Quiet personality mixed with EMS

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Caspar

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Hi guys. I am a fresh out of class EMT-B and have started to look at volunteer agencies to gain some experience. However, I feel that my quite personality will hold me back somewhat as I am usually fairly introverted. Has anyone gone through this and become a successful EMT at the end? Im looking for any advice I can get.
 
Haha yeah quiet...not sure why I wrote quite
 
It is better if you learn to open up and become more verbal and interact with people, not just for your job/colleagues but patient care, being able to talk to the patient and reassure them is a big help. Making light of a dire situation and being able to joke about it is one of the best ways to approach/deal with patients.
 
Experience helps. I’ve taken the Myers-Briggs test a few times, and every single time I’ve been 100% introverted. I’ve now been with my volunteer agency for one year, and i’m much more comfortable with my colleagues. Having finished my EMT last year helped also, as I’m more confident with what I’m doing. Ask questions about your vehicle, the equipment (what is ___ used for?, What does this button do?). You’ll both be learning, and interacting with your coworkers. And that should lead to be your being more open with them. Talk with patients in the back of the ambulance during transport. I found that very hard to do, but as I forced myself to talk with patients (what do you do? Where do you work? Where did you serve in the military? Tell me about your family. Are you hot or cold/comfortable? How can I help?) I became more comfortable and came out of my shell. You just have to do it, but you can start slowly. Good luck!
 
irishboxer384 said:
Making light of a dire situation and being able to joke about it is one of the best ways to approach/deal with patients.
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I don't think that is the best advice.

Being introverted is not a problem in EMS. You're not on stage, your not there to entertain anyone or make friends.

Being SHY is a problem. You need be comfortable asking people intimate questions, doing complete physical exams, exposing trauma patients and placing 12 leads and such.
 
I'm naturally very quiet. Also not good at small talk.

However, it doesn't matter any more in EMS than it does in any other work environment.
 
Remi said:
I'm naturally very quiet. Also not good at small talk.

However, it doesn't matter any more in EMS than it does in any other work environment.
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I'd say that it does matter more [in EMS]. Teching calls in the back for a routine ride to the ED, there's often awkward silence because I suck at small talk. Honestly, it's even worse in the hospital, when you meet your patient for the first time, instinct is to say "how are you doing?". However, I quickly learned not to ask that, so there's just some pockets of silence, until I figure out what to say...I really probably need to make a script to run through to avoid that though.
 
I don't think it matters any more in EMS. People in all lines of work need to communicate with others. You need to learn to do it whether you work in EMS or sales or teaching or almost anything.
 
Remi said:
I don't think it matters any more in EMS. People in all lines of work need to communicate with others. You need to learn to do it whether you work in EMS or sales or teaching or almost anything.
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I think it helps to not worry so much about saying the right or wrong thing. For instance, why not ask people "how are you doing", or "how are you feeling"? That's exactly the first thing I say to most patients.
 
No need for small talk. Who cares about "awkward" silence. Effective communication is important, but your not running a 1-900 line.
 
If you want to talk to your patient, which I do all the time, there are ALWAYS two topics that everyone can talk about.

1) what do you do/what did you do before you retired?
2) where are you from/did you grow up here?

If you don't want to use either of those two conversational gambits, look around the house before you leave to find sownthing to ask about.

"Did you make that ship in a bottle?"

"Is that picture of the naval officer your son?"

"The fresh baked bread smells great. Do you bake a lot?"

"Your dog is cute, how long have you had him?"

I've had fascinating conversations with patients on te way to the hospital. It's one of my favorite parts of the job.

You can almost always tell within 5 minutes if they want to chat. It gets their mind off what's going on and the impending ED visit.
 
DEmedic said:
I've had fascinating conversations with patients on te way to the hospital. It's one of my favorite parts of the job.

You can almost always tell within 5 minutes if they want to chat. It gets their mind off what's going on and the impending ED visit.
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I agree, I've brought an older guy back out of a diabetic seizure and he just looked at me 5mins later and said
"***t boys, it sucks getting old!....ah man, I've pissed my good jeans!"

lol, felt so sorry for him but he had a laugh about it. People are frightened when they get hurt, after you've asked the questions relevant to their hx etc then there's no reason not to reassure/relax the patient.
 
Caspar,

I was in the same boat as you when I began. I was confident in what I was doing but had always been a very quiet and shy person. Even during my classes my instructors would comment on it and try and get me to open up. I wish I had some magic trick I could tell you I used to get past it but in all honesty it was just simply time. The more calls I ran the easier it became to not feel nervous or shy when talking to people I had never met before. I knew it was something I had to overcome to do this job but it wasn't instantly easy for me. These days I can say I never really give it a 2nd thought except perhaps in circumstances where I'm in a very busy public setting, i.e. church, stadium, etc. In those cases I still can feel that shyness and anxiety creep in but once I can get them to my rig I know it will fade again. I just always told myself this is what I want to do and in order for that to happen I had to do what I had been trained and it did get easier with each time.
 
beano said:
I don't think that is the best advice.

Being introverted is not a problem in EMS. You're not on stage, your not there to entertain anyone or make friends.

Being SHY is a problem. You need be comfortable asking people intimate questions, doing complete physical exams, exposing trauma patients and placing 12 leads and such.
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I have been in the business a long time and humor is a good way to start treating the patient. You will be able to tell very quickly if they are wanting to chat or not. Always let them know you have arrived to make the situation better. I have often thought that a Basic EMT is more of a psychologists than anything else.
 
bushinspector said:
I have often thought that a Basic EMT is more of a psychologists than anything else.
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...with 0 phsyciatric training.

Humor is a good skill to have in your tool box, but assuming that every patient will repsond well to a joke in a life altering situation is not a good approach. "Ma'am your father is having a stroke, but don't worry he will make a great end table!".

We deal with very serious situations where humor may give the patient and the family a false sense that everything will be ok. While some patients will respond well and be light hearted about a situation, it is a fine line to walk and you should follow the patients lead. It is very ddifficult to judge how someone is responding internally and we should act in a professional manner if we want to be taken seriously.
 
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