Struggling New Medic

[medic_chick87]

Hey Everybody...

So here goes. I'm a brand new medic (as in like brand new) and am struggling trerribly. My company has us go through phases that we have to pass with an FTO until they consider us safe enough to go out on our own. Problem is, I cant even seem to get past phase 1 (maping and routing). Having never worked in EMS before it seems that I cant seem to read a map to save my life. No matter what I do, I still seem to get turned around. So now my job is on the line and I havent even been given a chance to be judged on my pt care yet. But now all of my self confidence has been blown away because it seems that nothing I do is right. Even when they do allow me to run a scene nothing I do is quite good enough for them, ie i jump into pt care to quickly, ect. Does any one have any advise? I love my job, and cant imagine myself doing anything else, so I dont want to be shot down right as I'm coming out of the gate. Thanks.

 

[Medic9]

If this is really what you want don't give up. Is there an agency that you can volunteer with to build up your skills? What about having one of the seasoned employees sit down and help you with map reading?
I understand how you feel about not getting anything right, don't be so hard on yourself. They may be testing you to see how you will do under pressure and scrutiny. Some patients will question or complain about everything you do and you have to be able to keep your cool.
Keep us posted on how you are doing.

 

[NomexMedic]

Remember when it comes to map reading: Read right, and up. Find the street, trace the letter right until you find the number. Don't let them get under your skin. They are testing you. If you want this job, do whatever it takes...if that means buying a postel map of the area and studying it in your off time, or even just driving around in your off time and learning the area.

Again, don't let them get to you. Your ability to find your way around is important...but it's not as important as your ability to care for patients. That's what we have dispatch for. If it doesn't work out there, don't let it get you down. You're NREMT for a reason. Maybe being a medic is what god has planned for you...but maybe its not being a medic in California. I'm a new medic as well. Feel free to pm me anytime you want to talk and we can exchange stories and give eachother tips. Who knows...maybe we'll be able to help eachother.

 

[mdkemt]

Keep your head up. Take maps home and studying them if they is what you need to do. If you really want this don't let anyone belittle you or take away anything! You passed the course thats half the battle.

MDKEMT

 

[rhan101277]

They have things like GPS navigation nowadays, do ambulances use them. I have streets and trips on my laptop, I can plug in a street and it will give me driving directions. I guess its out of the question for your partner to help you with directions while you drive.

 

[KEVD18]

spend as much of your off duty time as you can spare and afford doing area drills in your first due.

what i mean by that is take someone with you. have them drive. have them pick out a street. then nav there. do this over and over and over again until you know your service area cold.

 

[IrishMedic]

gotta say hun dont let it get you down, there are people years in that find that difficult. having trained people in the military to map read. like its been mentioned before, start across the bottom then work ur way up the side to get the grid reference for a street, then what i find that helps with giving directions is mark ur station on it, then when ur headin west turn the map so it faces the direction ur driving so when driving west turn the west to the top and then you'll have the map as the streets are really to you. if this isnt explained to well message me ill try better and show u a map of what i mean. but practice is perfect, take maps home and try learn major roads n landmarks like important buildings major intersections etc......they can help guide you as well.....when driving around i find myself, learning estate names or road names, or block numbers etc....it'll get easier with time n run volume......dont give in you'll make it...

 

[Jon]

It took me 2+ years to get "blessed" as a driver at my vollie squad... I'd go to take the final test and would get flustered and panic and make wrong turns - but I could drive around town and get around without trouble... if I wasn't being tested.

Get a list of intersections in your area (maybe have someone else make it up) and get a GOOD mapbook (the big bound ones) and then go driving in your first due. Once you can read a map... go somewhere else and test yourself.

Map reading isn't rocket science... but it does take practice.

 

[mycrofft]

Ask them. Step outside the box.

The folks above me here have it pretty well covered in my humble. Read and heed.
Say to the trainers, "It's obvious I'm stuck on this. What do you suggest?". Adopt an attitude that you are an adult learning from an adult. Ask how they learned it. If they can't communicate that way, if it has to be the "yessir/nossir", adult-to-child semi-hazing thing, and you still want it, don't give up if they have what you want. I initially had maposis, but I fixed it by tracing and labelling the AAA map, following each major street.

