I feel compelled to address this
Holy Cow! We get it..you're smarter than the rest of the world and the U.S. must burn because it'll just never measure up! For cryin out loud, stop the pay-attention-to-me diatribes. Making a real contribution does not have to include constant raging frustration. It's so unhealthy.
Smarter than the rest of the world? That is very overly generous. While I admit I am frustrated about some things, I don't see this post as raging. I see it as a reflection and a problem.
At some point in everyone's life, something forces them to reflect on what it is they have done, where they are, accept responsibilities for mistakes and failures, and really measure what it is they are proud of.
For a long time, I have failed to see what EMS is because I wanted to believe it really was more. It is a difficult position to be proud of something the people who are responsible for your future success keep putting down. I have not yet figured out how to reconcile that. I had hoped by bringing attention to it, some of the people here might offer some aid or insight I had not considered.
You have to figure, if it was an entry level text that identified the problem, then even an entry level person might be able to solve it. But there are considerably wiser people than that here too.
Please take a good ole fashioned course in stress management and add a course on humility just for kicks.
I'll put it on my "to do" list, but I still plan to take a welding class first. Sometime in about 12-14 years.
As one very insightful EMT student noticed, some people must have been absent the day they taught well being of the EMT. If anyone has not yet done so, and can find the time, read chapter 2 of pretty much any EMS text. That is usually the well-being chapter. I honestly think a whole lot of people may have skipped that part, a very important part of the healthcare provider education.
Are you suggesting that my life is a bit stressful and that changing my shift, spending more time with my family, having a hobby to relieve stress, and lightening my workload would help?
It sure would. However, as part of that having my schedule dictated to me in the effort of intensive training meant to push people to their breaking points, I think one of the surgeons said it best. "Eat when you can, sleep when you can, and stay the hell away from the pancrease."
To just point out how intense medical training can be, you can succeed or you can die. But if you fail, your unforgivable, even in bankruptcy, debt for the training will be insurmountable not having the earning power of a physician and that will cause considerably more stress all around than the intermediate stress of the demands of school.
And I do hope for your sake, Ven, that you don't get as burned out as a "real" healthcare provider as you have as an EMS provider/educator.
I didn't really consider my frustrations as burnout. I have reduced my EMS responsibilities and time in order to be able to cope with other responsibilities. I have always made every effort to give patients and students 110% and enable them.
I admit I may demand a bit higher level of results both of providers and of the system. Mostly because it should be as good as anywhere else, it can be as good as anywhere else, and the only thing stopping it is laziness. Remember the phrase when teaching, I don't want any student to pass who I would not want working on my family?
It is not the new people holding EMS back, it is the old people, I a now realize and accept I have some responsibility in that for not demanding as much of myself, my agencies, and my peers earlier as I did of students.
That would be a shame because you do have so much to offer.
I am frequently told that, but right now the dilemma is what can I offer to EMS?
Because I am not sure, and it is not like I can go to the superiors who are always bashing it and ask them. Like I said, I don't want to quit, but I don't know how to move forward.
If you cannot see that a good auto mechanic is as valuable to society as a good thoracic surgeon, then you still have so much to learn in med school.
Lol, there may be some misconception abot what med school is. It does not teach you about life, it makes you inseperable to a long defined philosophy, knowledge body, and skill set.
Some of the most important people in my day are the coffee shop employees. For they keep the whole world moving.
But I think the problem is not seeing the value in EMS providers. At least in my mind, it is seeing people who could be world class resign themselves to being the bottom feeders.
Education comes with time and the world does not run on EMS Time. We are however, the only occupation outside of the goteverythingatmydisposalandallthehelpIcanuse hospital that is expected take no more than a mere 10 minutes to spare a life!
I find no truth to this statement at all though I once not only believed it, but professed it. Nobody is asking you to spare a life. They are simply asking you to deliver the person to somebody else. If you were being asked to spare a life, you would have the resources to do it.
Heck, I've met a few some Doc's who can kill 3 in that amount of time! Imagine...all that education and still stupid!
I cannot imagine where you found them. That is rather an impressive feat. But it does demonstrate the more ability you have to do good, the bigger mistakes you can make.
Growth in EMS education is occurring as with all other occupations... over time so just relax. You have plenty to be pleased about and nothing to rant over.
The same arguments being rehashed as when I started in 89 is not growth or anything to brag about. There is plenty to rant over and plenty of responsibility to go around for it.
In fairness, when I openly and directly accuse physicians (many of them EMS medical directors) of abandoning and neglecting EMS and then complaining about what EMS is, you don't see the conversation here. You only see the ranting on what EMS does have the ability to influence here.
It most certainly makes me angry when I try to go to bat for EMS as professionals and then they mindlessly replay the very same mistakes that lost them the respect they rightly deserve in the first place.
It is my deeply held belief that while perfection is unobtainable, it is always the measure which any health or emergency related provider should be held to. To accept the measure of "better than yesterday" is the sure path to being unacceptably lazy and substandard.
For the record I do not think the US should burn. I see that it is burning and needs to do something about it other than try to find a scapegoat or pretend it is not.
