I realize the people in this thread represent a small portion of all EMS providers but it really makes me happy to see there are some people who enjoy having students.
When I did my EMT-B I was not so fortunate with my clinical preceptors. I got some good experience taking vitals and hooking up the monitor, however for 2 out of 4 ride outs I wasn't allowed to load or unload the stretcher into the ambulance even when empty because the paramedic said she had a student who almost dropped someone so students weren't allowed to touch her stretcher anymore.
On my first ride out I asked if I could have someone help teach me where supplies were located at and they told me I could just look around myself which didn't help hardly at all because everything was inside tag locked cabinets and bags.
I was told not to bother asking SAMPLE and OPQRST type history questions because they had to ask the same questions and it would just be too bothersome. Finally I almost never got to talk to the crews because we were always in the ambulance and while I was sitting in the back I could barely hear or talk to the crew up front.
I love teaching people and I can't wait until I have a student riding out with me one day so I can try and help them learn. I'm glad to hear some other people are like that.
I have a real issue with the way students are treated in our system.
In short, people complain constantly about how students and new medics don't know anything but they are almost always the same people that never make an effort to teach.
Oh boy, I feel a drunken rant coming on.
Students need to be made to feel part of the team. Because they are for starters, but its also an important confidence building exercise. There is way too much, "I'm the qualified medic and you are the scum that I ignore" BS that goes on.
My experience as a student was that I would spend many hours sitting awkwardly around a coffee table listening to extensive rants about how utterly useless university students were (never specifically directed at me but it was hard to ignore the implications) but almost no time being taught anything. I pushed, sure. But you can only push so hard.
Don't act like you're God's gift because there is a student around. I make a point of telling student about all the F ups I've made. Especially after they just had their confidence shattered by a gruff triage nurse, messed up their first cannulation or buggered something up in one of the million ways you do when you're learning. How about the time I forgot a page about a closed cath lab and took a legit CP to a hospital with a closed cath lab, or the time I left the monitor at hospital and didn't realise until the day shift checked the truck. The times I felt like I was the worst paramedic ever to walk the face of the earth, the times I couldn't hit the back side of a barn with a 24g because my hands were shaking so much. We all need to get a bit more comfortable with acknowledging that we screw up from time to time and as a student, about 20 times a day. But thats okay, as long as you learn from it. We all should. And we all should feel comfortable admitting it so that we CAN learn from it.
I walked into my clinical auditor's office about two months ago and basically told him I stepped outside the guidelines, I got it wrong and it probably caused significant harm to the patient. I was in his office for over an hour. Never once did I feel like I was "in trouble". I suffered no negative repercussions. I learned a lot from our discussion. I will feel comfortable admitting fault in the future and undoubtedly I will be back in his office at some stage learning more from my mistakes. I feel proud of him and the local part of our system for allowing that kind of culture, but unfortunately the system as a whole is not as forward thinking.
We complain constantly that we don’t get paid enough. Educating students is part of our role. How about we start earning the money we get paid before we ask for more.
Eurrghh. END RANT...for now.