Dealing with the stuff you see....

[GayEMTNJ]

Working with the new guys

I think two thing can help. We do a new member orientation and during that we tell some war stories but the war stories are not geared around "there was this awesome job" but more about the types of things that you see on calls. I've shown some pics from nasty jobs and reminded the new people that one of the victims in the pictures died.

The second thing is that we tell everyone that if they see anyone that seems to be having a hard time report it up the chain. We'll then reach out to the person and talk with them. We also have some people that are trained in CISD and if it seems like that person is really having a hard time, we'll hook them up with the CISD person.

The big thing is to watch out for each other.

 

[hitechredneckemt]

Yes i agree if someone is having problems dealing with a bad call CISD does work. Ive been through it twice, once each for two separate calls. Another thing i have in my favor is great support at home my wife is also in EMS and CISD trained. The best advice i can give is to talk to someone, dont ever keep it bottled up it only makes it worse in the end.

 

[firetender]

The big thing is to watch out for each other.

...even if you don't quite understand what they're going through. Make room!

 

[BossyCow]

The value of CISD has been called into question lately and there are several threads on this forum discussing that. I believe that we are all different and we all respond individally to stress and issues. The key is to find what works for you and deal with it when it happens. The worst thing to do is deny that something bothered you. We had a huge thrash not long ago. One of our long time volunteers, not an EMT had a rough time with it. Now, CISD will tell you to avoid sugar, alcohol and to sit through one of their lovely circle, sessions with lots of water for everyone.

There was a CISD set up for this call, but the volly with the issue was not going to attend. So, myself and another volunteer with the district got some beer and some junk food, called him up and just let him talk.

The key is to open up and not let the stress fester. Know where you can go to deal with it and know how to recognize that you aren't dealing with it.

 

[drg]

Hello again! I had originally started this thread so I thought I'd give you guys and gals an update. I took and passed my NREMT-B exam a few weeks ago.

What I wanted to share with you though was one of my clinicals. I had originally wanted to do my clinical at a busy hospital in Chicago but they were all booked up so I wound up doing it at a hospital in the suburbs. I was all bummed out and convinced that I wouldn't get to see any action. As luck would have it (My luck, not the patient's), there was a gunshot victim who was brought in. The nurse kept telling me, "I can't believe you're here for this; we NEVER get stuff like this here...."

I got to monitor vitals, clean some wounds from where the guy fell after he was shot, use a suction cathedar and assist his breathing with a BVM. The guy was shot in the mouth, and, obviously, he looked pretty messed up. But I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to do what was asked of me without getting freaked out or throwing up or anything. I guess I was able to see the importance of what I was doing and that overrode any other feeling of not being able to handle the situation.

Interestingly enough, what did gross me out were the other, much less serious things I ran into that night -- people who had drank too much and were vomiting, etc, etc. So all in all, at least based on this one experience, I think that I am able to put aside my fears and discomfort when someone needs help. I just wanted to pass this along to you guys.

Thanks for all your support. Had it not been for this board, I probably wouldn't have made it through my EMT class.