Why are you in EMS? My story.

[MMiz]

I'm sure you've been asked this many times, but it seems as though my story always changes. My question to you, is why are you in EMS? What makes you the EMT or paramedic you are today?

My story is a pretty funny one.

I grew up hating blood, hospitals, and the doctor. During my Senior year of high school I had just gotten a puppy, and was up late one night taking him outside. The TV was on, and for some random reason I was watching a show about EMTs in High School who also were EMTs. I was watching this through an open window in my high as my dog was doing his business. I came in and quickly changed the channel to something I liked.

Somehow, a few months later, I saw another episode of the show. It looked really cool to me, something that I would have loved doing if my school offered it.

That fall I went off to college, and registered for the EMT class at a local community college (while taking my courses as a nearby university). I had to drop it due to being overloaded, but I signed up for the summer academy. I had the time of my life in the summer academy, and had never been so proud as I was when I passed the national registry.

I never intended to work as an EMT, I simply wanted to have my own high school EMS gig like in the TV show. In fact I couldn't work as an EMT. I have no sense of direction, and even got lost walking home the 2 miles from high school once. I literally have no sense of direction. When they had reasonably-priced GPS units that allowed me to type in an address and follow the closest route, I realized I could finally be an EMT.

During the last semester of my junior year of college I realized I needed to have a connection "back home" if I was to start my own high school EMS club. That's when I applied and got the EMT job at a private service that provided 911/EMS services to a city near where I lived. I drove home every other Saturday night to work the 7:30 PM - 7:30 AM shift. I was tired but loved every minute of it.

I stopped doing this during my senior year of college due to my lack of time, but in exchange desired the company's website.

I had everything lined up to gain a teaching placement for my year of student teaching in the city my service served. When the teacher I was assigned to decided to retire, I was left without a position. I finally got a student teaching position at a middle school in the city. I can't tell you how excited I was!

And now, here I am, with my slightly modified Middle School EMS Club. My dream career in life has nearly come true (minus the high school and being paid). This thread is to not only share my EMS story for the first time ever, but also to thank everyone who has guided me as I mix reality with a cheesy TV show I watched during my senior year of high school.

Thanks

 

[ma2va92]

pretty simple... worked around the ER for several years.. as a Special Police Office.. in Ma.

we moved to Va.. ummm in 92..... got this house in 2000... house burned with the help of our wood stove.... all volunteer units here.... felt a strong need to return the favor...... took classes.... for emt b .. then took classes for emt-e.... [ see other post as to what emt-e is] .. and have run about 800 calls in the past 18 months.... loving it

 

[divinewind_007]

well..my dads a Medic/EMT-IV teacher...my moms a LPN/EMT-IV...guess it sorta runs in the family. he was about to start up a class and i thought i'd try it to see if i was interested. after my first clincal ride i was hooked. then before i got out of school i went out on a call with our volunteer fire dept. and worked a code. rode in with the EMS crew and we got him back on the way. that sealed my fate.

 

[Stevo]

it's a condition of my parole....

~S~

 

[TTLWHKR]

it's a condition of my parole....

~S~

:blink:



I have told this story too many times. Father. funeral home. ambulances. combat medic. paramedic since the 70's. mom nurse. brothers. sisters. all in ems. sister is a doctor. brother in law is a doctor. wife is a doctor. Johnny & Roy. grew up in "Ambulance Services" not EMS. EMS the title was coined in the 90's. Short & Sweet. I just wanted to do this.

 

[daemonicusxx]

I went all through grade school, middle school & high school wanting to be a police officer. took a few elective classes in high school (street law, emergency communications) then i went to college, just takin basics, then i saw a poster for the EMT-B course, somethin like 6 mos, thinkin, "awesome, 6 mos and im done!!!" little did i know that its very difficult to get on at the FD with just the EMT-B. so, even though i suck at school stuff and studying, i went through P school, long and hard road, but im done. still working for third party, i got a few things i gotta get taken care of before i can really go test for FD jobs. gotta quit smoking, gotta hit the Gym every once in a while, maybe get on volly and get some experience in. i also suffer from HPD, or Helper Personality Disorder, , so im really enjoying the decision i made that day to enroll in the EMT course. i love my job, i wake up in the morning and actually WANT to go to work. you dont get that in most jobs. thats about it, i go back to work on thurs, after a week off, 7 on, 7 off rocks!!!

 

[TTLWHKR]

Okay.. Now we need to hear Jon's story. :excl:

 

[Wingnut]

I've told mine on another post somewhere. Went out to dinner, Husband is a cop, woman face planted into the light pole, he went to help, ended up aasking me what to do for her. Saw the medics and the light bulb in my head went off. Then I enrolled and worked my first code...hook line and sinker. Now I'm waiting for the EVOC class to open up so I can get my lisence endorsed and Jay is moving to a day shift so I can work...Can't wait!

