did I bite off more than I can chew??

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malunk

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So I just recently started my first job as an emt-b with no prior medical experience (I was a car salesman for a few years and before that worked fast food places). I did great in class and felt pretty confident in my abilities. I started applying around my rural area and within a month got a job offer at a local detox facility(mostly alcohol).

I did about 4 days of training and felt like my trainer didn't really want to train me.... those four days were also slow days so I didn't really get much experience. Now I'm about a month into my job and have pretty much just been doing patient intakes and monitoring vital signs every 4 hours. Not one serious incident has happened since I've been working here and I find myself just doing a ton of paperwork on patients (demographics/insurance info etc.). The scary part is I basically work by myself. There is a peer support worker, who is basically a past drug abuser who does group therapy sessions and gets the patients access to outpatient services after they get clean. And there is an "outreach driver" who just goes out about once an hour to look for drunks. I am the only "medically trained" person in the facility.

There is an on-call RN that I call to staff with for most issues and It's not a very busy facility but the people who check in here are usually in pretty rough shape and a lot of the "regulars" have seizure histories and other serious medical problems.

I'm so afraid of having that first serious incident happen. And don't know how I will handle it. Is this a good first job for me? Should I look elsewhere? So stressed about having a serious medical emergency happen and having no one with experience there to help me.
 
Lack of support/training from managerial staff is an employment issue rather than a medical one, there are only 2 ways realistically solve the issue

1- speak to someone in authority and see if they are willing to give you support/advice as you need it,
2- find another job.

As for the medical side, you are aware what you can do as an EMT-B and aware of what you cannot do, in short...you are aware of the limitations of what care you can provide for emergency situations. If you feel too 'green' and lack confidence in the independent role then perhaps you should move on.

If you wish to stay then look through your protocols...create your own 'actions on' cheat sheet based on your protocols. For eg..
In the event of serious medical emergency: step 1- call for help/raise alarm/call911, step 2- grab medkit/AED etc etc...
 
Sit back, breathe and remember your training. If you are ever in down time, as much as I hate to say it, review your text book from class, that way you know what is going on. My preceptor let me sweat to death on my first seizure pt. We picked her up and I put her on a cannula, 4lpm02. PT was postictal and he kept mouthing to me "what do you do now?". I couldn't remember what I should have done. Since I am BLS, I said that all I can really do is monitor vitals, transport and request ALS if I was alone or in a BLS rig. He said, "Good, I'm ALS!" and started working.

You obviously passed your NREMT and state exams. You know what to do, you just have to have the confidence and remember to do it. If you aren't sure, then look it up. If you have a lot of seizure pts, then read as much as you can for bls on the issue and follow your protocols. As BLS, we don't have much wiggle room, so it is pretty set in stone what we can and can't to do.
 
You said in the very first line of your post, that you felt confident. If you do, then what is the problem? Do what your training tells you to do. Do not over think the situation. If you forget it, then refresh yourself. Unfortunately, crap happens. Make the best of it when it does.

Its not a traditional EMS job either. Don't forget the fundamentals of your training. Patient assessment and care is always important.
 
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