Life of a Trainee Paramedic

Well this is where I have been all of last week.  Some of you may have heard of the air show that happens every year down at RAF Fairford, and we were given the opportunity, through one of our lecturers, to go down there for the week to help provide medical cover.  Even though the show was on the weekend, we had to go down on the Tuesday morning so that we could help get everything ready and participate in the major incident exercises that take place before the actual show.

There was 11 of us from uni going and we were all stopping in tents, and as I live half way there anyway, I was the first one to arrive.  The first gate that I arrived at was actually the wrong one, and had men with gun’s standing around, so I quickly turned the car around and headed to the right gate!  I trotted up to the staff reception to book in, but found that none of us seemed to be on the system, which in code means they had no idea we were coming.  Obviously a great start! The lady in charge tried a few of the contacts which we had on an email but they were in meeting’s and so we I had to wait, and during this time, everyone else arrived.  After a little discussion, it was finally sorted and we got our passes and headed off to pitch our tents.  We got all our food provided throughout the week, except where we went out of the base or when we had a bbq, but breakfast, lunch and tea was.  I have to say it was delicious, all credit to the chef’s and I have really missed it since being home, mainly because I have to cook my own meals again.

Wednesday we all had a tour around the base and then we were split off into the sections where we would be working.  The medical cover for the runway area is provided by two ‘columns’, red and green.  These comprise people who would cordon off the area if an accident occurs, a triage team, casualty recovery teams, and casualty clearing teams.  It turned out that I was to be the only one out of the 11 of us that wasn’t on one of the column’s, but I was placed on an ambulance, of which there was around 6, which was to provide cover to the rest of the base and respond to calls rather than calling the local ambulance service.  Everyone in the medical services area of RIAT, which numbered over 300 people, give up their time freely, do not get paid, and is mainly made up of paramedic’s and technicians from ambulance services up and down the country and then a few doctors and support staff and even some police who wanted a change of scenery.  It wasn’t an easy life either, we were getting up between 6-6.30 every day to be off for 7.15-8, and then working for 12 hours.  I wasn’t that bothered about being by myself on the ambulances, it was just when it came time to go for tea or something like that, where I could be by myself.  As it turned out, I got along great with most of the people who were assigned to the ambulances and had a good laugh, but I was given the opportunity to move to one of the columns at the weekend, which I did.  This was because I was then get a birds eye view of the air show, and got closer to the planes involved in the show that no one else could, so I got some great pictures.  On the wednesday evening, a big group of medical staff went to a local village for an Indian and then on the thursday it was the medical services bbq, and both nights were really good.  Wednesday though turned out to be a bad day for my skin, as I got burnt! I had not put any cream on in the morning as even after lunch it was still cloudy, but then in the afternoon the sun came out and gave my face a good shine.  Here I was thinking Rudolph wasn’t supposed to arrive for another 5 months!  I’m glad to say that from that day, and Saturday’s nice weather, I have a nice tan which was very suprising considering the forecast! 

On Thursday and Friday, the major incident exercises took place, and seen as I was on an ambulance, I missed out on those, but I was told what to do when I swapped in the saturday.  Originally I was part of the casualty clearing team, and then when one of my colleagues had to leave, I went to casualty recovery.  Really though I didn’t really do that much over the whole week, as unless something happens there is nothing to do.  I also found out that we were split into two columns because of an accident at an air show in Germany, where when a plane crashed, it took out the entire medical services so there was no one to help.  We alternated between ‘online’ and ‘offline’ position’s which in reality wasn’t that far apart, but was a great enough distance if anything was to happen.  In the offline position, I had a chance to go an have a look round a Chinook, a Sea king, and a Hercules aircraft and got to look into the cockpit and talk to the pilots.  Unfortunately my camera died on the saturday, but luckily it happened after the Red Arrow’s!  There wasn’t anything that you could really do, so you really had to amuse yourselves and chat to the other people you were with, but we did get a chance to go an look at the static aircraft display, which could take a day to properly take it by itself.  It really is a whole weekend event as you wouldn’t want to miss any of the air show either. 

