everyone.

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Plus 10 to you for taking a beating and staying around for more, instead of running off in denial, and denying yourself a wonderful opportunity to receive some valuable feedback. That speaks very well for your potential. I know this isn't what you expected when you came here. It comes as a very rude surprise to most n00bs that we actually take EMS seriously as a medical profession, and don't take kindly to those who treat it as nothing more than an exciting hobby. But now you know, and this should help you to decide if a serious medical profession is what you are after, or if you just like the "tones."

Please take the rest of this post not as a beating, but as sincere and honest advice from somebody who has been there and done that.

I know you said stop Volunteering. I've tried.

No, you haven't. You either do it, or you don't. There is no "trying." Had you tried, you would no longer be a volunteer. Yes, I know that would have denied you the opportunity to get excited at the tones twice a week, and that is unacceptable to you. But that only goes back to my original point. You have yet to get past the E in EMS. Work on that, or you'll forever be a loser.

Here's the plan:

  • 1. Quit volunteering today. Not tomorrow. Today. No experience is better than bad experience. This is bad experience. It is very obviously contributing NOTHING to your professional growth. In fact, it is hurting you. If it were doing you the least bit of good, you wouldn't have come here complaining about it. Nothing good is going to come from this volly gig. It is hurting you, and you are hurting the profession. If you care about your career and the profession, quit today, and don't ever do it again.

2. Forget about all this EMT-E and EMT-I nonsense. That's not education. That is training. Medical professionals are not trained. They are educated. The end result of tiered training in EMS will always be lesser than that achieved by immersed education in a formal paramedic programme.

3. Forget about paramedic school until you have one full year of college prerequisite courses satisfactorily completed. Growing up in the AOL generation has hurt your communication skills, and apparently your physical condition too. If MEDICINE is truly your "calling" here, and not just lights and sirens, then give 100 percent to being the very best practitioner you can possibly be. To do that takes a solid foundation. That means, you should not be sitting down for your first paramedic class until you have completed two semesters of Human Anatomy & Physiology, Microbiology, Psychology, Child Psychology, Sociology, Algebra, two semesters of English Composition, and a Physical Education course that specifically focuses on Kinesiology and Exercise Physiology. Take every one of those courses, even if your school does not require them for the degree. And, of course, any school that does not require all of those probably sucks.

4. Forget about any quickie, certificate paramedic programme. Choose quality over expedience. Spend the extra time and get the degree, not just a certificate. And when you finish that degree, don't let more than a year pass before you return to complete a bachelors degree. EMS, Nursing, Biology, Physician Assisting, Emergency Management, Occupational Safety & Health, Business Administration, Public Administration, whatever floats your boat. Whatever you choose, knowledge is power and is essential to your professional growth. There is no top of the medical education ladder. If you stop somewhere along the line, the rest of us will be stepping over you.

5. Forget about looking for EMT jobs. Education needs to be your one and only focus for the next two years. Anything else in your life is a distraction from that primary focus, including working as an EMT. Again, if you don't think you can continue to live for the next two years without the excitement of the "tones," then you have to seriously consider that you probably are not cut out to be a medical professional.

  • There it is. That's the plan. Any deviation from that plan is a mark against your potential, and will result in you being less of a professional than you have the potential to be. If you don't want to be the very best that you can possibly be then again, let's all say it together...

... you aren't cut out for this.

Best of luck!

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Listen to DustDevil...or at least try to. I don't, but it's good advice :wink:

I apologize, I missed that part of the prior post where you said you were an EMT...and that you obtained said certification when you were 17? I did the same, at age 16...what seems like a millenia ago.

I understand that there's still an amount of excitement involved right now. Just so you never lose sight of what EMS is really all about. Good luck, and stay off of the fire trucks. That'll just lead to bad habits :lol:

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This job is exciting at first and it is a lot of fun, but after a little wile the excitement and the nerves will wear off. You will no longer be nervous on the BS Palliative care calls and the Drama Alerts.

You will never forget the face of the Wife of the first person who you work on who dies.

As you mature you will move from the excitement to the reward of a ROSC or the smile on the face of a husband who's wife fell down and all you did was come and help his wife into her chair with a smile.

Through the bad management, BS calls, pissy drunks, angry pts, and all the other bad that prevails in this business this is the second greatest job in the world (firefighting is the greatest).

And if you are cut out for it, and you do have to be cut out for it, you will not regret your career path.

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And if you are cut out for it, and you do have to be cut out for it, you will not regret your career path.

If you believe that palliative care is BS, then you are not cut out for it.

Go play with your hose.

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not all palliative care is BS, just some of it

Oh how I wish I could be alive sixty years from now just to be the one who picks you up from the nursing home.

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