The Medic Dad Chronicles

Doner I used to have EMT students assigned to me all the time. One particular day, mid-shift, I got another one. I did a quick partner swap and picked up a student who had ridden with me before. Not long after we all got in the truck, a call went out for a shooting. When we arrived, PD was already in the residence's backyard. From where I stood, I could see the patient lying face down on the ground. We grabbed the stretcher, and one of the officers looked at me in a way that said everything without saying a word: they’re dead . We walked right past the patient’s mother. She was sitting on the stairs, talking to an officer, crying loudly, and trying to answer questions through it. No one moved her. No one stopped her. There wasn’t time. I got to the patient and rolled them over. They gasped. Most of the time, I’m good at keeping my mouth shut when odd thoughts pop into my head. Not this time. The second I realized what was happening, I said it out loud. “DONER!” The patient had shot...

Take Your Own Advice Healthcare workers give some of the best advice—and follow the least of it. As healthcare providers, we sit across from people every day and tell them what they should do, what they shouldn’t do, what they should eat, what they shouldn’t drink, what meds they need to take, and what lifestyle changes they really need to make. We say it with confidence. We say it because we know it’s true. And then we go right back to doing the exact opposite. I was talking with a patient the other day who was dealing with some psychological issues. We were talking about medications, and she told me she had been prescribed some but stopped taking them because she didn’t like how they made her feel. Instead of lecturing her, I told her the truth. I told her I’m on my third psych medication. The first two did absolutely nothing for me. I told her that meds aren’t one-size-fits-all and that sometimes it takes a few tries to find the right one. I encouraged her to talk to her PCP and see...

  Where Are All the Medics Going? I recently noticed the National Registry of EMTs mentioned an article called “Not Just 9-1-1: The Expanded Work Environment of United States Emergency Medical Service Clinicians.” After reading it, I thought it was important to discuss it—not from an academic perspective, but from a real-life standpoint we all know. The article isn’t wrong. But it also doesn’t tell the whole story. There’s no mystery here. There’s no hidden data point. And we really don’t need another study to explain what’s happening. EMS call volumes keep going up. The number of people willing to work on the truck keeps going down. Every street medic already knows why. What the Numbers Actually Say (and What They Really Mean) The study reports that about 75% of EMS clinicians still say their main job is emergency response. That might look fine on paper. But here’s what really matters: almost half of EMTs and paramedics say they need more than one job just to get b...