Life of a Trainee Paramedic

Well this weekend of shifts has been really, really good.  Apart from the fact that it was with some of the nicest weather that we have had in a long time, I got to be left in the back with a lot more patients on my own, as my Mentor trusted me to handle the patients, and let him know if I needed  help.  Admittedly most of the patients were not that ill, but that’s not the point.  He was allowing me to gain experience of being in the back on my own, and monitoring the patient as I think appropriate.

On Friday we were late off by an hour due to a transfer that we had to do.  We would have got off on time if we hadn’t hit the traffic jam of a accident that clogged up all the roads, and then on the way back with another patient, we actually came across at an accident at the same place as the previous one, so we had to stop and help out there before another crew could come and take over for us.  Our patient wasn’t time-critical so it didn’t matter to much.  As I was being left in the back with this patient, at first he was very quiet and I thought I’m not going to be doing much talking, but then all of a sudden I found myself talking about all things Politics: the Middle East, Northern Ireland, America, Cyprus, Israel/Palestinian conflict, Gordon Brown.  The patient, even though elderly, was very knowledgeable on the subjects and wanted to know my opinions so we had a good discussion.  The patient who we transferred first, seemed to be some sort of gigolo in his youth, saying that there were around 70 girls in his town for only a few guys, so he had his pick of them all.  Here was I thinking that it’s only today’s society that is quite promiscuous, but it seems that it was more well hidden in the olden days.  I’m glad he was a chatty guy though, makes the journey a whole lot better.

Saturday was a nice steady day, I gave Glucose 10% for the first time to a patient, after having the most un-cooperative cannulation ever.  As the patient was having a hypo, he wasn’t very cooperaitve, and so even though he knew he was getting a needle in him, it didn’t stop him yanking his arm away as soon as I punctured his skin.  If it wasn’t for my mentor grabbing the patient’s arm, and a whole lot of luck, then I doubt I would have managed to keep it in.  My mentor could hardly contain his look of suprise when he realised I had actually managed to get it in.  I was quite pleased with myself after that.  I had my first case of meningitis after, and although already diagnosed as viral meningitis, there was nothing that could be done, as the patient was pregnant and any treatment could harm the baby, which is why she was sent home, but her symptoms got worse, and so we were called to take her back again.  She was more cooperative when I cannulated her.

Sunday was one of the easiest shifts that I’ve done, only 3 jobs in 12 hours.  Now in the winter, I would probably have been bored stiff, but as it was sunner, I opened all the doors in the back, had the radio on, and got ourselves an ice cream.  We found out the everyone else had been really busy, we were obviously in the right place at the right time.  Our last job involved a rather serious RTC between a motorcyclist and a car, and the motorcyclist had sustained a serious head injury which involved us calling out a doctor from the hospital.  As there were a few casualty’s, my mentor had to travel on the other ambulance to help with the serious patient, while I travelled with the non-serious and helped sort them out.  That’s the only problem with knowing mostly what to do now, I can be left to get on and do things, missing out on watching the ‘good’ stuff to learn before I qualify.  I didn’t mind though as I knew I would most likely be in the way when they were treating him on the road so I was happy to sort the others out.

So even if you see an ambulance sitting somewhere seemingly doing nothing, or getting themselves an ice cream or something, just remember this, that were “Not paid for what we do. Paid for being ready to do it.” - this was taken from Trauma Queen’s blog, and it is very true.

I’m on nights Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then I have my final piece of work in for Monday and then it’s just placement until the end of June.  Where have these 2 years gone?

TP

Well………………..I PASSED! Yeah! I had to redo my ALS again as I was a little bamboozled by the ECG rhythm at the time, but being my 1st station, I’m putting it down to nerves rather than my stupidity! At least I keep telling myself that.

I stopped over at a friend off the course, who introduced me to Mario Kart on the Wii, which culminated in me going out and buying myself a Wii of my own, and then spending ages looking for a copy of the game, as it was sold out everywhere.  Luckily one of my housemates suggested Toys R Us, and they had a copy which they put aside for me and I whizzed down there.  I know it was rather more expensive than a simple treat, but I thought why not?

