Being a Medic, the roller coaster(part 4)

 I want to tell you some things that people have not told you when you or before you get into EMS. If you are like I was, I grew up seeing some type of emergency type shows. Nowadays I don't even watch them, I can't watch them really because they are so fake it isn't even funny. The ones that follow or do the ride-alongs with EMS are real but only show the cool calls. 

The majority of the calls that paramedics ride these days are not the type of calls that need an ambulance. The days of common sense are gone. When I was growing up there was never an ambulance called for anything that happened to us. I was stupid once and hit a horse on the butt to get it to move out of the way, the horse spun to run and kicked out hitting me in the head. I fell to the ground with blood gushing from it. My dad scooped me up, I was put in my mom's arms in the front seat and we headed home. Mom was a first aid instructor and she knew what needed to be done. She held direct pressure as it was only a flesh wound, once home I got a couple Band-Aids and that was it.

People these days are more worried about themselves and there is little sense of community. We can live next to the same people for 10 years and never know anything about them. We get dispatched to falls that require lift assists, and we get calls to help people into and out of houses or cars. Back in the day, you just called your friends, family, or neighbors. There are calls that people just really need someone to talk to or to do small things for them that they cannot do for themselves. Elderly people are living longer and they are afraid to be alone and they don't want to bother people by asking them to do things for them. 

The next issue that we are having, this is not a local issue this is a national and probably an international issue. There is a severe shortage of paramedics, EMTs, firefighters, and police officers. I can talk about the EMS side and the fire dept as I have been or am a part of them. The EMS services are not considered essential, the local, state, and national governments for the most part do not feel that we are needed. We don't(for the most part) get money from the state or national government as the fire and law enforcement entities do. We survive on what we bring in through billing and what we are given from our local government and that is a fraction of what the essential entities get. In most services, the salaries are usually the issue with staffing and retention. The people that do work at these services are asked and at times told that they need to work overtime to keep the trucks running. Most people don't understand what it is like to be on a truck for 24-48 hours at a time. There are shifts that you are going 20 -22 hours in the 24-hour shift, we are expected to be 100% all of the time. Do you know that the local trash truck operator makes more than the average paramedic?

The last thing that I want to bring up is the caliber of people that are getting into EMS these days. This is not just in EMS but in the workforce in general. People want top dollar for their time but they don't want to put in top effort to get that money. When I started, I wanted to learn everything I could learn, I wanted to ride all the calls that I could ride. I wanted to be the best at what I did. I rode call after call without complaining. Now, no matter if you are brand new or a seasoned person, you're expected to be seen as equals. You need to pay your dues, you need to earn respect as it is not given freely. There is nobody in EMS who knows everything, we all need to keep learning, and we all need to keep trying to be the best. I have been in EMS for almost 22 years, I rode a call the other day that was humbling. I had to use all my knowledge just minutes after dreaming in bed. I knew what I had to do, I would like to say it all went smoothly but it didn't. I doubt myself on how everything went, I didn't do anything wrong but the doubt is still there. 

"Always strive to improve yourself to be better today than you were yesterday" Author unknown