Checking up after the fact

[Vizior]

Trolls... HA! I'm a regular with 441 posts. What I'm adding is useful. Checking up on a patient denotes emotional involvement. Emotional involvement in this field will destroy a person. Professional detachment, lack of empathy, call it whatever you want. My ability to leave work at work is nothing to be sorry for.

So do me a favor and keep your self-righteousness to yourself.

You're talking about what will destroy a person in this field? Exactly what experience are you talking from that you know...?

 

[EMTinNEPA]

Do I care about my patients? Yes. I care about their well-being. I care about their comfort. I care about their health. But only as much as I have to in order to do my job. I'm not here to be somebody's mother. I'm here to do my job by keeping them alive and comfortable and hopefully get them to the hospital in better shape than when I found them. Beyond that... I don't see a point.

 

[EMTinNEPA]

You're talking about what will destroy a person in this field? Exactly what experience are you talking from that you know...?

Basic psychology? There is only so much a person can give. If you care personally about every patient, you are creating stress for yourself because you worry about them. The more stress you create for yourself, the more it takes its toll on you.

And what experience do you have that suggests something to the contrary?

 

[Ridryder911]

Do I care about my patients? Yes. I care about their well-being. I care about their comfort. I care about their health. But only as much as I have to in order to do my job. I'm not here to be somebody's mother. I'm here to do my job by keeping them alive and comfortable and hopefully get them to the hospital in better shape than when I found them. Beyond that... I don't see a point.

Nobody ask you to be a mother, but empathy is far from that. You don't see what a health care professional is yet. It's not just a job, we already have to many ambulance drivers wearing EMT and Paramedic patches.

Caring never causes one to be over whelmed to be able to give treatment.. Being educated and knowing the difference between empathy and sympathy.

R/r 911

 

[EMTinNEPA]

Nobody ask you to be a mother, but empathy is far from that. You don't see what a health care professional is yet. It's not just a job, we already have to many ambulance drivers wearing EMT and Paramedic patches.


R/r 911

So a health care professional becomes emotionally involved with their patients? According to whose arbitrary definition of health care professional?

 

[Ridryder911]

So a health care professional becomes emotionally involved with their patients?

To a point yes. Ever heard of compassion? Who wants a provider that just "does their job"? If you can't understand the difference of empathetic and "emotionally involved" then you will never understand.

There is a happy medium. I can be very empathetic and caring and still function just fine. If one becomes robotic and "just doing their job" one can be jaded and apathetic, and calloused. Who needs them? Patients don't and employers won't keep them long either.

R/r911

 

[ResTech]

That's a great idea to send "Get Well" cards. I think a patient who get's a "Get Well" card from the EMS service who transported them will really know that they were truly cared about and not forgotten after arriving at the hospital. I think there is an important sentiment that goes with that... Rid.. that's awesome you take the time to do that. I don't personally know of ne other EMS service that does.

I love getting follow-up info on my patients as I believe they're is an important educational component to having access to such information. You may have a complex case that your not 100% sure of in the field, so when you get a report of their actual diagnosis from the hospital, you can fit the patient's presentation with the diagnosis and use that in your future cases to help better assess and formulate your presumptive diagnosis and treatment plan.

One of our local trauma center's as part of their trauma services program, always sends a patient outcome report to the provider(s) who were on the call. It lists the types of injuries found, treatments, and I believe admission status. One of the local hospitals tried to do something similar with patients other then trauma, but it didn't work out very well for whatever reason.

 

[Ridryder911]

That's a great idea to send "Get Well" cards. I think a patient who get's a "Get Well" card from the EMS service who transported them will really know that they were truly cared about and not forgotten after arriving at the hospital. I think there is an important sentiment that goes with that... Rid.. that's awesome you take the time to do that.

.

This is a People Business and that's all it is. It has nothing to do with the providers, really. The cards are not fancy but simply stocked. Sometimes it is the only mail some of the elderly recieve and let them know someone cares. Yeah, sad. More sad, that those within in it does not understand that. Newsflash: More and more companies are realizing this and will base promotions and services upon the recognition of this.

R/r 911

 

[EMTinNEPA]

Being educated and knowing the difference between empathy and sympathy.

Sympathy [sim puh thee] –noun
1. harmony of or agreement in feeling, as between persons or on the part of one person with respect to another.
2. the harmony of feeling naturally existing between persons of like tastes or opinion or of congenial dispositions.
3. the fact or power of sharing the feelings of another, esp. in sorrow or trouble; fellow feeling, compassion, or commiseration.

Empathy [em puh thee] –noun
1. the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
2. Identifying oneself completely with an object or person, sometimes even to the point of responding physically, as when, watching a baseball player swing at a pitch, one feels one's own muscles flex.

Compassion [kuhm pash uhn] –noun
1. a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

Empathy, sure. Sympathy and compassion, no.

 

[EMTinNEPA]

To a point yes. Ever heard of compassion? Who wants a provider that just "does their job"? If you can't understand the difference of empathetic and "emotionally involved" then you will never understand.

There is a happy medium. I can be very empathetic and caring and still function just fine. If one becomes robotic and "just doing their job" one can be jaded and apathetic, and calloused. Who needs them? Patients don't and employers won't keep them long either.

