starting a new class on attitude

[knxemt1983]

well I should probably start out by saying that I love EMS, and also love passing any little bit of knowledge that I have picked up on to newcomers. I myself am by no means a seasoned vet like some of you guys, I have been an emt for about 4 years, and explorer before that, I still consider myself new. My question is, can you guys recommend any books or supplemental resources for me to give to a new recruit class. My part of the course is on "The personal touch" and your overall attitude. I have my ways of making my pt's comfortable to the best of my ability, but want to give the new people some stuff to look at while they are still eager to learn. What I am going to talk to them about is basically how to be a friend to the patient, and comfort them and their family, whether they are circling the drain, or going to radiation or whatever it may be, but still do your job, and exude confidence and trust. I know read several books on this type of subject at a previous service, but can't remember any names. Websites would be very useful too, or even just some words fo wisdom from the seasoned vets. thanks in advance for any help you guys can give.

 

[firetender]

I was asked to leave UT Knoxville a lifetime or two ago (something to do with the Sixties!), so I have very fond memories of the place!

Okay, you're my test case. I really appreciate you asking the questions you are, and the fact that you've got four years under your belt means you're in a good position to report back if any of the concepts I offer are useful to those you'll be teaching. You ain't green, but you ain't jaded, either.

When I became one of the first Mobile Intensive Care Unit Paramedics, through a pilot program in FL back in the Seventies, I had no idea of the direction it would spin my life. I was so captured by the experience I literally have spent every day since working with what I learned during the 12 years of my career in EMS.

That took me into a lifetime of exploration of (and communication about)the healing arts, including, allopathic, alternative and energy medicines, working and living with (what people call) shamans, and extensive work in the "arty" arts like, writing, stand-up comedy, acting, music and visual arts.

So now I'm just going to say something simple to you: You are a healer.

If you understand that your job is to use every moment of the life you've lived as a tool to effect healing, then you are close enough to my page to get something out of what I've learned. I've wrapped my life around exploring what it means to be a healer. As I've done the work, I've written about it.

There is incredible art to being a good ambulance medic.

I invite you to visit my website, www.firetender.org It's still a work in progress, but I offer it as a free resource for anyone working in the healing arts. I see it as a bridge that provides useful tools for those in head-centered healthcare professions to help them explore some of the more esoteric concepts of healing.

All the New Age Airie-Farie concepts I talk about (like the power of connection and how to enter into it and release yourself from it in relation to a patient), I learned in the back of an ambulance. It shouldn't be too hard for you to hear that I'm really talking to medics like yourself.

So, check out the things I've posted here to see where I'm at, check out the website and then please report back to me (public or private) on your impressions.

Enjoy, and thanks for askin'!

 

[Stevo]

anyone who serves in the most perephrial setting of western medicine usually concludes it merely addresses the physical.

the fact is , we're physical, emotional, spiritual beings.

the alternates have addressed this for millenia, but because we have subscribed to imperalistic sciences as our mode of modernization, the unseen and unproven are often dismissed as quakery

to this end, the ADA went on it's own little house cleaning jihad shortly after the turn of the century, debatably there were definite economic motives disguised as evicting what they deemed quacks from their clic...

only in the last 20-30 years have we seen the resurgence of 'other medicine' , or what would be considered total well being

One doesn't need to stick around the status quo to long to realize it's relevance. For instance, how many times have we heard ' I wish God would take me' ......'I'm ready to go' etc ?

is there any argument that these sorts get their wish a tad quicker than say, patients that are upbeat , eager to heal ?

so for us, that's the trick, to parlay the well chosen and spoken word , being the eye of the patients storm....

there's a lot of firepower in the simplicity of that, but it's not taught , or even considered as a viable phenomena...

but it's definitely aquired by the savey among us, aspired to by those aware of it's efficy , and appreciated by the rest of us who pay attention...

~S~