"Are you the driver???"
...and and 9 other really stupid questions to never ask a paramedic.
"Do you have to go to school to be a paramedic?"
"What are you going to do when you are done with this job?"
"Has anyone ever died on you?"
"How did THAT feel?"
"Do you drive every where with the lights and sirens on?"
"Do you know how to get to the hospital?"
when i'm working with a male-"Is that your husband?"
when i'm working with another female-"Where is the man?"
or better yet- "How are you girls gonna lift me?"
ok, now a quick rant...i understand a lot of people have no idea exactly what paramedics can and can't do, but i'm always so shocked when people think we literally scoop people up and just drive to the hospital.
we had a call, i told the family member we were going to start an IV, hook her up to the cardiac monitor, check her glucose level, and call the hospital. i told him he would probably beat us to the hospital if he left then, since it's only a mile away. so, when we show up, he sez "geez, i thought maybe you got into an accident, i've been here for 10 minutes, waiting." no "thank you," just "where were you?"
thank you, but yes, i did go to school to be a paramedic. i can read and interpret 40 or so different EKG rhythms and treat that rhythm with a myriad of cardiac drugs. i am not only trained in CPR, but advanced cardiac life saving skills. we carry about 40 different meds/narcs and i have to know everything about them; when to use them, when not to use them, their trade name, their generic name, their dosage and route. then, there are about 40 more that we don't carry, but i know all about, if a patient is on them. i can treat acute heart attacks, asthma attacks, allergic reactions, respitory arrest, GI bleeds, siezures, drug overdoses, labor and delivery, diabetic emergencies, psychological emergencies, and oh yea, trauma of any kind, choking, shock, hypotension, hypertension, and pediatric advanced life saving skills...we do more than drive.
and that family member, well, his sister was given waaaaay to much morphine and she was overdosing. we stopped that. well, actually, i did, my partner was an idiot, and i thought right away she had the signs of an OD, and i had to argue with my partner about pushing the Narcan. it worked, and when she came to, she started to bitch about being cold and her brother was mad because we made her cold. everyone tried to explain why we did what we did, but he thought the "stupor" she was in was better then her complaining. he was probably right. but, i was too pissed to care because my partner sat there and took all the credit when the RN and MD said it probably was a morphine OD, and what a good job we did. he fucking took ALL the credit. this guy has no backbone, and had no idea what to do with this patient. as of today, he's no longer my partner. tomorrow, i start at a new station, one 5 minutes from my house, and i'll be working with a friend of mine.
ok, i'm done.
"Do you have to go to school to be a paramedic?"
"What are you going to do when you are done with this job?"
"Has anyone ever died on you?"
"How did THAT feel?"
"Do you drive every where with the lights and sirens on?"
"Do you know how to get to the hospital?"
when i'm working with a male-"Is that your husband?"
when i'm working with another female-"Where is the man?"
or better yet- "How are you girls gonna lift me?"
ok, now a quick rant...i understand a lot of people have no idea exactly what paramedics can and can't do, but i'm always so shocked when people think we literally scoop people up and just drive to the hospital.
we had a call, i told the family member we were going to start an IV, hook her up to the cardiac monitor, check her glucose level, and call the hospital. i told him he would probably beat us to the hospital if he left then, since it's only a mile away. so, when we show up, he sez "geez, i thought maybe you got into an accident, i've been here for 10 minutes, waiting." no "thank you," just "where were you?"
thank you, but yes, i did go to school to be a paramedic. i can read and interpret 40 or so different EKG rhythms and treat that rhythm with a myriad of cardiac drugs. i am not only trained in CPR, but advanced cardiac life saving skills. we carry about 40 different meds/narcs and i have to know everything about them; when to use them, when not to use them, their trade name, their generic name, their dosage and route. then, there are about 40 more that we don't carry, but i know all about, if a patient is on them. i can treat acute heart attacks, asthma attacks, allergic reactions, respitory arrest, GI bleeds, siezures, drug overdoses, labor and delivery, diabetic emergencies, psychological emergencies, and oh yea, trauma of any kind, choking, shock, hypotension, hypertension, and pediatric advanced life saving skills...we do more than drive.
and that family member, well, his sister was given waaaaay to much morphine and she was overdosing. we stopped that. well, actually, i did, my partner was an idiot, and i thought right away she had the signs of an OD, and i had to argue with my partner about pushing the Narcan. it worked, and when she came to, she started to bitch about being cold and her brother was mad because we made her cold. everyone tried to explain why we did what we did, but he thought the "stupor" she was in was better then her complaining. he was probably right. but, i was too pissed to care because my partner sat there and took all the credit when the RN and MD said it probably was a morphine OD, and what a good job we did. he fucking took ALL the credit. this guy has no backbone, and had no idea what to do with this patient. as of today, he's no longer my partner. tomorrow, i start at a new station, one 5 minutes from my house, and i'll be working with a friend of mine.
ok, i'm done.