R/r911

A happy medium is great, but if it came down to it, I would rather a paramedic who doesn't care about me while he makes me better than one who holds my hand while I die.

 

[ResTech]

EMTinNEPA... what's up with the careless attitude??? Healthcare isn't just a job like laying pavement, or bagging groceries... it deals with people.. and people are more then a physical shell. Humans go far deeper then what you can put your hands on.

To truly care for your patients, you will learn to care for both their mind and body.

 

[Sasha]

Sympathy [sim puh thee] –noun
1. harmony of or agreement in feeling, as between persons or on the part of one person with respect to another.
2. the harmony of feeling naturally existing between persons of like tastes or opinion or of congenial dispositions.
3. the fact or power of sharing the feelings of another, esp. in sorrow or trouble; fellow feeling, compassion, or commiseration.

Empathy [em puh thee] –noun
1. the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
2. Identifying oneself completely with an object or person, sometimes even to the point of responding physically, as when, watching a baseball player swing at a pitch, one feels one's own muscles flex.

Compassion [kuhm pash uhn] –noun
1. a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

Empathy, sure. Sympathy and compassion, no.

You can be sympathetic to their situation, problem, or pain and provide compassionate care. Doesn't mean you get too involved with a patient.

 

[EMTinNEPA]

EMTinNEPA... what's up with the careless attitude??? Healthcare isn't just a job like laying pavement, or bagging groceries... it deals with people.. and people are more then a physical shell. Humans go far deeper then what you can put your hands on.

To truly care for your patients, you will learn to care for both their mind and body.

What is there besides the physical?

If a patient is scared, I will hold their hand. If a patient is uncomfortable, I will make them as comfortable as I can. But ONLY after I've finished with medical treatment. But that's about as far as it goes.

And did I say I was careless? I'm here to do a job, which is to treat injuries and medical conditions by any and all means within my scope of practice. If I didn't care about treating the patient to the best of my abilities, then I shouldn't be in this profession.

However, once the call is over and the paperwork is done, I forget about them. It's not my job to dwell on their well-being and think about them. My job is to do what I can to help them for the brief time that they are in my care. That's IT.

 

[Ridryder911]

A happy medium is great, but if it came down to it, I would rather a paramedic who doesn't care about me while he makes me better than one who holds my hand while I die.

Why not both? Who says you have to give up medical knowledge and expertise because you have compassion to others? I don't emotionally distraught but one that can care for the patient as a person and their feelings and "gulp" actually have feelings for that patient.

Your kid just got crushed by a car or your wife just got raped, you want one that just knows how to follow protocols? You don't want that person to wipe their brow, hold their hand when possible? Can't be personal? Just really who do we think we are?

Again, this is a peoples job; this means we are there for them not the opposite.

R/r 911

 

[EMTinNEPA]

You can be sympathetic to their situation, problem, or pain and provide compassionate care. Doesn't mean you get too involved with a patient.

How does compassionate care differ from regular care? Does an emotion somehow make medical treatments more effective?

 

[ResTech]

This is an area that cannot be taught or learned from a textbook. You either have it in yourself to care about people or you don't.

Hopefully through life experiences and seeing how illness, death, and tragedy can change someones life forever, that will sway you enough to care a little more about the patient and their family. Good luck in finding that. Once you do, you will then truly be a great provider.

 

[EMTinNEPA]

Why not both? Who says you have to give up medical knowledge and expertise because you have compassion to others? I don't emotionally distraught but one that can care for the patient as a person and their feelings and "gulp" actually have feelings for that patient.

Your kid just got crushed by a car or your wife just got raped, you want one that just knows how to follow protocols? You don't want that person to wipe their brow, hold their hand when possible? Can't be personal? Just really who do we think we are?

Again, this is a peoples job; this means we are there for them not the opposite.

R/r 911

I care about medical knowledge and expertise. If they're compassionate and sympathetic then good for them. They deserve a cookie or something. It may be a nice addition, but not necessary.

So if you're not compassionate and sympathetic, then you don't possess the capacity for critical thought to a degree significant enough to know when to deviate from protocols? So either you're a cold, emotionless protocol-monkey or you're the divine healer... false dichotomy, much?

And who implied that they were here for us?

 

[ResTech]

does an emotion somehow make medical treatments more effective?

yes, it actually does in a lot of cases!!!!!!!

 

[EMTinNEPA]

yes, it actually does in a lot of cases!!!!!!!

I'd like to see something empirical to indicate that this is the case.

 

[Vizior]

How does compassionate care differ from regular care? Does an emotion somehow make medical treatments more effective?

First off, a genuine feeling of emotion is going to be a lot more helpful for a patient than holding someone's hand just because you have to do. And secondly, caring about your patients is going to translate caring in other aspects. That careless attitude is going to lead you to make generalizations and shortcuts in your assessment, treatment, and of course follow through of treatment.

It's also going to be further motivation to follow through on cases, and learn where you went wrong and you can make a difference. If you make a mistake that negatively impacts someone's life, it's a big motivation to not make the same mistake again.

The human body is not a computer, you don't just feed a question in and get an answer. It's a big enough problem that some EMTs and Medics don't care enough to gather a detailed history on an elderly person, because "it's a bull :censored::censored::censored::censored: call." People notice when the person they're talking to doesn't care, and a lot of times they will abbreviate their history because someone doesn't care to hear it.