 

[Wingnut]

And to mix up the post a bit...Did you see yourself here when you were younger? Did you have any idea this is where life would put you?

The people who know me never thought I'd end up playing housewife and mom for 4 years, (My LAST career choice EVER) but my choice in EMS didn't suprise them at all. I'll be a goth-tattooed-headbanger until I'm 94. But while I always knew I'd be in the medical field I NEVER considered EMS as a pick. I think it's because EMS is almost invisible to the general public, you really don't think about it until something happens.

 

[Jon]

My story:

Mom was in the fire Co's (Ladies') Aux. Explorer post started when I was 14, I joined. Joined FD at 16, joined seperate ambulance Co. at 16, and took EMT.

Went to -P school at 18, not quite done.

That is about it.

 

[DT4EMS]

From the time I was about 5 I knew I was going to be a police officer. Then in 1983 my dad was electrocuted by 220 for over 3 minutes working on an attic AC unit. I was there acting as his "helper".

911 was new in WPB Florida and I called. I didn't know where I was but they still found me. The medics that arrived not only took care of my dad, but they took care of me too. They told me what to tell my Mom on the phone and where they were taking my Dad to.

I became an EMT and while in Medic school I worked for the same servie that picked up my Dad. I had to "pay back" the powers that be so to speak.

I still went on to become a police officer but always worked in EMS. After 11 years in Law Enforcement I believe I have hung up the gun belt for good. I have a new passion and dedication for EMS. My goal is to help gain respect for our profession by helping us EARN the respect one person at a time.

 

[Stevo]

that would be parole on life Wacker, being as some of us are literally here due to ems....

~S~

 

[Firechic]

I was actually a flight attendant after college. I dealt with being assaulted in flight twice by drunk men and decided I didn't want to serve people anymore - I wanted to arrest them! I was hired in a department with the DPS concept - an officer had to be police and fire trained. While working as a police officer, I went on a lot of medical and trauma calls and was very interested in learning more. As I was going through my fire fighting training, I attended EMT-B school and my department sent me to paramedic school shortly thereafter. I discovered people never really like a police officer (unless they truly need them), but everyone loves to see a firefighter/paramedic!!!

 

[MedicRN]

I stumbled into EMS by accident. I can remember wanting to be a nurse for as long as I can remember (As a teenager, I had the awesome privilege of caring to for a great aunt and a great-great aunt while working in a nursing home and most recently, my grandmother during her last Thanksgiving with us). As a senior in high school, I decided to get my EMT to broaden my knowledge base for nursing school. And then it was off to nursing school.

However, money ran out before I completed my pre-reqs and I had to get a job. There was no way I was going back to a nursing home, so I decided to see was this EMT thing was all about. That was over 15 years ago! I had no clue just how contagious this little bug is. I continued on to get my EMT-I/D the next year; and EMICT 2 years later.

And finally, after 13 years of the field and a major stress incident, I went back and finished nursing school. I think I've got the best of both worlds. I've picked 'em up and patched 'em up and now I get to help them recover and go home. Because of me, hopefully, someone will also get to experience the privilege of caring for an aunt or grandmother.

 

[FFEMT1764]

Well here's how I managed to get into EMS...My junior year of high school me and a bunch of friends had just left the high school, gone maybe 3 miles down the road...which at the time put you in the sticks...and a drunk driver ran a stopsign and t-boned my friends in the car in front of me...flipped the car several times...the force of the impact pushed the passenger side into the drivers side of the car, killing my friend in the passenger seat up front and critically injuring the rest of my friends. I had taken a first responder course a few months prior to this just to see I i liked medical stuff, and I did the best I could for 3 critical friends...once EMS and fire got on scene they took things over and transported everyone. After the 3 that were still alive were transported the EMS supervisor came up to me and thanked me for the job I did and was impressed with what I knew, and he encourged me to enroll in EMT class. I thought on it for a few days, and decided to go visit a rescue squad in aonther county(the county the wreck was in was an all ALS paid service), I talked to the squad Asst Director, and was on th squad the next day. I was 17 at that time, so for about 4 months I could only be a driver or 3rd person on the ambulance, but was trained in the very basics of extrication so I could run the rescue truck when I came ot the squad on the weekends. 4 months after joining the squad the offered to pay for me to go to EMT class, so I did. Ended up with the highest grade in the class, and when I tested for my basic I was the 5th youngest person in SC to take the test, and in the top 20 youngest to be certified. I have been involved in EMS ever since...that was 12 years ago Nov 1. I was a basic all of 7 months and then enrolled into and I class, top grade in the class again, and passed the test no trouble. I then had some detours along the way to paramedic(marriage, divorce, moved to MD, moced back to SC after the divorce). I was a MD cardiac rescue technician for the 2+ years I was stuck there. Moved back to SC and worked as an I again for 3 more yrs, then a coworker asked me to take the medic class with her, so I did, and I passed, and I am now a medic, and come Feb 24th I will have been a medic for a year. I that year I have learned alot about being a better medic, and I feel that because I was an I for soooo many years that I am better at assessing my patients from the basic level up. For all you basics and students who read this, I remember where I started, and I personally prefer working a truck with a good basic or intermediate than with a medic who has no idea of how to preform a good basic exam...well enough on my ranting...

