Something I have been giving thought to lately, and mind you it is jut one mans thoughts so feel free to join in and add your two cents or opinions! And sorry that there is so much to read. I have terrible grammar, so don't mind the misplaced or lack there of comas and run ons.
A Background:
I have been in EMS for 7 years, 2-3 as an EMT, 4-5 as a Paramedic. I have been a Paramedic student Preceptor, an EMS Instructor, and an FTO. I Have worked in both Inner City busy, and Suburban/Rural Medium paced Systems. I currently work in a great system, I would say our ALS/BLS call ratio is more on the ALS side than most systems(although I have no way to prove or back this assumption up, just going off of hearsays) We pay well, have great leadership, Great Retirement, Equipment is top notch and the people I work with are excellent in both their Paramedic ability and just down right good people. Moral around here is high, burn out is very low, and people seem to enjoy the job. They treat the equipment and ALL patient's with great respect.
Now, something I have noticed is this. It seems to me that when new Paramedics come to the field(And mind you I am talking based off of experience from two systems from two areas that are 100% opposites) They have this expectation to run calls, "Good calls" and a lot of them. In Paramedic school that is what they did, they were run through scenarios that were full of Sick Patients our critically injured Patients. They then get into the field and find that the majority of what we do is BLS in nature, non-emergent, however you want to phrase it. This has an effect on new Medics....... "This is not what I busted my *** in Medic school for..." So what I have noticed is this, at about the 1-1/2 to 2 years mark they have a slight fall in moral and experience a bit of stagnation or "burnt effect" this can go on up until years 3-4 but right at about the 5 year mark it seems that they make a decision, or choose 1 of 4 paths.
Path 1: Complete burnout, decide they hate the job. It is not what they thought it would be. They do not like the hours, pay, patients, Company, whatever it may be, but they are done. And they get out of EMS completely.
Path 2: Decide while EMS was OK, it is not their end goal or not what they want to do for a career and set out to complete education in something else. Either While still working in EMS, or not.
Path 3: Complete burnout still, but also believe they have no other choice, they put all of their eggs into this basket and they now rely on it to pay the bills, support the family, whatever it may be. Now they continue in EMS even though they hate it.
Path 4: Path 4 is what I call ultimate Realization, the EMS personnel who goes down path 4 ultimately realizes that Paramedic school(by no fault of its own) Lied to them. They realize that the job is not GSWs and Full arrest everyday, it is Flu, General all over Pain, minor collisions with critical calls thrown in a few times a month. Path 4 people also have the realization that this job is just that, a job. And they come to work and do the job, whatever the job may be that day and they do not let "bls" calls anger them or make them bitter, because they have realized that this is what EMS is about.
I am a Path 4, 7 years in and I still love the job. I had my moment of "burnout" while transporting drunks, patient's with the flu, etc when I was younger in EMS..... Now I accept it as part of the job, the calls do not bug me like they did. And I show up to work to do just that, work. No matter what the work for that day might be. Now, I work in a good system, as stated above, and I completely understand that sometimes factors such as poor pay, poor employer can have drastic effects on ones thoughts towards the job.
This is just a thought I have been passing around in my head a while, tell me what your opinion is. Do you agree, disagree? To many paths, would you add a path?
A Background:
I have been in EMS for 7 years, 2-3 as an EMT, 4-5 as a Paramedic. I have been a Paramedic student Preceptor, an EMS Instructor, and an FTO. I Have worked in both Inner City busy, and Suburban/Rural Medium paced Systems. I currently work in a great system, I would say our ALS/BLS call ratio is more on the ALS side than most systems(although I have no way to prove or back this assumption up, just going off of hearsays) We pay well, have great leadership, Great Retirement, Equipment is top notch and the people I work with are excellent in both their Paramedic ability and just down right good people. Moral around here is high, burn out is very low, and people seem to enjoy the job. They treat the equipment and ALL patient's with great respect.
Now, something I have noticed is this. It seems to me that when new Paramedics come to the field(And mind you I am talking based off of experience from two systems from two areas that are 100% opposites) They have this expectation to run calls, "Good calls" and a lot of them. In Paramedic school that is what they did, they were run through scenarios that were full of Sick Patients our critically injured Patients. They then get into the field and find that the majority of what we do is BLS in nature, non-emergent, however you want to phrase it. This has an effect on new Medics....... "This is not what I busted my *** in Medic school for..." So what I have noticed is this, at about the 1-1/2 to 2 years mark they have a slight fall in moral and experience a bit of stagnation or "burnt effect" this can go on up until years 3-4 but right at about the 5 year mark it seems that they make a decision, or choose 1 of 4 paths.
Path 1: Complete burnout, decide they hate the job. It is not what they thought it would be. They do not like the hours, pay, patients, Company, whatever it may be, but they are done. And they get out of EMS completely.
Path 2: Decide while EMS was OK, it is not their end goal or not what they want to do for a career and set out to complete education in something else. Either While still working in EMS, or not.
Path 3: Complete burnout still, but also believe they have no other choice, they put all of their eggs into this basket and they now rely on it to pay the bills, support the family, whatever it may be. Now they continue in EMS even though they hate it.
Path 4: Path 4 is what I call ultimate Realization, the EMS personnel who goes down path 4 ultimately realizes that Paramedic school(by no fault of its own) Lied to them. They realize that the job is not GSWs and Full arrest everyday, it is Flu, General all over Pain, minor collisions with critical calls thrown in a few times a month. Path 4 people also have the realization that this job is just that, a job. And they come to work and do the job, whatever the job may be that day and they do not let "bls" calls anger them or make them bitter, because they have realized that this is what EMS is about.
I am a Path 4, 7 years in and I still love the job. I had my moment of "burnout" while transporting drunks, patient's with the flu, etc when I was younger in EMS..... Now I accept it as part of the job, the calls do not bug me like they did. And I show up to work to do just that, work. No matter what the work for that day might be. Now, I work in a good system, as stated above, and I completely understand that sometimes factors such as poor pay, poor employer can have drastic effects on ones thoughts towards the job.
This is just a thought I have been passing around in my head a while, tell me what your opinion is. Do you agree, disagree? To many paths, would you add a path?
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