22 October 2005

The facts about my Job

Air goes in and out, blood goes round and round, any variation on this is bad.
Try not to discuss "your day" at the family dinner table.
You may not install a "car catcher" on the front of the ambulance.
The more equipment you see on a Technicians belt, the newer they are.
Examine all chest clutchers first, bleeders next, then the rest of the whiners.
When dealing with citizens, if it felt good saying it, it was wrong.
All bleeding stops... eventually.
You can't cure stupid.
If it's wet and sticky and not yours -- LEAVE IT ALONE !!!
"Riding shotgun" does not mean you shoot the tires of non-stopping vehicles.
If at all possible, avoid any edible item that fire fighters prepare.
A job in the ambulance service is extended periods of boredom, interrupted by moments of sheer terror.
Every emergency has three phases: PANIC... FEAR... REMORSE.
A good tape job will fix almost anything.
Yuppies involved in accidents complain how bumpy the ambulance ride is.
It's not a compliment when Policemen say you're crude, crass & cynical.
The severity of the injury is directly proportional to the weight of the patient.
Turret mounted machine guns usually work better than lights and sirens.
Schedule your days off to avoid working during full phases of the Moon.
There is no such thing as a "textbook case".
You've come to conclude 90% of all drunks are a waste of protoplasm.
Never refer to someone in respiratory distress as a "Smurf".
Automatically multiply by 3 the number of drinks they claim to have had.
Your social skills will be lacking, if all your anecdotes deal with blood.
Assume every female between 6 and 106 is pregnant until proven otherwise.
Get very, very scared when a child is too quiet.
Don't place bets on the glucose level of an unresponsive patient.
You cannot institute a surcharge for unruly or surly patients.
It is not necessary to have a pet name for your cardiac monitor.
As long as stupidity remains epidemic in the UK, you have job security.
Don't worry about the gunshot wound as much as dealing with the family.

All emergency calls will wait until you begin to eat, regardless of the time.
Corollary 1:
Fewer accidents would occur if ambulance personnel would never eat.
Corollary 2:
Always order food "to go".

The Paramedical Laws of Time:
There is absolutely no relationship between the time at which you are supposed to get off shift and the time at which you will get off shift. Given the following equation: T + 1 Minute = Relief Time, "T" will always be the time of the last call of your shift. E.g., If you are supposed to get off shift at 08:00, your last run will come in at 07:59. (Or if you have early relief coming in you will see you relief sitting at the first stop light from the station, waving!)

The Paramedical Law of Gravity:
Any instrument, when dropped, will always come to rest in the least accessible place possible.

The Paramedical Law of Time And Distance:
The distance of the call from the Hospital increases as the time to shift change decreases.
Corollary 1:
The shortest distance between the station and the scene is under construction.

The Paramedical Rule of Random Synchronicity:
Emergency calls will randomly come in all at once.

The Rule of Respiratory Arrest: All patients who are vomiting and must be intubated will have just completed a large meal of Barbecue and Onions, Garlic Pizza, and Pickled Herring, all of which was washed down with at least three cans of Beer.

The Basic Principle For Dispatchers:
Assume that all field personnel are idiots until their actions prove your assumption.

The Basic Principle For Field Personnell:
Assume that all dispatchers are idiots until their actions prove your assumption.

The Axiom of Late-Night Runs:
If you respond to any Motor Vehicle Accident call after Midnight and do not find a drunk on the scene, keep looking:
somebody is still missing.

The Law of Options:
Any patient, when given the option of either going to the cells or going to the Hospital by a Police Officer, will always be inside the Ambulance before you are.
Corollary 1:
Any patient who chooses to go to the cells instead of the Hospital has probably been in my ambulance in the past.

16 October 2005

Just for Fun

Now I think most people will appreciate this site, Warning those of you who become addicted it is not my fault, just go to the pop now section
Bubbles

The Opening the book and showing them life

On Saturday I helped out Kal as a patient on a First aid course. So I arrived to put some unsuspecting people through the biggest step in the training.

You have had a pt in the classroom, and you have tied them with bandages, you have had the pt in the hall, the one that felt a bit funny and collapsed.

Now you get the bridge to real life, something in between. Outside the car has pinned a person up against the wall, the driver has a hypo and the person is crushed, or the person who has fallen onto a fence and it has gone right through their leg. Or the stabbing in a stair way. Now in the real world where these things do happen. Try and apply the same training not as easy as a jump as some thought. Which is the point of the exercise, You know stuff but before you jump in, in front of the public lets expose you to it and you can make your mistakes here.

It can be a bridge too far for some, at this stage but some coped admirably. Lots of blood and makeup and after a reasonably gentle debrief (were are nice at the start so they come back) everyone seemed to enjoy it. Some might just work a little harded now to be that bit better.

Just wait until they have some more experience. Then we'll try again. ( evil cackle )

Up up and away but back now

Working as hard as normal in my little corner of the world, I got to stab needles into a few people and I think I am slowly coming to terms with my new skills. A variety of interesting pts most seem quite willing to have themselves wounded by me. So cannulas got some missed some gave some drugs. to this end things seem to be going well and to be honest since I've been back at work in October It seems to be getting better. More of the getting less on the missing. But in the middle there has been a four week drought of emergency work. Not a bad thing. Infact an amazingly great thing. I went to the other side of the world, and did not fall off.

Three weeks in the land of G'day, 'wan a cold one?'
So we left the cold here and arrived in the warmish there.
Sydney with some of the coldest weather they had had. still we were walking around in t-shirts and shorts as the locals walked past wearing scarf and gloves.
I can recommend the city to anyone it is great the sights, the food, the general culture. I cannot give it enough of an endorsment.

So as any good holiday maker would do we went to the opera house and we took about a hundred photos of it. we went to the aquarium too look at all the things which we might encounter on our dive trip and our trip into the rainforest. This I think was not the greatest idea. There are such a concentration of things that can and may kill you I think i would be better off not knowing. But we did and were educated.

Back

Ok I'm sorry to anyone who has been trying to read this in the last couple of months. I have lots to tell so I'll work on it and then post a blog about the missing time in the mean time here's what has been happening recently.