Life of a Trainee Paramedic

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

Well I finally have something to write about!!!!! Even though I have been working recently, I havn’t had anything to really write about until now.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been at uni more than usual attending lectures on inter-professional learning. This is completely misleading as I did not learn one thing about any of the other professions that were in my group, which included Nurses, Operating Department Practioners and, of course, Paramedics. These lectures were supposed to help us understand our role in the wider health community, but it completely failed in that regard. It had been 2 weeks of my life that I’m never going to get back. Thank God I’m never going to have to sit through another one of those lectures is all I can say!

I’ve been working Tuesday and Wednesday and then Saturday and Sunday this week with my 2 different mentor’s, one of whom is leaving in a couple of weeks. The first 2 shifts went fine, I got 2 out of 3 cannula’s in, and the one that I failed, the patient is believed to have had a parkinson-type disease, so as I inserted the cannula, they started moving, and therefore blowing the vein, or that is the excure I’ll use at least.

The weekend’s shifts have produced one of the most skill-related days I’ve had, and also the most time wasting call I have ever gone to - a cut finger! You might be thinking that a stanley knife had virtually severed it, but no, the patient had been reaching for a knife out of his girlfriends pocket (we decided not to ask why it was there), and cut himself. He apparantely started having trouble breathing and was haemorrhaging everywhere. When we arrived, I took a dressing, a swab, and some tape up with me so we could sort him out, and when I asked to have a look at his finger, which he had wrapped a tissue around, I honestly could not see where the cut was. Joking aside, I had to ask him where the cut actually was. It very closely resembled a PAPER CUT! His breathing was find, and there was hardly any evidence of blood. Even though I do find these jobs annoying, I don’t get as annoyed as my colleagues, who have been doing it a lot longer than me. I hope that I’m going to think ‘I’m getting paid £? to deal with this, it’s easy money. We shall see!

It’s getting very close to my final exams and essays and these next few month’s will be very busy for me. I’ve also got to fit the rest of my hospital placements in to finish off getting my tubes, and then pass everything else, and hopefully, by the exam board in June, that will be me done! It’s very scary that it’s been nearly 2 years that I’ve been on this course, and I’m going to be qualified soon, and it will be me with the responsibility. More and more now I am taking jobs that are the serious ones and making the clinical decisions on whether to give drugs, insert a cannula, and go in on blue lights as I don’t want to hang around. Today, was one of those days where we have go to hospital on blues or about 75% of the patients today, all being different in there own way. I’m looking forward to the day that my last essay is handed in, then I’m sure everyone off the course will be going out and celebrating. I just hope they go well!

TP

I did not really have a good day yesterday.  It was the first time since I have been back, that my mother and I disagreed on something.  Now our disagreements usually turn into full blown wars because neither of us is willing to give into the other because we both think that the other is in the wrong.  Yesterday though, it was all Sainsbury’s fault!

It all started because my mom has been ill recently with a slipped disk, and has hardly been able to move.  So she asked me this week if I would go and help her do the shopping because she was unable to bend.  I was quite happy to do this, but I said a few days before that I would go and help with the shopping, and only the shopping as Sainsbury’s, along with other supermarkets, has placed clothes in there stores.  Now this is all well and good when people are shopping on their own, but when they chose to take their son’s and husband’s along for the ride, I would have thought it inevitable that there would be arguments. 

I know how much my mom likes their clothes, so I said that I would drive also, and when the shopping is complete, it could be paid for, and then I would leave with it, leaving her to look at the clothes.  This offer was turned down, and so I was forced to wait with the trolley while she browsed the rails.  Well this only caused me to revert to my 10-year old self, asking ‘mom’, ‘mom’ every 2 minutes.  I really don’t like going shopping.  When I do go, I quickly go and pick something I like, ty it on, buy it and leave!  I understand that women seem to have some form of mental block on this concept, so why if you want a nice stress free shop, do you take your men along? I know that some like going shopping, and thats fair enough, but for those that don’t, please don’t get calling them selfish (amongst other things) for not wanting to do “something that I want to do”.  Any resulting arguments are completely unnecessary, and only create more annoyance.

One good thing though about yesterday was a friend and I were the only ones out of our group that went to the local quiz.  After assistance from around half the nation, we came 2nd, and have £10 to spend on drink before next week.  The day perked up after that.