 

[Stevo]

i taught a few first responder courses once.

so i asked the group what attracted them to ems, a few said they wanted to go into health care , but quite a few more said because they'd seen ems in action with a family member

i think ems is contagious....

~S~

 

[coloradoemt]

I'll be a goth-tattooed-headbanger until I'm 94..

I am in Love!!! :wub:

My Dad helped start an Ambulance service about 30 years ago in rural NE. He worked as an EMT and Volly FF for most of that. Stories he told thru the yrs kept me interested. About 10 years ago I finally reached a point where I could no longer scratch the itch and followed in his foot steps. This is the simplified version of course, but I did not want to give you all an hours worth of reading unlike some folks around here...

 

[JJR512]

Hello! I'm new here, this is my first post. This seems like a good place to start.

A few years ago, while sitting in the food court of a local mall, I saw a little girl fall and hit her mouth on a metal post, causing a lot of bleeding and crying. I saw it happen and all I could do was sit there and watch as one parent tried to stop the bleeding with a napkin while the other went to get some help. I felt helpless, and I hated it.

A few months ago, at an Oktoberfest celebration in Baltimore, I was sitting in a seat right on an aisle when an old man across the aisle, directly across from me, not more than ten feet away, fell to the floor. He had been standing, and he just fell right out. There was a parade of people going by at the time (carrying the ceremonial beer keg with the kid sitting on top...some of you may be familiar with that custom), and at first, people just thought he got tripped up or something. And, of course, we also figured he was drunk. His head made a loud crack as it hit the floor, though. But he lay there for a few seconds and didn't move, like I guess everybody thought he would. He didn't move at all. Someone thought to check his pulse; he didn't have one. Then we heard something that sounded like "not breathing". Now by this time a small crowd was gathering around, by my wife and I had ringside seats. Initially, after falling, he appeared flushed. He later appeared cyanotic. Someone started doing CPR. After several minutes, EMS providers arrived (I didn't know at the time about the different levels of EMT, so I have no idea now what they were, exactly). An AED was used four times. A bag-valve mask was used. It's my understanding that when they took him out, he had regained consciousness. I don't know what had happened to him to begin with, or what his eventual outcome was. All I knew was that I once again had that feeling of helplessness, and again, I hated it.

I have a wife and two kids, two boys, four and half years and 10 months old. After the first incident with the little girl, I had thought it would be a good idea for me to get some kind of basic first-aid training, so I could at least help my own kids if I ever had to. But I never did anything about it. It wasn't until the second incident that I got off my ***.

I recalled that a co-worker was also an EMT, so I asked her how I could get some basic first-aid training. I figured the county probably offered some kind of basic first aid class. I don't know if she misunderstood what I meant when I said "basic first aid", or if she just thought that maybe I would be more interested in something better, but she told me that I could get EMT-B training from the county for free, aside from a $20 application fee, by joining a volunteer fire department, or I could get the same level of training from a community college for whatever their cost was. I told her I wasn't interested in being a firefighter and I also didn't have time to commit to being in a VFD. I really didn't know anything about it, obviously. She told me I didn't have to be a firefighter, and she told me about "non-riding members", who only had to make a very minimum time commitment.

I have to tell you I felt kind of silly going into the VFD and asking someone, "Is it true I can get all this EMT training basically for free and I only have to show up here a few hours each month", but they said yeah, it's true, so I paid my twenty bucks, got voted in, and have been in EMT class since the beginning of January. I'll be done sometime in June.

I plan to get some kind of a "lite" "first-in bag" to keep in my car, like I'm sure many of you do. Hopefully, I won't have that helpless feeling ever again, at least not for that reason.

Since then, I've had some changes in attitude about what I'm doing. I originally didn't want to do any kind of firefighting, but now, I think I'd like to get into engine driving. I also don't think I'm going to make just the bare minimum time commitment, either, which is 16 hours a month. I'll probably do several hours a night for one or two nights a week, and one weekend day each week, or at least every other. I figure actually doing it will keep sharp the skills I learned in class.

 

[Jon]

Well said.

And Many of us get into it that way... kind of "sucked into" the FD...

Congratulations, and welcome. Many of us are still learning (in one way or another), but are happy to pass on our experience to you.

 

[ffemt8978]

JJR,

Welcome to our own little corner of dysfunction.