Also at the show were the American air display squad, The Thunderbirds, and the Italian and Spanish counterparts.  I had to say though that I was a little bit dissappointed with the Americans as they didn’t really seem to do much other than fly in straight lines or a few formations.  The Red Arrow’s were doing all sorts and were more entertaining to watch, and this isn’t patriotic bias coming through.  After the weekend show’s were complete, all RIAT staff and the pilots and aircrew from the show are invited to a hanger party.  Now it’s not every day that NHS workers, especially student’s like me, get to rub shoulders with the Red Arrows, Tornado and Eurofighter pilots.  It was a great party, lots of laughing, and everybody was mingling and enjoying the free food.  The pudding was strawberries and raspberry’s with cream, and my mate got given two portions because he mentioned that it can form part of his 5-a-day, although I doubt it meant the cream along with it.  While waiting in the immense queue for the bar, I got chatting to a Tornado pilot, and anyone who has ever heard one knows the racket they make, so when leaving I asked him jokingly to keep the noise down in future.  It was a shame that the party had to finish at 11.30, which I believe is due to some regulation or something.  It was a really good night!

I know that this post isn’t very long, considering it’s supposed to cover a whole week but somethings are hard to put into words.  What isn’t hard is telling people what a great week I had.  It gave me a chance to get to know my uni colleagues a lot better, get talking to colleagues from other ambulance trusts, and mingle with some of the best pilot’s this country has to offer.  I would like to thank ‘Whitty’ for giving me this opportunity, and hopefully we’ll all get a chance to go back next year!

TP

Well I have just finished the last of my 5-in-a-row day shifts and I can’t really tell that I have actually worked over 60 hours.  I think I can say that all they days have been good days, which the good majority of them actual ‘emergencies’ compared to the usual.  The most note worthy mention of this week is that I have finally given an IM (Intra-Muscular) injection.  Were allowed to do most things, under supervision, and this was one thing that I had not done since I started on placement.  Thankfully, a diabetic patient who was having a hypo, provided the chance and after the unsuccessful use of Hypostop, the decision was taken to use Glucagon.  This mobilises the sugar that is stored in your liver, releasing it into your bloodstream, thereby raising your blood sugar level.  It doesn’t always work, especially in patients that have recently had it, as it takes a while for the sugars to build up again.  It is mainly given in the upper arm or thigh but can also be given in the upper-right quadrants of behinds, but, for obvious reasons, this is the last resort.  I was glad to get that duck out of the way.

We also went to a patient who needed transport to hospital, which had been requested by a doctor, and the staff at the nursing home she was staying at only told us after we had moved and handled her that she had MRSA.  Now is it me, or shouldn’t we really have been told that before hand.  Granted it was in an area that we would be going no where near, but that doesn’t mean that the MRSA couldn’t have gotten onto any surfaces or skin nearby.  After a good wash down of both the bed, and us, we were on to our next patient.

Thursday was a day where we had a whole range of jobs.  An asthmatic, a COPD sufferer, an Abdo pain, a few doctor’s urgents an RTC and quite an ill women.  There was a few more but I actully find it hard to remember what I’ve actually done in the day as they all seem to blend into one.  For the person who dials 999, this is probably going to be quite an important part of their day, where for me it’s just another call where hopefully I can learn something new.  Even though I’ve been out on the road since mid-Feb, there are still quite a few things that I havn’t seen and I could theoretically go through the whole course without actually seeing them.  For example, I havn’t yet been to any type of anaphylactic reaction, and even if there is a call, unless we are next out (E.g In the hot seat), then I would miss it.  I’m sure they will come though as I still have over a year to go yet.

