Negative sir...I've been doing this ten years and still enjoy the crap out of being a paramedic, I've had the opportunity to move on but chose not to.
This attitude is part of our problem.
Greatest Contributor to Burnout in EMS
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This attitude is part of our problem.
MasterIntubator
Forum Captain
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An ambulance job was my stepping stone to get on a medic unit. 25 years and still cruising.... more eat up than most of our 3-5 year "veterans".
What I tell my students..... If you don't love the job... move on.
What I tell my students..... If you don't love the job... move on.
abckidsmom
Dances with Patients
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*like*
Nobody will make it long in ANY career if they think it is stupid and beneath them.
Whatever you do, do it with a positive attitude to the best of your ability and you'll have a good time at it. Even wiping poop, digging ditches, dishing up fast food.
MedicSmith
Forum Ride Along
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I think one of the biggest reasons for attrition that I've personally seen is the lack of camaraderie among EMS personnel. It's this non-stop high-school drama, this pissing match where all the "cool" kids talk down about the "not-so-cool" kids and what bad medics they are and how they would never have done this or that, and blah blah blah. I've never seen a bigger group of insecure adults in my life, except maybe in Hollywood... Maybe. Now don't get me wrong, there is definitely such a thing as an incompetent medic. But if you listen to these vultures I'm referring to, you might think they were the only medics worth their patches. So quick are we to throw each other under the ambulance, so as to maybe fool others into thinking we walk on Normal Saline, and that our IV's just drop in, every time, that the patients WE lose were just meant to die, that we could run this system better, that we could drive the ambulance better, that we could do the nurse's or ER doctor's job better, that we simply don't care about the medical questions we don't happen to know the answers to... When the powers-that-be see how non-unified we are as a group of professionals, they see weakness. They see a bunch of back-stabbing "kids" they can just push around. It makes it easier for them to step on us, pay us less, work us longer, and ignore our wants and needs. So come on guys and girls, look at each other and see the real picture here. Everyone of us is here for the same reason, or at least we had the same reasons for showing up initially: To help. So my gosh, let's start helping our co-workers, ALL of them.
Oh, and bathroom breaks... I think a lot of people quit because of lack of bathroom breaks...
Oh, and bathroom breaks... I think a lot of people quit because of lack of bathroom breaks...
crispymedic
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That is all well and good but in the USA street medicine is a low level specialty. Want to stay a paramedic? Do so but get a flight medic job. New challenges, more acute patients. Or, go get your RN or MD. Or, God forbid, become a fire based paramedic and make some real money and real benefits.
There are a few really good medics in ALCO with more then 15 or 20 years on but they are few and far between. Most of them are trapped in a job they hate because they never went back to school. Forty and 50 year olds working in a 20/30 something job. I see them when I partner with them on my ambulance per diems or when I work on an engine/truck. Every time we get calls they grumble and :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored:. Then after the calls they :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored: how the pt. "sucked" or was drug seeking or whatever. These people should have left EMS years ago but they never put in the work to move up. Those are the ones who I am talking about. They know who they are and so do you.
abckidsmom
Dances with Patients
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I really think you've accepted the assumption that real, actual grownups can't be fulfilled in a low level specialty. For sure, there is a lot of BS in EMS. But the fact is, it's a service oriented job with a lot of human contact, some required quick thinking at times, and the ability to be outdoors all day. This is a dream for a lot of people, and just the right career for many, many people who do t necessarily need to waste their skills and aptitude for EMS on "progressing" to something more higher level.
This is the USA. The founders of our country were farmers. A generation ago, a smart man could have worked happily for his entire adult life in a sawmill without being fed the lie that he was unchallenged or unfulfilled in a low level position.
epipusher
Forum Asst. Chief
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I wonder, may crispymedic be referring to himself in his negative posts? I'm over 15 years in and enjoy every minute of my job. Just as an example, my last few shifts we were running slow with only about 6 calls in for the night, so we started trying to snag some runs on the southside of town. I see this as my profession, my chosen career, with my end goal to be retirement as a medic in 14 years.
abckidsmom
Dances with Patients
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One would think, given the label he chose for himself in his username.
Aidey
Community Leader Emeritus
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I just want to add that the *****ing happens in ANY service type industry. I promise that waitresses, baristas, airline attendants etc all :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored: about the pain in the *** people they deal with. I have a friend who works in IT as a hardware/software fix it guy. Aside from the drug seekers he has almost the EXACT same complaints as we do. People call in the middle of the night for a BS issue that doesn't need a $100 tech to fix, and the issue could have been avoided if they had just followed his advice 2 weeks ago.
BeachMedic
Forum Lieutenant
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Exactly.Our complaints tend to be the universal complaints. We're all overworked, under paid, and management sucks. For the most part, that is everywhere you go and in every line of work.
With that said, I will say that it takes a special kind of person and the right circumstances to make a career out of being a paramedic. In general, I believe a burn out timer starts for the majority of people the second they start working on a rig. It is different for everyone but to me it almost seems inevitable. I haven't hit mine yet, but I'm not going to say that I'm not thinking about, "what's next?".