A while back I posted a question on what you all think a paramedic is.. I said i would post my project but it is far too large to do so.. but this is part of what I included in it. I have no idea who the author is but it says alot about the profession on a personal level. This always gets to me when I read it... HOpe you all like it..
When God made EMT's and Paramedics....
When the Lord made EMT's and Paramedics,
he was into his sixth day of overtime when an angel appeared and said.
"You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one,"
And the Lord said,
"Have you read the specs on this order?"
An EMT/Paramedic has to be able to carry an injured person up a wet,
grassy hill in the dark, dodge stry bullets to reach a dying child unarmed, enter homes a health inspector wouldn't touch, and not wrinkle their uniform."
"He has to be able to lift three times his own weight, crawl into wrecked cars with barely enough room to move, and console a grieving mother as he is doing CPR on a baby he knows will never breathe again."
"He has to be in top mental condition at all times, running on no sleep, black coffee, and half eaten meals. And he has to have six pairs of hands."
The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands.... no way."
"It's not the hands that are causing me problems," said the Lord, "It's the three pairs of eyes an EMT/Medic has to have."
"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.
The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees open sores as he's drawing blood and asks the patient if they may be HIV positive," (When he already knows and wishes he'd taken that accounting job.)
"Another pair here ont he side of his head for his partner's safety. Another pair of eyes here int he front that can look reassuringly at a bleeding victim and say'You'll be alright ma'am' when he knows it isn't so."
"Lord," said the angel, touching his sleeve, "rest and work on this tomorrow."
"I can't," said the Lord, "I already have a model that can talk a 250 pound drunk out from behind a steering wheel without incident and feed a family of five on a private service paycheck."
The angel circled the model of the paramedic very slowly, "Can it think?" she asked.
"You bet," said the Lord. "It can tell you the symptoms of 100 illnesses, recite drug calculations in its sleep; intubate, defibrillate, medicate, andcontinue CPR nonstop over terrain that any doctor would fear... and still it keeps its sense of humor."
"This EMT/Medic also has phenominal control. He can deal with a multi-victim trauma, coax a frightened elderly person to unlock their door, comfort a murder victim's family, and then read in the daily paper how EMT's and Paramedics were unable to locate a house quickly enough, allowing a person to die. A house which had no street sign, no house numbers, no phone to call back."
Finally, the angel bent over and ran her hand across the cheek of the EMT/Paramedic.
"There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told you that you were trying to put too much into this model."
"That's not a leak." said the Lord, "It's a tear."
"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.
"It's for bottled-up emotions, for patients they tried in vain to save, for cmmitment to hope that they will make a difference in a person's chance to survive, for life."
It's definitly a passion. I love that I can be there to support and care about ppl when things aren't so good. Thats something I wish I had in my life many times. Its hard knowing that there is only so much you can do though, sometimes that just about kills you. I think the hardest things are the children, it ripps your heart out, and ppl crying and asking you to please not let them die, its hard. Lots of sleepless nights and lots of tears. But God there is no where else I'd rather be than in the back of that ambulance pouring everything I've got into helping my patient. Damn I still can't read that poen without bawling, what a sap....
EMT's generally go through about 110 hours in the classroom and ~8hours of ER observation prior to obtaining certification versus paramedics...they do an additional 1000+ hrs classroom training and ~500+ hrs in rotations in the following:...Adult ER, Pediatrics ER, ICU/SICU/PICU, OB/GYN, Psych, OR/Anethesia, Morgue, and Ambulance...give or take a few. Plus I think Paramedics can push drugs out in the field whereas EMTs cannot. Ever watch EMERGENCY! ? Johnny Gage was a Paramedic.
Ok here and emt is like a first responder, they go thru about 2oo hrs classroom and can do cpr and some airway manovers, and defib and they drive the suv's with minimal equipment. a paramedic is like a level two in the states- we have 1200hrs classroom, 582hrs ambulance rideouts, 20 hr er, 20 hrs obs, and 10 plus hours teaching etc.. we also do volunteer at events. our skill sets are - trauma and medical emergency care, defib, cardiac monitoring (we have to be able to read ecg's), drug admins and protocol's- nitro ,asa, epi, glycogon, sulbutomal; airway manovers and adjuncts, i.v. starts and some fluid replacment, and pysc issues and obs. then there is acp which has more drugs and can intubate and a few other things as well as manovers, then ccp which are like traveling doc's just about- they usually work life flight.
think I have a lump in my throat now. Always held em in the highest respect think there are few jobs that are as mentaly and physicaly draining as this one and the money doesnt begin to reflect the dedication
re: what is a paramedic
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