I had some good news on Friday with the letter that said I had passed all the requirements for this year, and all I have left now is to finish my placement, and then it is holiday time.  I was really pleased that I’d got through it, as my portfolio was an area that was really worrying me, and although I passed, I’m still worried about it.  We each have a meeting with our lecturers in a few weeks so presumably this will be the time to discuss my concern’s.  I’m going to be incognito until as least a week on tuesday as I’m taking part in something which I think would be best to blog about afterwards but it’s promising to be an excellent week.

Enjoy the Weather while it lasts!

TP

Well it has been a while since I’ve last posted.  Part’s of the country have been submerged by floods, we got a new Prime Minister, Terrorist’s tried their luck again (and lost) and the BBC reporter Alan Johnston has been freed.  On a more personal front I’ve only done a few shifts, have been an Usher at a wedding, and rather more unfortunate, failed my C1 driving test.

I’ll start with that last point.  Myself, and two other colleagues who are in the 2nd year of the course, and who were on the course with me a few weeks ago, all went for our tests.  The main part’s of the test are the drive round, the reversing exercise and a braking exercise.  I actually failed on both the latter, although I could dispute both.  In the braking exercise, you have to get your vehicle up to 20mph and then bring it to a quick, safe stop, but not an emergency stop.  I apparently should have been able to stop within the vehicles length, but I didn’t do that.   One of my colleagues also failed on this, and the examiner said to her that next time she should imagine a 5 year old child had just stepped out in front of the vehicle.  Now that sounds to me like an emergency stop.  So that annoyed me.  Then on the reversing exercise you had to get as close to ‘A-A1′ as possible and then reverse around ‘B’ and into the bay ‘C’ as shown with the end of your vehicle within the yellow box and the bottom (which is only 75cm in length):

I failed because I was actually going to hit Cone B, so the test guy stopped me before I ran over it.  Never in any of mine, or my colleagues practices have been nearly run over the cone.  It only turned out at the end, that the cone was about 7ft to close, so we actually had no hope.  Sine that wasn’t the only thing I failed on it didn’t really matter.  Have to wait around a month now for the vehicle to be free for my retest, which I’m going to take a different test centre.  The annoying thing is the cost of the test, and the annoyance of not passing first time but hopefully I will next time.

The wedding that I went to was my best friend’s sister wedding, the one whose daughter I’m godfather to.  I have to say it was a fantastic day and I had a really good time, not that I really had to do much - Bride on the left, Groom on the right, and hand out some hymn books and smile for photo’s.  Easy!  My mom is also hopeful that it won’t be my only time in a wedding suit like that!

My recent shift’s include 2 night shifts and a day shift today.  The first night shift, we had a patient who had totally lost his memory of his last 4 years.  He was on a night out with friends, one whome he has known the whole time and he didn’t know where he was, who these friends were, and how he got here.  It was quite strange actually, and I forget the correct term for it.  The patient was obviously distressed and we left him at A&E unsure as to his outcome.  The 2nd night shift was my first time on a car, which are generally used by community paramedic’s or emergency care practitioners.  I was supposed to be on an ambulance but my mentor was off ill and this paramedic was on their own, so I said I’d keep them company.  I think I prefer working on the ambulance as there is generally more to do.  It was a quiet night really, we only had 3 jobs, and when your only there for around 20 minutes each time, the clock can seem to drag.  I’m sure it wouldn’t be like that when it’s busy.  At least when your on an ambulance, you spend longer on each job, which helps the day go quicker I think.  The day shift today was good, worked with someone new again and we had a laugh.  I hadn’t given these two the pleasure of my riddles.  Control however was in a bit of a tizz..  They sent us the same message about 7 times, then sent a new one 2 times, and then the old one a further 3 times.  One of my colleagues rang them up asking if they were applying for positions at ‘confused.com’, which they took in the spirit that it was intended.

I have another 4 days coming up, and I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to do my first IM injection as I havn’t had any chance what so ever so far, but we shall see.

TP