Things I've learned as Paramedic

I think I am going to start a small multi-part series about the things I have learned in life so far. Obviously, I have to start with my paramedic beeing. :)

• People Lie I know that sounds like something you should know anyway, but as a paramedic, I have to rely on the pieces of information the patient or his relatives tell us. I know it might sound strange when I say people don’t always tell the truth about their health, but sadly it is the truth. And with false information or information that isn’t passed onto us, accidents and problems arise really quickly.
• People need to be told what to do One of the things we learn while in training is to tell people what to do. I am not talking about the patient themselves now, but relatives and curious onlookers. I was at a car accident a while back. People stood around the car and watched. Nobody did anything to help the injured people in the car. The first thing to do, take your index finger and point at people and tell them what to do. “You, call the emergency!”, “You over there, help me with this.”. People are really afraid to make mistakes and because they could potentially make a mistake, they do nothing at all. As soon as someone takes over and makes clear what needs to be done, people will follow the orders. I think that has something to do with responsibility, if someone tells me to do something, I could always say that he told me to do so, even if it was wrong. People hate to take responsibility.
• Don’t tell patients or relatives everything is going to be good Sounds harsh, but it is one of the worst things you could do to a patient or his relatives. A car accident victim with some serious injuries has large chance of survival because of the security mechanisms implemented in today’s cars. But with both legs or hands, broken nothing is going to be good anytime soon. A heart attack or stroke? Sure those things can be treated today, but life normally changes totally after such incident.
• Especially for accidents: Tell them what happened and about their injuries, but don’t say anything about other peoples in the car or in other cars. We can only work on one patient at a time (“Treat first what kills first”). Sometimes at accidents, with more than one car it is easy to lose focus if you try to get the state of all patients. In a perfect world, every patient is treated immediately. It is good for people to know their health state to keep them awake and keep them focused on your voice, so they don’t think about their pain. Obviously it doesn’t help the patient if I am telling him that she probably killed the people in the other car, where one might be a child. It’s just going to make the situation worse. The only exception to this is when nothing really bad happened and all get off lightly.
• Things you aren’t prepared for Normally we only get a small description of what happened while driving to the home of a patient or to the street where the accident happened. Be always prepared for the worst you could think of from this short description. If it isn’t as bad as expected as you arrive, you immediately “beath out” and feel more relaxed. If it is equal as worse as you thought or even more worse, at least you are prepared.
• Never ever dispute or shout with your colleagues in front of patients or relatives I don’t think I have to explain that much. Would you like two paramedics who shout at each other, or two who seem like they work together as brothers or sisters? You can always sort things out later, the patient has priority. Always.
• Treat patient like you want to be treated yourself One day I could be the one with the heart attack and I would want the best treatment available and the most trained and educated staff.
• Forget about people who say you can’t park here If you’re not blocking an emergency exit or an approach for firefighters, there is no reason to not block the whole street if no other opportunity is available. People who shout at you because of such things don’t think about that one day they could be the once injured and waiting for paramedics.
• Don’t be afraid to distribute orders As I have written before, people like to fulfil orders. It is more than okay to tell somebody to drive his car away if it is in the way. It is also no problem if you are direct at your orders. Even though we aren’t police officers, people should follow our orders with the same respect.
• Deaths aren’t easy People die at home. Every day every time. That is the meaning of life. Relatives are going to cry. And there is nothing wrong if you have to cry yourself. I know of paramedics who cried the whole time while they were driving back to their home base after they couldn’t bring back a one-year-old. Speak about it. With your colleagues or with professionals.
• Don’t take your work back home In an episode of the tv series 9-1-1 Athena Grant (played by Angela Bassett) talks to someone why they are wearing uniforms. I can’t remember the exact words, but it something like this: “We wear uniforms because we can take them off at the end of the day. Everything bad happening on that day happens to the uniform. As soon as we take it off, we let loose of the day and don’t think about what happened anymore”.
• Talk about problems and struggles This one goes with the one of above. We are all just humans and sometimes it is easy to forget that paramedics aren’t an exception. But, as with every other “club” or “society” you are not the only one with problems and struggles, there is always somebody you can tell about your problems, but that has one condition: you need to have an open ear for the problems of the person you’re talking to. One way communication won’t work here.
• Work as a team Wow, I didn’t thank that part would come that late in the list, but sometimes things just seem granted and get forgotten. As it is everywhere in life there are people you think are not your “should height”, people who do things you don’t like. That is just life. I have gotten one or two paramedic colleagues I don’t like myself, but again there is one key point: if you have to work together, do it. Without any exception. There is no way and no reason you could “hate” a person that much that you can’t work with her or him on a professional level.
• Self-Protection before protecting of others Another thing that sounds egoistic, but it doesn’t help anyone if you run into a burning house and then need help yourself. Or if you try to get someone out of an acid liquid and then suffer from the toxic fumes yourself.