The only downside is that I need to limit my playing time to get my last essay in and finish off my reflections and then I can play away.  A good point is that with Mario Kart, you can play online, and a few people off the course have it to, so we can all play against each other which is fun, except when you get shot, or a certain friend blasts past you right on the finish line.  It can be VERY annoying!

We had a night out after our exams, and the lecturers came to, and it was a really good night.  I think thought after stopping at my friends for 2 nights, that his girlfiend is happy to have him back after I monopolised him time playing Mario Kart.

I am on shift next weekend days, and then Tue-Thur nights after that.  At some point I will be having to go back into hospital to finish getting my tubes, which will hopefully be soon.  Enjoy the Bank Holiday!

TP

Tomorrow is what I would class as the most important day of the course for me.  It’s our final practical exams day and we have four skill station’s to do:

Advanced Life Support, Paediatric ALS, Trauma and a Medical scenarios are the ones that are going to be on offer tomorrow, and all in all should take around an hour to complete.  We have the 1st years helping us out, so at least they are going to know what we want of them when we ask them.  I’m not nervous as such, although I know I will be when I’m sat there waiting.  I just hope that I remember to do everything correctly, and get them out of the way 1st time.  I’ll be the 1st to admit that I don’t know everything, but I hope that what I do actually know, which when I think about it is quite a lot, I, and the rest of my course, should be able to pass them.

If I do, then I’m heading home for a few days before I start nights on the weekend, and if not, then I will be doing them again on Thursday and then going out for a drink with everyone on the night to hopefully celebrate.

Wonder when I’m going to be able to get to sleep?!

TP

Yes, the title of this post is not a joke! On certain week nights, the swimming pool I go to has late opening times, so today I planned to go.  When it came near the night, I got into my swim shorts and started packing my bag ready to go out, and started looking for my brand spanking new goggles.  My old ones steam up after just one length so I spent £11.99 getting some brand new, anti-fog ones.  I actually bought two pairs so I could keep one at home.  Now I opened them in my room, adjusted them in my room, and then left them in my room.  That was a week or so ago, and they have vanished! I have searched the room from top to bottom, got my 2 housemates to help me look, but still no goggles.  It’s not as if they are really small and hard to find, they are in there own little cases, so where the heck have they gone?  I’m less annoyed that they are lost, I’m more annoyed that I just bought the buggers, so I’ve just gone and ordered myself another set. Just the one this time though.

This come after reading Mr Man’s recent blog about something very similar.  Perhaps something is in the air?

TP

These are 2 great clips……

Well this weekend has been quite eventfull for several reasons.  The first was Friday night due to us being called to the local prison, which is very close to the hospital.  Since I began this course, I have never been there before, but that night, we actually went twice, which was quite strange.  I personally don’t think that I would be able to cope very well in prison, certainly not ones in which you can’t actually leave! It also showed me how totally stuffed you would be if the patient was seriously ill, it takes a hell of a long time to get in and out, for obvious reasons.

The second, was how may drunk patients that we have had this weekend.  Every other set of weekend nights that I have worked, we have never really had any, or just the one here and there, but this weekend, the unable-to-stand-incapable-of-drinking-responsibly people seemed to be out in force.  It doesn’t bother me so much when they are drunk, and co-operative, it’s when they are un-cooperative that it can be a little annoying!

The third was on my last shift, which has got to be the quietist shift that I have ever worked, a grand total of 3 jobs, with the last one coming right at the end, making us late off, which was irritating considering how much time was spent doing nothing during the shift.  The good thing about this shift though was 2/3 patient’s were actually ill, and I was able to really get hands on, doing the job that I’m training to do.  I gave some drugs that I’ve never seen be given before and I managed to get both 18g cannula’s, which was a suprise to me (and my mentor).  I think I’m finally getting a technique, instead of changing the way I do it each time.  Thankfully though, I’ve never actually missed them when it’s been important.

I’ve got an afternoon at Uni on Thursday, and then 2 day shifts Saturday and Sunday so we will see what I get to do then!

