Got some questions

[62_derick]

I am a new emt only been an emt going on 3 months (still wet behind the ears as some would say). I have been finding some weakness as of late. I work with a company that does 911 and IFT and I have been primarally doing 911. When I am with a PT in the back I find it hard to get everything I need prior to the hospital.

I guess I am having a problem with multi tasking. So I was woundering if anyone could sugest helping out with this on a BLS call.

Also I was woundering how everyone deals with family and work.. I am having a issue with spending time with my family and working..

Thanks

 

[Dwindlin]

I am a new emt only been an emt going on 3 months (still wet behind the ears as some would say). I have been finding some weakness as of late. I work with a company that does 911 and IFT and I have been primarally doing 911. When I am with a PT in the back I find it hard to get everything I need prior to the hospital.

I guess I am having a problem with multi tasking. So I was woundering if anyone could sugest helping out with this on a BLS call.

Also I was woundering how everyone deals with family and work.. I am having a issue with spending time with my family and working..

Thanks

Speed and efficiency come with experience. Don't really know what to say about the other problem, I'm a work-a-holic and it usually comes before anything else.

 

[akflightmedic]

When working IFT, you can only do it one call at a time regardless of the pressure dispatch places upon you. I am not saying be a slacker, but ask yourself what is the rush. Yes, work with a purpose but not to the point where your work suffers.

When working 911 calls, again what is the rush? Since you are BLS, doesn't the nature of your scope of practice most times dictate that the patient is not an "emergency"?

Even as a medic with a true emergency, there is usually no reason to be rushing. Take your time and work with a purpose.

Where are you struggling? When on scene with the patient, get your vitals and info there in the house. If in a public place, move them to the unit if you are transporting and sit there. There is no rule that says just because you are in the unit that you have to start driving to the hospital.

Take a few minutes to get your stuff done, your partner should be there assisting you. When you feel you have accomplished enough, then inform your partner to start the transport. The transport should be a nice slow, easy ride, so that should buy you more time as well. If your partner is driving too fast or too erratic, slow them down!

As for your family time, that is entirely up to you. Why do you feel you do not have enough? Are you working massive amounts of overtime? Are you volunteering? Have you allowed your job to become your identity?

You need to make that time, everyone else that has a job makes the time, so why do we think we can not do the same? When you leave work, you LEAVE work.

We are not as special as we think we are...so no excuses, make the time and enjoy life!

 

[62_derick]

Thanks for the multi-tasking help.. I guess I have been treating every call as a rush call and now I need to slow down..

As far as the family and work time goes. Prior to August I was umemployed for 9 months and spent everyday with my daughter while my wife was employed, I was unable to find anything and we moved in with her parents 1 month after me being unemployed. So August rolls around and now I am working and my wife is unemployed so the rolls have reversed. I enjoyed being home but it was getting old quick. I have been working sometimes 80+ hours and sometimes 60+ hours, but I guess to my wife it feels like I am never home. As a matter of fact she bi**hed at me one day when I called her and told her I was staying after my shift to help out.

I have only been working for a short time but it feels like its been a while. So I try and tell her that I wanna work to make money so we can move out and blah blah and she tells me that I dont spend enough time with us (meaning my daughter and her) and that I would rather work then be at home. Which that is true but only because I dont wanna be there with my inlaws. So anyways this is the situation that I am at.

 

[MrBrown]

What are you required to get that you cannot?

If I roll up to any job; it's do a scene impression, primary survey, get a baseline set of vitals and some history/chief complaint and from there make a treatment and tansport decision.

We have lots of information we can gather like blood glucose level, oxygen saturation, cap refill, pedal pulses, motor symetery, pain scale etc but we don't gather it all for every patient.

If you service requires this level of assessment for every patient and that is what you are trying to gather then fail on your medical director.

Somebody who is in cardiac arrest, nana who fell over at home, a guy trapped in a car wreck and lil' Timmy who is having a seizure are all going to demand different clinical approaches and modalities; no "standard" fits all and is fit for all.

 

[Melclin]

Thanks for the multi-tasking help.. I guess I have been treating every call as a rush call and now I need to slow down..

As far as the family and work time goes. Prior to August I was umemployed for 9 months and spent everyday with my daughter while my wife was employed, I was unable to find anything and we moved in with her parents 1 month after me being unemployed. So August rolls around and now I am working and my wife is unemployed so the rolls have reversed. I enjoyed being home but it was getting old quick. I have been working sometimes 80+ hours and sometimes 60+ hours, but I guess to my wife it feels like I am never home. As a matter of fact she bi**hed at me one day when I called her and told her I was staying after my shift to help out.

I have only been working for a short time but it feels like its been a while. So I try and tell her that I wanna work to make money so we can move out and blah blah and she tells me that I dont spend enough time with us (meaning my daughter and her) and that I would rather work then be at home. Which that is true but only because I dont wanna be there with my inlaws. So anyways this is the situation that I am at.

Well you can start off by telling her what you've told us in a non-accusatory way (It's not her fault she doesn't know what you mean.....the message sent is not always the message received....and so on). Assuming you've done the bleeding obvious and simply had a reasonable conversation with said woman, then I don't know that this is the place for those complaints. I'm not by any means saying you can't voice them here, but it doesn't actually seem like they're EMS related. It's just that you happen to be in EMS and are having a standard relationship difficulty that can be resolved by a rational conversation/swift kick up the arse (not literally, its an Australian expression;"To violence against women, Australia says no"-according to the TV ads). Going by what I've read so far (I don't presume to actually understand your situation), I'm not sure what a bunch of fellow ambos can offer; any more than any other of your mates.

