I was only an EMT for 6 months. And I am ashamed to say I did not prepare well for the job. I took an EMT course offered at my University and was able to get the EMT license but I did not give serious time for my preparation. I treated it as a college class where I just tried to get the A but did not give my best effort to practice the hand skills.
In this class it was you get what you put in. And I did not practice the EMT skills nearly enough as I should have. I think no one else in the class did either. But for me personally, I realized I have to do something 100 times to be quick and good at it under pressure. For example, I did C-SPINE maybe two times in the class. And I got the EMT job more than a year later. And the one time I did get a trauma call and did do C-SPINE, I struggled. And I'm sure the paramedic made a compliant of me because he never looked me in the eyes after that day working with him. So basically all of the hand skills such as splinting, checking pulse, blood pressure, 12 lead I was slow at or could not do very well. I made major improvements with checking pulse and blood pressure after a month, but other EMT skills I was paranoid I would get a call and I would not be good at it if I had to do it.
Furthermore, I hit a pole two times when I was an EMT, no harm to patients, minimum damage. Paramedics complained about my driving behind my back. I do not perform well when I don't sleep. I think this has to do with being not in good healthy shape. (The more unfit you are the less you perform without sleep?) I let personal problem and tragedies affect me. My driving was too slow after hearing the complaint I make turns too fast. The last day of the job, I had to do direct pressure on a patient who had already stopped his bleeding, but I seemed hesitant to do it because I was not confident in my skills and the paramedic asked me if I wanted her to do it, and I said sure, and that essentially got me fired, along with a few driving complaints, and the two times I hit a pole.
Now that my certification has expired, March 31st. I could do X amount of hours of a refresher course to get my EMT license along with some other things. But my question is a refresher course enough to get me confident in EMT manual skills. Should I take the whole thing over again but this time in academy. In an academy, how often are skills like C-spine, splints, 12 leads, bandaging practiced? Because I am a slow learner, and I needs lot of practice to be confident. Or do you think I am just not a good fit for EMS in general, and its just best to move on? The place that fired me, actually let me resign and say I chose to quit.
My biggest regret during my time in EMS when I actually did harm to a patient, was when I took blood pressure on a dialysis pt who had a fistula during a non-emergency transport. I was trying to get my first vitals out of the way, but there's no excuse for that mistake.
In this class it was you get what you put in. And I did not practice the EMT skills nearly enough as I should have. I think no one else in the class did either. But for me personally, I realized I have to do something 100 times to be quick and good at it under pressure. For example, I did C-SPINE maybe two times in the class. And I got the EMT job more than a year later. And the one time I did get a trauma call and did do C-SPINE, I struggled. And I'm sure the paramedic made a compliant of me because he never looked me in the eyes after that day working with him. So basically all of the hand skills such as splinting, checking pulse, blood pressure, 12 lead I was slow at or could not do very well. I made major improvements with checking pulse and blood pressure after a month, but other EMT skills I was paranoid I would get a call and I would not be good at it if I had to do it.
Furthermore, I hit a pole two times when I was an EMT, no harm to patients, minimum damage. Paramedics complained about my driving behind my back. I do not perform well when I don't sleep. I think this has to do with being not in good healthy shape. (The more unfit you are the less you perform without sleep?) I let personal problem and tragedies affect me. My driving was too slow after hearing the complaint I make turns too fast. The last day of the job, I had to do direct pressure on a patient who had already stopped his bleeding, but I seemed hesitant to do it because I was not confident in my skills and the paramedic asked me if I wanted her to do it, and I said sure, and that essentially got me fired, along with a few driving complaints, and the two times I hit a pole.
Now that my certification has expired, March 31st. I could do X amount of hours of a refresher course to get my EMT license along with some other things. But my question is a refresher course enough to get me confident in EMT manual skills. Should I take the whole thing over again but this time in academy. In an academy, how often are skills like C-spine, splints, 12 leads, bandaging practiced? Because I am a slow learner, and I needs lot of practice to be confident. Or do you think I am just not a good fit for EMS in general, and its just best to move on? The place that fired me, actually let me resign and say I chose to quit.
My biggest regret during my time in EMS when I actually did harm to a patient, was when I took blood pressure on a dialysis pt who had a fistula during a non-emergency transport. I was trying to get my first vitals out of the way, but there's no excuse for that mistake.
