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I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to interact with many people in a similar way. I'm a volunteer EMT with the ambulance service in my town, with several 'a
by JshWright 15y ago
I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to interact with many people in a similar way.
I'm a volunteer EMT with the ambulance service in my town, with several 'assisted living' facilities in our district. My rough guess would be that 25-30% of the folks we take to the hospital are in the last year of their life, and likely will spend the rest of their days in the facility where we picked them up (with occasional 'field trips' to the ER).
While it's popular to complain about these sorts of calls (they certainly lack the excitement of a car wreck, or the glamour of saving a child), I generally enjoy them. Even in the grips of dementia, many of these people have fascinating stories to tell. We're stuck together in the back of the truck for 20 minutes... I can either get a head start on my paperwork, or I can engage them in conversation. In the past month, I've met a WW2 bomber pilot (who flew in a pathfinder squadron) and a former Rockette (plus a schoolteacher, a librarian, a surveyor, and several others I'm sure I've forgotten). I learned something from each of them (well... most of them... grumpy old people are still grumpy...).
The statement "I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated," really rang home for me. I've heard that same sentiment (practically verbatim, just s/passengers/patients/) from several providers, all of whom I regard very highly. I think it's one of the best predictors of someone's ability as an EMS provider. While I know a few extremely capable medics who have a lousy bedside manner, every medic I know who seems to genuinely care about their patients is a top-notch medical provider.
- timjahn 15y agoThanks for sharing and contributing in a positive way to this post, and the overall story. Beats all the other grumps down below complaining about how this has nothing to do with hacking or technology. I think the grumps should start thinking about where they'd want the cab driver to drive them during those two hours.
- begemot 15y agoAs long as we are dictating what other people should be thinking about here is a quote from the late great James Baldwin I think you should mull over. 'Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel...the mask of cruelty'
- SiVal 15y agoFunny, I consider the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious pseudo-sophistication as a mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel...the mask of cruelty.
- alecco 15y agoWhat an interesting writer. I've never heard of him before. Thanks! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baldwin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baldwin
- kragen 15y agoSorry, I could have told you about him.
- FreakLegion 15y agoYour use of Baldwin here begs the question[1]. We can all agree that "the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion" is bad. It's bad by definition, as indicated by "excessive" and "spurious" (and "ostentatious," to a lesser degree). What we can't all agree on are absolute standards for excessiveness, spuriousness, or ostentatiousness. So what Baldwin wrote is irrelevant unless you first show how the article is an example of excessive and spurious emotion. Otherwise, you're simply saying "It's bad because it's bad. Q.E.D." 1. The quote itself is not intrinsically question-begging.
- blhack 15y agoCan you give any advice in becoming a volunteer emt? I've wanted to do this, but have no idea how to start...
- JshWright 15y agoDo you live in an area served by a volunteer agency? In my case, I'm actually a volunteer firefighter/EMT with my local fire department, which also runs the ambulance. The first step would simply be to call your local agency.
- hammock 15y agoWhere I live it's all professionals. And from what I understand they aren't amenable to the idea of volunteer EMT, for their own reasons.
- ljlolel 15y agoYou have to get licensed as an EMT, I took this course, it's very good: https://www.cpc.mednet.ucla.edu/cpc/course/emt https://www.cpc.mednet.ucla.edu/cpc/course/emt You can transfer licensure between states.