Once you have practiced and learned, then trust yourself; it may seem like it is taking five minutes to find the address, but if you just do it right, not try to do it fast, then you will be ok. If they will let you ask for a re-read of the address, so much the better, not to buy time, but to make sure you have absorbed it and to show them you will ask for clarification on a dispatch when needed.

It sounds like you are starting to characterize yourself as "a failure" (or other pejorative). Don't let anyone stereotype you like that, least of all yourself.

 

[mikeylikesit]

stress tests are designed to do this to you. fight back mentally.

 

[medic_chick87]

Thanks everybody. All of the advise and support are greatly appreciated.

 

[Airwaygoddess]

Mapping, you will get this too!!

I think you have gotten some pretty sound advice from everyone here, all I can offer is this, take a deep breath and let it out, remember don't be so hard on yourself, be kind and remember the whole reason you went into para medicine.
The whole mapping thing will come, sooner then you think! Hang in there!!

 

[BossyCow]

Practice, Practice, Practice. Run drills with addresses. Get in your car and drive around on your off time. Spend time looking at maps with addresses from past calls and try and find them.

 

[MrPookie]

I am sort of in the same boat as you. I haven't even started my EMS course yet (starts the 7th), but already worry about getting lost while driving an ambulance. I have always been an excellent driver (even with very large vehicles), but horrendous with directions. I finally bought a GPS this year, which has been one of the greatest things ever, but I'm worried I am becoming too dependent on it. The above suggestions are all helpful to me as well.

 

[mikeylikesit]

I am sort of in the same boat as you. I haven't even started my EMS course yet (starts the 7th), but already worry about getting lost while driving an ambulance. I have always been an excellent driver (even with very large vehicles), but horrendous with directions. I finally bought a GPS this year, which has been one of the greatest things ever, but I'm worried I am becoming too dependent on it. The above suggestions are all helpful to me as well.

keep in mind that in any setting rural or metro that gps don't always contain all the "new" developments that just went up say a week ago. so if you run into that situation and your dependent on your GPS then you're going to be in a world or trouble. I used to work as a pizza drive in high school so i never have these problems. but like said, stress tests are designed to make you mess up and get flustered so that when your out in the field your better prepared for that type of situation and your supervisor knows that you can handle it.

 

[Guardian]

I don’t know what you mean by “medic” and it would be nice to know your level of certification or license. I’m going to guess you’re a paramedic based on your signature. It sounds to me that your “FTO” isn’t very good. He/she needs to back off for a while and let your confidence return to normal. What you’re going through is totally normal. Trust me, you’re not the first person they’ve seen with confidence problems. Just try and relax and incorporate their good advice into patient care, etc. If you have to, force yourself to fake confidence. Eventually, you won’t be faking anymore. It sounds ridiculous, but it seems to work for people.

 

[mycrofft]

Hear Hear!

If it is of any comfort, everyone gets lost once or twice or once in a while. (That's supposed to sort-of be like imagining your audience is wearing their underwear to allay stagefright, NOT an excuse to fail to get to the right place at the right time by the right route..with the paint job intact).

 

[MSDeltaFlt]

Hey Everybody...

So here goes. I'm a brand new medic (as in like brand new) and am struggling trerribly. My company has us go through phases that we have to pass with an FTO until they consider us safe enough to go out on our own. Problem is, I cant even seem to get past phase 1 (maping and routing). Having never worked in EMS before it seems that I cant seem to read a map to save my life. No matter what I do, I still seem to get turned around. So now my job is on the line and I havent even been given a chance to be judged on my pt care yet. But now all of my self confidence has been blown away because it seems that nothing I do is right. Even when they do allow me to run a scene nothing I do is quite good enough for them, ie i jump into pt care to quickly, ect. Does any one have any advise? I love my job, and cant imagine myself doing anything else, so I dont want to be shot down right as I'm coming out of the gate. Thanks.