 

[rescue99]

Well you can start off by telling her what you've told us in a non-accusatory way (It's not her fault she doesn't know what you mean.....the message sent is not always the message received....and so on). Assuming you've done the bleeding obvious and simply had a reasonable conversation with said woman, then I don't know that this is the place for those complaints. I'm not by any means saying you can't voice them here, but it doesn't actually seem like they're EMS related. It's just that you happen to be in EMS and are having a standard relationship difficulty that can be resolved by a rational conversation/swift kick up the arse (not literally, its an Australian expression;"To violence against women, Australia says no"-according to the TV ads). Going by what I've read so far (I don't presume to actually understand your situation), I'm not sure what a bunch of fellow ambos can offer; any more than any other of your mates.

Forgetting the family comes first is definately EMS related albiet, this may not be the arena for the discussion. He has but one family and his child but one childhood. Priorities are difficult but the final choice is pretty easy.

 

[LisaEMT]

EMS is a family affair, whether or not an EMT's family members are actually working in EMS themselves. For the family member who does work EMS, the stress of the job, long hours, unpredictability and demands do follow him/her home. Let's flip the coin for a moment: when I began in EMS 9 years ago, I was the rookie who worked every conceivable hour possible to gain experience, leaving my hubby and son at home without me for more hours than I dare count. It was unsettling to them. I was also very resistant to reduce my hours because I was playing on an adrenaline high, making a little money and getting tons of experience. Ultimately, a very frank and honest discussion about my new job was needed. I did reduce hours, despite my reluctance to do so. Its time to sit down with your wife and introduce her to the EMS family, and then you can negotiate hours spent with family and hours spent at work. EMS can become all-consuming and we that practice should not forget the impact it can have on our families. That said; get an apartment and watch your life fall back into place! That will help, too.

~Lisa

 

[Sasha]

It just takes practice. You can't expect to be perfect out of the running gate. Stick with it, develop a routine and you will find that you will be using your transport time effectively.

 

[firetender]

On the clinical end, remember, YOU set the pace. Often we come into a scene where any number of people are rushing around like headless chickens -- and that can include Fire and Police and Doctors, too! That's where it's most important to establish yourself as in control.

Now "in control" is all about moving deliberately, as if you know exactly what you're doing. Often, coming in to the scene it takes a little while for you to figure out WHAT you're doing. Start by standing at the edge of the forest and looking into the scene rather than jumping in and begin bouncing off of trees.

It's most important that during those initial moments you relax your pace (without falling asleep), keep your mouth shut until you know what you're going to ask or say, identify who or what are the obstacles in your way and then, start building a plan from simplest and most expedient to complex.

As time goes on, you'll be doing stuff like this automatically so be gentle on yourself, you ARE on a learning curve.

As for the domestic situation, the only thing I see lacking is a safe environment for you and your wife to sit down together, talk about what's going on (alternating speaker and listener), making sure you really understand what the other's concerns are (there is always something one level deeper that produces the real "hot button"), and coming to agreements that you can each live with.

I think relationships live or die according to the clarity of the agreements made between people and the way they honor then.

On your part, start with agreeing to something small and structured. Then follow through. This begins to build trust, and I think, ultimately, that might be what you're missing.

As far as the relevance to EMS goes re: domestic issues, it's no different than learning a new way of communicating with a doctor, nurse or partner so you can better get the job done you're supposed to do. Being a medic means learning to be a better communicator, and the impact of the job is such that you have to learn to use those skills in every aspect of your life.

Blessings, and thanks for relying on this forum for support!

 

[BossyCow]

As a new EMT one of your biggest challenges is the transition from emergencies to normalcy. A big shift occurs when you get that call for CPR in progress or big MVA and your brain goes..."Okay.. another one" instead of "WhooooooHooooo!"

Having been both the spouse at home and the EMT, I can relate. When I look at the part of your post about your spouse having an issue with you 'staying after your shift', are you really listening or are you shining it on to her being cranky, in a bad mood and not understanding EMS. You stayed past your assigned time...... why? Being able to let it go and walk out the door is one of the healthiest things you can do and will assure a long career in EMS.

EMS is a job. It needs to take second place to your home, family and life outside of work. While there are adjustments the spouse of an EMS worker needs to make, one of them shouldn't be the understanding that family comes second. There's a huge difference between trying to get all the overtime hours you can for economic reasons and staying on after your shift because you can't let go of it yet.

 

[wyoskibum]

I guess I am having a problem with multi tasking. So I was woundering if anyone could sugest helping out with this on a BLS call.

REMEMBER: Slow is Fast! - Sometimes if you are rushing too fast, you are more prone to making mistakes, forgeting things. Prioritize what needs to get done. Do the important things first and hopefully you can get to the less important. I don't worry if I don't get a chance to check the BGL on a non-diabetic patient or take a temperature on a trauma patient.

What are your scene times and transport times like? I try to keep my scene times as short as possible and then take an extra minute in the truck before we leave and have my partner help with a couple of things. IE: switch to main O2, quick set of vitals, etc.