adamjh3
Forum Culinary Powerhouse
- 1,873
- 6
- 0
Going through EMT school, I knew a large majority of my job would involve dialysis transfers, hospital discharges, and various other non-emergent situations (strange for someone with Emergency as part of their title).
When I got hired on at my current company I quickly found out that we just flat-out do not do dialysis runs for several reasons, chief of which being the amount we charge for these runs. We don’t have very many contracts, we’re slow enough to have quite a bit of down time, just busy enough to not get bored, and are among the highest paid BLS companies in the area. I make more per hour than some paramedics here.
I struck a gold mine. Or did I? Just as quickly as I found our call volume was low, I discovered we contract with many psychiatric and mental health facilities. A large majority - I’d say 80 percent - of our runs come out of these facilities. Of that 80% I’d say a good 90% of these folks are on conservatorships, or 5150/5585 holds (California specific, order for involuntary 72 hour detention for psychiatric evaluation).
A large portion of these calls run smoothly, our patient is calm and compliant, we’re kind, and we get from A to B without incident. However, many of these folks are very unstable, one can never know what’s going on in their head. Some of these folks are violently mentally ill. I’ve been cussed at and called every name under the sun. I’ve been kicked, I’ve been punched. I’ve been scratched, bit, spit-on, pushed into walls, and slapped. I’ve been in the field for just shy of 9 months.
Thankfully, I haven’t had any terribly bad situations that we couldn’t handle; There has never been a time when I felt in any real perceptible danger to my life. I’m very careful, I always have an escape route, I always have a plan to make sure I end up on top.
I don’t think it’s my fault, I feel that my partner and I are very good at diffusing potentially violent situations and talking patients down. We’re also fairly good at noticing situations that have the potential to be violent and bugging out when necessary. But sometimes, these folks are just plain unpredictable. And more often than I’d like “bug-out, call PD” is just not an option, especially in the locked facilities we transport to and from.
It didn’t bother me at first. Logically I know these patients are often unable to control what they do. But I think my soul, my heart, whatever you want to call it, has tolerated all of the emotional and physical abuse it can.
I think I’m being broken down. I think I’m getting tired of being on threat level red every single time I am on a call. I’m sick of having to go into patient rooms with the mindset that “this will be violent” after getting a turn over from the nurses. I’m sick of walking down the hallways of these facilities having to mean-mug everyone who gets that violent look in their eye and watching my back until I’m out of the facility. I’m sick of having to struggle with people to get them on my gurney and make sure they stay there while not having a belt full of defensive and offensive tools or the training and legality to use force behind said tools.
I’m sick of fighting.
When I first noticed the signs of burn-out, I was able to console myself with the knowledge that I’d only be here for a couple years until I get through medic school. But now I’m at a loss. If I wanted to have to face the real possibility of many of my calls turning violent, I would have trained to be a police officer. I got into this profession to help people in a real and tangible way. When the response for my time is a “:censored::censored::censored::censored: you” with a swing at my face it really starts to grate on you.
I’ve noticed myself getting colder, less tolerant of psych patients, quicker to jump on the four point restraint train.
Any tips on how to deal with this? I don’t want to get frustrated and leave EMS all together. I know it’ll be better as a medic, I don’t mind what many providers would call BS calls, I enjoy them and use them as an opportunity to learn. But I’m getting frustrated at the stress of worrying about whether or not I can physically take on every patient I come across. HELP!
When I got hired on at my current company I quickly found out that we just flat-out do not do dialysis runs for several reasons, chief of which being the amount we charge for these runs. We don’t have very many contracts, we’re slow enough to have quite a bit of down time, just busy enough to not get bored, and are among the highest paid BLS companies in the area. I make more per hour than some paramedics here.
I struck a gold mine. Or did I? Just as quickly as I found our call volume was low, I discovered we contract with many psychiatric and mental health facilities. A large majority - I’d say 80 percent - of our runs come out of these facilities. Of that 80% I’d say a good 90% of these folks are on conservatorships, or 5150/5585 holds (California specific, order for involuntary 72 hour detention for psychiatric evaluation).
A large portion of these calls run smoothly, our patient is calm and compliant, we’re kind, and we get from A to B without incident. However, many of these folks are very unstable, one can never know what’s going on in their head. Some of these folks are violently mentally ill. I’ve been cussed at and called every name under the sun. I’ve been kicked, I’ve been punched. I’ve been scratched, bit, spit-on, pushed into walls, and slapped. I’ve been in the field for just shy of 9 months.
Thankfully, I haven’t had any terribly bad situations that we couldn’t handle; There has never been a time when I felt in any real perceptible danger to my life. I’m very careful, I always have an escape route, I always have a plan to make sure I end up on top.
I don’t think it’s my fault, I feel that my partner and I are very good at diffusing potentially violent situations and talking patients down. We’re also fairly good at noticing situations that have the potential to be violent and bugging out when necessary. But sometimes, these folks are just plain unpredictable. And more often than I’d like “bug-out, call PD” is just not an option, especially in the locked facilities we transport to and from.
It didn’t bother me at first. Logically I know these patients are often unable to control what they do. But I think my soul, my heart, whatever you want to call it, has tolerated all of the emotional and physical abuse it can.
I think I’m being broken down. I think I’m getting tired of being on threat level red every single time I am on a call. I’m sick of having to go into patient rooms with the mindset that “this will be violent” after getting a turn over from the nurses. I’m sick of walking down the hallways of these facilities having to mean-mug everyone who gets that violent look in their eye and watching my back until I’m out of the facility. I’m sick of having to struggle with people to get them on my gurney and make sure they stay there while not having a belt full of defensive and offensive tools or the training and legality to use force behind said tools.
I’m sick of fighting.
When I first noticed the signs of burn-out, I was able to console myself with the knowledge that I’d only be here for a couple years until I get through medic school. But now I’m at a loss. If I wanted to have to face the real possibility of many of my calls turning violent, I would have trained to be a police officer. I got into this profession to help people in a real and tangible way. When the response for my time is a “:censored::censored::censored::censored: you” with a swing at my face it really starts to grate on you.
I’ve noticed myself getting colder, less tolerant of psych patients, quicker to jump on the four point restraint train.
Any tips on how to deal with this? I don’t want to get frustrated and leave EMS all together. I know it’ll be better as a medic, I don’t mind what many providers would call BS calls, I enjoy them and use them as an opportunity to learn. But I’m getting frustrated at the stress of worrying about whether or not I can physically take on every patient I come across. HELP!
