This time last year I was thinking the exact same thing. My thought process was something along the lines of – I’m early 20s, university has failed me, current job has zero satisfaction, and I want a challenging job with good career prospects.

So what did I do? After much deliberation I decided that one of the emergency services would be the answer and researched each one individually. There are numerous pros and cons for each that I could go into but on this occasion I’ll refrain. Ultimately, the deciding factor that tipped the scales in favour of EMS (Emergency Medical Service) was continued education and opportunities for research.

I anticipate that a great deal of people will be looking for a career change in favour of EMS and with Student Paramedic opportunities cropping up all the time there has never been a better time.

To help you decide whether EMS is for you I’ve compiled a list of reasons as to why you SHOULDN’T join the Ambulance Service:

1. You enjoy knowing what you’ll be doing on a certain day more than 4 weeks in the future – unless you have a shift, 4 weeks in advance is all you’ll get.
2. You need more than 6 hours sleep before returning to work for your fifth 12 hour shift in a row – sleep pattern disturbance is inevitable.
3. You buckle under pressure – nerves are normal but to act rationally at an emergency is imperative.
4. You don’t have people skills and the ability to talk to people – to obtain a detailed and relative history when a relative is seriously injured or even deceased requires tactfulness and empathy.
5. You are massively overweight and about as much use as a chocolate tea pot when it comes to lifting - despite a minimal lifting approach you WILL be manually handling patients (heavy ones).
6. You have an insatiable appetite for money – the NHS won’t accommodate it.
7. You don’t enjoy making decisions in the best interests of others – patients will trust your clinical skills, the decisions you make can be the difference between life and death.
8. You never were interested in self taught education – EMS need to know a little about a lot and in some cases a lot about a little. It’s up-to you the clinician to maintain your knowledge and competencies via self directed learning. “I forgot your honour”. Will not suffice.
9. You have delusions of speeding around the city and attending major incidents everyday just like they do on casualty -  it’s never like it is on the telly.
10. You don’t think you’ll like driving with blue lights and a siren – let’s face it, this is one of the main reasons people join the Emergency Services. When the job comes in and it’s a genuine emergency I defy you not to feel butterflies in your stomach.

So what do you think? Do you agree with my opinions? I’m sure there are plenty more reasons as to why you shouldn’t join the Ambulance service, what are you the most relevant to you? Feel free to leave a comment and voice your opinion.

Thermal image of a person

On Friday I was issued two pairs of Technician epaulettes, a competence record book, given a final tutorial and shook by the hand just minutes prior to being ushered out of the training school. This it seems signified the start of my stint as a Student Paramedic. After eight weeks of clinical training, numerous tests and assessments, with plenty of hiccups I was deemed ‘able’ to be unleashed to the public.

But, am I? I don’t think so. Okay, so I have passed all the tests and practicals therefore demonstrating that I have the theoretical knowledge and practical ability to resuscitate a dummy, but, that is a far cry from reality I suspect.

A parting comment from my tutor was thus…

We don’t expect you to be an all singing all dancing technician from day one. What we do expect is that you pin your ears back and listen to your colleagues, for the next 12 months is when the real learning takes place.

I fully understand the sentiment contained within these words and am fully aware the next year or so of my career will present the steepest learning curve. I relish this challenge with gusto.

For now I have three weeks of driver training, a time to let the hair down, unless of course we stumble across an rtc on our travels.

The Student Paramedic course comprises three modules at the the technician level. These are:

Module D

Introduction to the body

Lifting and Handling Equipment

Respiratory

Circulatory

Cardiac Monitoring

Airway Management & Resuscitation

Examination & Assessment

Assisting the Technician

Infants and Children

Module E

Nervous System

Nervous Disorders

Skeletal

Musculoskeletal Trauma

Wounds & Bleeding

Infectious Diseases

Infants & Children

Module F

Digestive System

Diabetes & Glucagon

Law & Ambulance Staff

Major Incidents

Poisoning

Extremes of Body Temperature

Maternity

Haemodialysis

Acute Abdominal Problems

Infants & Children

Module D was the first to be tackled and in my opinion is the most interesting and important. It is the most important because it introduces the foundation on which the Student Paramedic will build their skills upon. The fundamentals of Ambulance aid are the A B Cs, that is Airway, Breathing and Circulation. Any prospective Student Paramedic will find that this mnemonic will be drilled home from the very first day of training school. It is the most interesting module simply because it introduces the anatomy and physiology of the human body, to people that have never studies A&P it is fascinating to learn the various important facts and figures.

Module E was in my opinion the most difficult and presented the greatest information overload. The nervous system is a complexed system and required a lot of attention to absorb the “need to know” aspects. It was easy to get carried away with the complexity of the system and delve into the various types of nervous responses, an area that is simply not required at this stage of training, as they tutors call it a “nice to know”. Combining the nervous system with the recognition of 21 cardiac rhythms and subsequent test, plus wounds and bleeding assessment in a 7 day period was a big ask. A couple of students failed various parts of this module compared to a clean sweep pass of module D pays testament to the degree of difficulty it posed.

Module F has just been completed by myself. Well I say completed, the tests and assessment have been completed but the training team are reserving the right to withhold our results until the final Friday. This is an attempt to curb complacency as we go about practical scenarios in various parts of the county. The rumours from previous courses was that F was the most challenging module, however, the general consensus among the group was the opposite. The maternity part was the scariest and appears to be the most daunting emergency discussed amongst the group.

You may have noticed the Infants & Children are covered in each module. Dealing with children will present the biggest problem to me as a probationary Technician simply because they are vastly different to adults in terms of A&P and their system dynamics. It is true to say that children are not simply small adults! Add this to the fact that people are naturally more sympathetic to children and you can see how it can easily become a trainees worst nightmare. I recently read a blog article from a BASICS Doctor and it was comforting yet equally unnerving to read…

As we get nearer, I see a group of people kneeling down. I see the victim, and my heart sinks. I rush back to the car to get my paediatric bag, as my head screams at me, “A child! It’s a child!”

It is reassuring to read that a Doctor finds dealing with children different to the everyday adult jobs, yet, if that is how an experienced Doctor felt I wonder how I’ll be on that dreaded first serious job?

I started this post by saying the past 8 weeks have been the fastest and most significant in terms of education and I stand by this. To think that after 40 days of training on my colleagues and Resusci Annie I will be out on the road and blue light driving to people’s emergencies is a prospect that I’m relishing with a degree of apprehension. I’m assuming that on average a person in the western world will call 999 once in their lifetime. This 1 call is THEIR emergency and as such will be the only time they get to experience the life protecting, preserving and promotional skills of a trained Ambulance person. For this reason I have apprehension. I know that I have the theoretical knowledge but people are not exam answer sheets to write on. People are not knowledgeable colleague or plastic practice props, they are real people having real emergencies.

If there is one tip that I can impart on prospective Student Paramedics it is this; find out what is need to know and focus your attention on it, learn it verbatim and then if confident, take a look at the nice to know.