TP

Well a lot has happened since my last post, which was quite a while a go.  There has been Christmas, the annoying sales, New Year, and I’ve handed a few pieces of work in.  I enjoyed Christmas and everything associated with it, although the family meter rose so much that it burst under the pressure.  One of my friends had a Nintendo Wii, so obviously I volunteered to go and help him try it out.  My arms wish I hadn’t though as the day after, they felt like lead.  It didn’t stop me from going back for more though.  I don’t really like New Year, I find it really boring and a real let down as your sort of expected to do something, even if you don’t want to.  I have never actually worked a New Year before, and I couldn’t see what it was like this year as we are not insured by the service to work in the holidays, but then why would I want to?

 We had 2 lots of work to be in on the 3rd on January, one by email and the other actually had to be handed in as it was our placement folder.  Our lecturers wanted them in to look at and see that we are progressing.  We also had to do 2 Critical Reflection’s on some jobs that I had been to, and we had a list of 12 possible areas.  I chose a Respiratory problem, and an RTC.  I completely changed the way that I wrote them this time, as I didn’t do so good the last time around.  Not many people know how to write their portfolio’s, not even fully qualified paramedic’s, so I’m hoping that my new style will get more more points than the last one.  The jobs I used, I wrote about in this post.  I also used a lot more references in my work, to show that I have read around the subject.  We have 4 more of these to be in for May, along with a 3000 word essay for April, and 2 1500 word essays for May also.  As I have a 1.5 weeks left before we go back, and with nothing else to do, I have started getting research for these essays. 

When I’m usually at home in the holiday’s, I work at the local leisure centre where I work as both a Lifeguard and on the reception desk.  I didn’t ask for any shifts before my essays had to be in though as I knew that I would get distracted while I am finishing them.  Unfortunately when I did ring, they had already been given out before the holidays.  Luckily, as I had gone to the work’s Christmas party, people had seen my face, and knew that I was available so I’ve had quite a few since.  Even though they might only be short, I always think how much I would have earned and when I add it all up, it all helps.  this is especially true at the moment, as even though I’m going to the States in September, I’m getting some Dollar’s now while the exchange rate is still high, as if they do lower interest rates, I can see it dropping. 

Yesterday, I went to see Burnley vs Arsenal in the FA Cup.  I’ve supported Burnley for as long as I remember, and although we didn’t win the game, it was good to see a great team at Turf Moor even though it wasn’t really the 1st team, their reserves are still excellent players.  I got the tickets as my dads Christmas present, and as his birthday is coming up, I thought I might as well make it an all expenses paid trip, with me driving up, the pint or two when we were there, and the chinese takeaway upon return.  It was a good day, although I was quite tired when I got back.  Part of that was due to the anger I vented at other drivers on the motorway.

After my 2 days at Uni next week, I will be back home again as it’s my Aunt’s 50th birthday, and it will also be the last time I get to see my cousin before she jets off to Australia for 6 months, so I won’t be doing any placement shifts until at least the 21st.  By that time, I would have had a complete month off, and I’m looking forward to getting back into it.  I hope everyone has had a good holiday.

TP

I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, I hope you all enjoy the next few week’s if your off.  I know some of you may not, and I probably won’t be this time next year if all goes well, but it’s still a nice time of year, when most people are in a good mood, even my parent’s!

Enjoy the holidays.

TP

Well I’ve had a break over the last few days where I went on a trip to the north east visiting a friend of mine whom I knew from my time in Chester.  I realised that I had never actually been this far north, so it was a whole new experience for me.  I was under the stereotypical impression of the area, in that it being a less-affluent area of the country.  That was partly confirmed but there was also some very beautiful places to see, which include Durham, which is one of the places I visited.  Durham is a lovely city, and as it was a beautiful day, you could just stroll around take everything in.  I even tried some local sweets called ‘Black Bullets’ which I thought were great, even though they are just pure sugar.  This is probably the reason that I like them.  If I had just been randomly placed in the NE, I would have had no idea where in the country I was, there loads of quaint English villages with only the most rural parts being what I imagined.  I can honestly say I had a really good time and will be going back at some point to carry on doing a little exploring.  I did though have a little trouble understanding some people.  My friend has a ‘geordie’ accent but it is not that strong, but when we were doing some shopping around a local supermarket, I had to concentrate to understand what people were saying.  It made me laugh, as people who are not from where I live have trouble understanding what I say, which was shown when I went to the States over the summer.  We went to a lovely country pub, and I visited my friend’s place of work who had completed a P.G.C.E and now had a job in a school.  Teaching was a career I had considered before I chose the ambulance service, and I still think it is a good job, but I wouldn’t be very good with unruly pupils, as I think I would get annoyed to quickly.  I’m glad that I chose the course that I’m doing now though.