A little late in responding. I apologize. I'm going to put out my disclaimer first. When asking for advice, being told what you want to hear, and being told what you need to hear, might not necessarily be the same thing.

Now on to the advice.

You say you're brand new. I'm going to take that as greener 'n' goose-sh*t in August. I, myself, have pulled more dumbass stunts in my career that can actually be physically tallied by a super computer. It happens. So breathe. Relax. You're not going to get anything productively done while you're wound up tighter than a rat on acid. In fact, your mistakes are liable to increase.

You're saying you're having a hard time getting the maps and routing straight, and you end up always getting turned around. Let's put the maps and GPS aside for the moment. If you're getting turned around, you are losing your situational awareness. Translation, you don't know your North/South/East/West. You might want to start getting familiar with them. God made them for a reason. They're kind of important.

Back to the maps and GPS. If anyone hands you a GPS, hand it back to them. GPS is a crutch, and for those who don't know their *ss from their elbow. Not to mention, it will get you in trouble when it doesn't work. Get the maps. City maps usually have a pattern. "Streets" tend to go in one direction - North/South or East/West. "Avenues" tend to go in another direction - East/West or North/South - usually opposite of "streets". Each municipality will differ from another one. Look at the maps and get familiar with each one in your area.

Example: If you have a call on 123 North Johnson Street, then the street will go North/South. If you have a call on 456 East Andrews Avenue, then it will go East/West. Make sense?

County roads, to my experience, tend to not have a pattern. You're just going to have to memorize them.

As far as your confidence goes, I think you're trying too hard. I think you're trying and not doing. Stop trying, and just do it.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Medic9]

In my hometown numbered streets went east and west and named streets north and south. There was a major street that was the dividing line between east and west. For example, 922 E 29th st. I know that is on the east side of State st, the 9th block going east and will be on the left side if I am headed east. I sure miss the ease of getting around because here there is no rhyme or reason to the streets.
We have three Old State Roads in our response area. We have to listen very carefully to dispatch to make sure we get the cross roads so we go to the right road. More than once we have had to turn around.

Is the area where you work set up like that or is there some kind of "system" to the naming of the streets? Like in some housing developments the streets are all named after trees, or states and you know which one by the street name.

 

[mikeylikesit]

A little late in responding. I apologize. I'm going to put out my disclaimer first. When asking for advice, being told what you want to hear, and being told what you need to hear, might not necessarily be the same thing.

Now on to the advice.

You say you're brand new. I'm going to take that as greener 'n' goose-sh*t in August. I, myself, have pulled more dumbass stunts in my career that can actually be physically tallied by a super computer. It happens. So breathe. Relax. You're not going to get anything productively done while you're wound up tighter than a rat on acid. In fact, your mistakes are liable to increase.

You're saying you're having a hard time getting the maps and routing straight, and you end up always getting turned around. Let's put the maps and GPS aside for the moment. If you're getting turned around, you are losing your situational awareness. Translation, you don't know your North/South/East/West. You might want to start getting familiar with them. God made them for a reason. They're kind of important.

Back to the maps and GPS. If anyone hands you a GPS, hand it back to them. GPS is a crutch, and for those who don't know their *ss from their elbow. Not to mention, it will get you in trouble when it doesn't work. Get the maps. City maps usually have a pattern. "Streets" tend to go in one direction - North/South or East/West. "Avenues" tend to go in another direction - East/West or North/South - usually opposite of "streets". Each municipality will differ from another one. Look at the maps and get familiar with each one in your area.

Example: If you have a call on 123 North Johnson Street, then the street will go North/South. If you have a call on 456 East Andrews Avenue, then it will go East/West. Make sense?

County roads, to my experience, tend to not have a pattern. You're just going to have to memorize them.

As far as your confidence goes, I think you're trying too hard. I think you're trying and not doing. Stop trying, and just do it.

Let us know how it goes.

LOL, so many new metaphors for me to remember now...good advice though.