I've worked as a basic for 2 seasons at a water park. In general, yea, its pretty boring so bring a few good books. Of course that depends on numerous factors such as weather, pests (we had a fair amount of bee stings), crowd size (9k guests a day was a rather constant flow my first year, but my second year the park was down to its normal 6k guests/day which meant normally a handful an hour).
While again, probably very water park biased, most of the guests that came to first aid wanted a bandage of some sort. These patients ranged from "can you just give me a bandage" to "whaa, I'm dieing" (directed at the adults who think a small cut is the end of the world, not the kids who understandably think so). There are relatively major events from time to time. I didn't have to transport anyone my first season, but ended up calling an ambulance (2 911, 1 non-emergent) 3 times within 2 weeks my second season. I also tended to get the genital injury guests. On the more serious end, first aid last year dealt with, from what I remember, an open fracture, shortness of breath, moderate dehydrations, moderate traumas, seizures (including 1 in the wave pool), and ALOC. In addition we allowed guests to store emergent (EpiPens) or temp sensitive (diabetic supplies) medications at first aid.
We did have over the counter drugs for employees (OTC drugs were also sold at the main gift shop next door), but since we were basics we weren't supposed to hand them out to guests. My rule was if a guest requests it, sure, but I never advised for or against. My supervisor was found of playing "mommy medicine" (her words). Besides those, we were relatively better stocked than most BLS ambulances (AED, adult, infant, child ambu bags, plenty of wound care/splinting material, oxygen supplies, triage tags, wheel chairs, stokes basket, list goes on).
It is vastly different than prehospital medicine due to not only a general lower acuity of patients, but also because you will be, in general, definitive care. For example, you can't backboard every patient who complains of back pain like you can in EMS since you aren't transporting. Are there patients who need to have c-spine precautions taken? Sure. Is every back/neck/head pain going to be back boarded? No. Similarly, while your park might be different (especially with the presence of a paramedic), first aid wasn't allowed to call 911. That responsibility fell to the senior park supervisor on duty at the time for two reasons. First, there is a need to coordinate an emergency response with the rest of the park. Are responding units going to be directed to the employee entrance (normal procedure) or the park gate? Make sure the parking director or security knows to be out there to direct traffic in case the fire engine driver or ambulance driver hasn't responded to the park before. Are we going to move the patient to the employee break room (which is at the employee entrance) or have responders meet us inside the park? Does the patient even need a response or were we stupid and hired someone fresh out of class (it's happened before)? I was skeptical at first of that set up, but I never had a problem getting an ambulance.