The journey started off really well, as for some reason I was in 1st class!  Now this is the first time that I have ever travelled 1st class, and this was only because that it was the cheapest ticket going!  I get money off anyway with the Young-Persons railcard, but I have no idea I’d book 1st class until I went to collect my tickets.  It was while I was at work and we were on the way back to station when we stopped off so that I could pick up my tickets.  I got to the front and gave the clerk my reservation number, and when he was printing them off, he looked at my and said ‘1st class?’ with a quizzical look on his face.  I replied that I had no idea, I had just booked the cheapest tickets that were available.  It was only when I was actually on the train that I realised that when he was looking at me he must have been thinking ‘this guy doesn’t look like a 1st class passenger to me’, which has always been true!  There were tea cups on each of the tables, and the seat’s seemed to be extra comfy.  It was sat there watching the people who had boarded the wrong carriage have to move, and my parent’s sarcastically wondered why I hadn’t gone with them.  You got a hot drink, and then I was offered biscuits and some non-branded crisps.  I had no idea if these were free, and I didn’t want to ask if they were, so I just said no thankyou to avoid the embarassment and the other passangers realising that I was tredding on their turf!  Unfortunately I didn’t have that much time to get used to my new surrounding’s and I was back in standard class for the journey back.  Unless I win the lottery, I can’t see me having to many journey’slike that again.

I have always loved travelling the country by train (when there are no delay’s) as I find it really relaxing to have my ipod in, and just stare out of the window watching the world go by.  It shows you what a beautiful country that we live in, and gives you a great chance to just chill.  Roll on my next travels!

TP

Well hello there! It’s been about 6 weeks since my last post, and I’m getting ready to go back to Uni again on Monday.  We had a meeting on tuesday where we were told about what was going to happen in the next year, and how the course has changed due to it being revalidated by the HPC, and so everything is going to be totally different.  The one big difference is that where the main exams used to be at the end of the year, usually May time, where hopefully if all went well, we would progress into the hospital’s to do our cannulation and intubation.  This has now changed in that we will be assessed on our cannulation November time, and if we pass it, then the Trust have said that we will be able to cannulate out on the road.  this was my understanding of the meeting anyway.  This is a very big change and has not been done before in any previous year’s of the course, so I’m interested to see how it pan’s out.  I think it is going to be very beneficial to us, as we won’t have as many exam’s come may, and we can practice these skills out on the road. 

I’m anticipating this year to absolutely fly by, as I know there will be a lot of work and reading to do, and when there is placement as well, there won’t be anytime to stop and think.  I’ve really missed it though over the 6 weeks that I’ve been off.  Whenever I see ambulance’s going past, I always start thinking about when my 1st shift back is going to be, and how I am going to be there for real in a year’s time.  It may be sad, but it put’s a smile on my face, I actually do want to do this job!  After this meeting, we had a chance to meet the new 1st year’s who then came on a night out with us and they all seem like a really nice bunch, who seem just as eager as we were 12 months ago.  Two of our lecturers have left and so we are going to have to get used to the new staff, as well as the new course, and we’ve even been kicked out of the main health building (because we don’t bring in a lot of money) and moved to a building next door, although a positive of this is that it should just be our room.

My time off has taken me to the west coast of the States, from Seattle to San Francisco, and it was fantastic.  I saw some amazing sites, and it was one of the best experiences of my life.  Although we did get visited by some bear’s one night, which I could have sworn were the biggest in north america, but thankfully they were black bear’s and were more interested in the steak that someone in another group had left in their cooler.  One bear’s though did decided to urinate about a foot from the entrance to one of our tent’s, when there were people inside the tent, a danish couple, who then the next night said they didn’t really sleep at all, well he didn’t!  It was a great mix of people, 5 English, 2 Northern Ireland, 1 Swiss, 1 German, 2 Danish and 1 Australian, and combined with our American tour guide made for an interesting group.

We are in Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday for the 1st 2 weeks and then just Thursday, Friday after that, so we will be able to go out on placement during that time aswell, although my mentor’s wife is due to have a baby, so I’ll probably be swapping between paramedic’s during that time. We shall see how it goes!

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