On Saturday, I was able to lead at a trauma job, and I made the decision to board and collar the patient.  The patient was drunk, and he only seemed to respond to my ‘calm voice’ (his words), rather than the dislike he took to my mentor. This made me laugh somewhat, and gave me a little ammunition for the evening!

I’m at home for a few days now seeing family, and continuing with an essay, so it should hopefully be a chilled couple of weeks.

TP

On Thursday we had a multiple choice question paper, 50 questions on anatomy and physiology.  We had to get 40 to pass, and I was glad that I got 44!

Some of the ones that I got wrong I didn’t have a clue about, with some of them being in the category ‘nice-to-know’ in my opinion, rather than the important ‘need-to-know’.  This was because I believe that in an emergency situation, it would not matter exactly what artery a patient was bleeding from, you would still treat them the same for any kind of blood loss, or hypovolaemic shock. 

We have our practical exams in just over 2 weeks time, and we have 2 Uni days of practice left between now and then.  I’ve got 4 nights in a row to work from tonght but due to all the rota’s changing at the beginning of the month for Call Connect, for these shifts we don’t start until 19.30.  For every other shift that I have done, they have always been 6.45 or 18.45 starts, so it’s going to be horrible looking at the clock tomorrow morning knowing that I still have 45 minutes to go.  I’m sure that I’ll get used to it though.

Enjoy the Weekend!

Hello again! It has been a month since I last posted, which is absolute rubbish, so I apologise for that.  This last month has been incredibly busy with lots of things going on at work, at uni, and at home. 

I had 2 weeks at home for the Easter break, and it was nice to be back, although my nan isn’t doing to good, so it was a sad time also.  For the past few holidays, when I’ve been at home, a lot of time has been spent doing uni work, and this holiday was no different.  We have 2 course related essays to do, and 2 definitely not course related essays! The course ones are quite interesting, and I actually like doing them as I feel as though I’m learning something.  The others are not related to Paramedic practice one little bit, but we have to do them, or we fail the entire course! Thankfully one of them got handed in today, and I’ve a few weeks before the next lot have to be in.

We have a multiple choice question paper on thursday, 50 questions from anything over the whole 2 years.  Our lecturers have been putting up practice ones which we could have a go at, and I havn;t done to badly on them, although in this test we need to get 80% to pass, rather than the 40% for all the essays that we do.  Our practical exams are also assessed differently, so for anyone reading this who think’s we only need 40% to pass those, don’t worry, we need to know what we are doing.

I did a few shifts before I wnet home for Easter, and they were with a Paramedic that I go out with when my Mentor is not working.  These were his last ever shifts as he handed in his notice, after being in the ambulance service for over 20 years.  I’m glad that I got to work with him, and felt that I did learn a lot from him, so as thanks I gave him a bottle of red wine.  Not being a red wine fan, I found myself asking this random girl looking at them, and she directed me to the nice ones.  She seemed French to me, and after seeing the French First Lady recently, I’ve decided French is good!

At the beginning of May, I will have my last practical exams, which I’ll hopefully pass 1st time, and then my last ever piece of work gets handed in on the 19th May, subject to me passing everything that is.  I’m hoping that I can enjoy the last few months of my course on placement, and not have to worry about any work that I still have to do.  It’s going to be very weird not being a student anymore after 5 years, but I’m looking forward to it.  I like going to Uni, it’s just all the work that I have to do to go with it, and personally I’ve had enough of writing essays!

I’ll hopefully be going back into theatres to finish off my intubation, and then if all goes well, everything will have been submitted for the exam board.  We get our results in the middle of July and then I’ll have a few months off before I go back to the States for a month.  I don’t think there is a day that goes by without me actually thinking about going away.  I need to forget about it, which will hopefully make it come round really quickly!

I’m hoping all my placement knowledge will come together and I can be more confident when making decisions.  At the moment, I say I want to do something, and even though I pretty sure that it’s the right decision, I look to my mentor for the nod.  I’m going to working 4 night shifts this weekend, the 1st lot of nights that I’ve done since January due to different things croping up.

Here’s to a happy thursday!

TP