Giz A Job!

I’ve recently been made redundant from my H&S job. It was just as well, as I’ve been really stressed and was within about 3 weeks of packing it in!

(I wanted to do H&S; my employers wanted me to spend the vast majority of my time recording accidents rather than preventing them. As there were three large sites, and I’m paid more than a clerk, go figure! With a bit of clerical input, I could have analysed the figures [I’m good at stats], and also got about to try to prevent more accidents occurring.)

However, I’d quite like to change direction. I really enjoy helping sick & injured people; I’ve been a works First Aider for over 20 years continuously, and a few (separate) times before that – a total of 30+ years. I’ve also been a Community First Responder for nearly four years.

I’d love a job with the Ambulance Service. I may be a bit long in the tooth to become a paramedic (not that I don’t think I could do it, but that I would be forced to retire before the Trust got their money’s worth), but I could do the ECA job, and even the EMT (or whatever fancy name it’s being given now) with the requisite training – less than that of a paramedic.

Unfortunately our local ambulance trust is not taking on ANYONE at the moment, or not, at least, in any kind of clinical role. I don’t want to move house again; I like where I live. I could access virtually anywhere in our Trust’s area in about an hour or so, being close to the centre of the region.

Can anyone suggest how I could get a sharp-end job with a good ambulance trust/company? I don’t want simply to do patient transport, out of preference.

I have considered doing First Aid training; I’ve done it before and enjoyed it, but I’d prefer a hands-on job.

P!sst

This evening I was called to a bloke who had “collapsed” in a residential road in town. Normally the people we go to are indoors.

I found him easily enough, along with his push-bike.

Initially, he didn’t respond to my questions, but then opened his eyes. There was something about the way he looked that brought out the Oh-ho reflex. He tried to sit up. After wavering about for 45 seconds, he gave up and lay down again. Essentially, he was soundly drunk.

He managed to tell me his name, and wanted to be on his way. I did manage to get him to wait until the ambulance crew arrived (just my luck for them to be called from the next district, as ours was already on a call).

Our patient was going to cycle home (he’d fallen off his bike) but we persuaded him to walk. He only lived about 300 yards away from where he fell off! Examination showed he’d no real injuries, he just had a blood-in-alcohol level, rather than the other way about!

One of the crew walked him most of the way home.

CPR!!!

That was the comment I got from the Community Paramedic when I walked in to the bedroom of the patient I’d been sent to who was “not responding”. She’d been doing it, but needed to do other stuff too.

I set about the job with a will. I’ve rarely had to do CPR whilst a Responder, and even then only for a few compressions. Mind you, I’ve been trained in it for over 40 years (giving my age away a bit) and before that I knew Holger-Nielsen (giving my age away even more! I reckon I could still do Holger-Nielsen if I had to.)

The paramedic did some paramedicy things with drugs etc whilst I was doing the CPR. I was going for about 4-5 minutes, during which time a crew arrived. Eventually the initial paramedic called it. We’d done all we could for the old chap.

Whilst I’m with John Donne, and believe that every man’s death diminishes me – just a little bit, we’d done everything we could for this old lad.

Afterwards, I was heartily congratulated by the professionals. The original paramedic said that she’d never seen CPR done as well except by professionals. Well, I’ve been practising for long enough! Still, it’s a shame it didn’t work – but you can’t win ’em all.

I’m just pleased I gave the gentleman every chance I could, and walked away feeling I’d done a good job, even if the outcome wasn’t what we wanted.

Very Different People

Considering how many people are employed in the ambulance service, it’s amazing how the different types of people blend in so well.

In the vast majority of cases, they also appear to welcome the assistance of CFRs. If possible, they’ll also show you some techniques you don’t get to learn on the training course, and they’ll help you get better at what you do.

Of course, there’s always the minority.

Recently I was at a case where – well, the complaint isn’t really important. Enough to say that all I could do was try to reassure the patient. (Eventually the crew arrived and took her straight in, as there was little they could do either.)

After me, but before the crew, came a Community Paramedic. I’ve not seen him on our patch before and I’m hoping it’s a fair while before I see him again.

His attitude appeared to be “The professionals are here now – bogger off Amateur.”

Now, I don’t like to be in the way and there may be other reasons for me not to be there. At another recent call a lady had chest pains. The all-female crew asked me very politely to stand down as they would have to take the patient’s top off and didn’t want to embarass her. That’s fine by me; they had good reason for not wanting me around and the reason was the patient’s peace of mind. If she had chest pains, I didn’t want to cause her any extra stress.

The crew asked me in such a great way too, without taking ages, that I was more than happy to oblige.

In general, I have a great relationship with the professionals I’m priviledged to work alongside. Of course, I know most of the ones who work our area but even when we get a crew from further afield, they tend to be very Responder-friendly. We won’t, CAN’T take heir jobs – we’re only a stop-gap.

People like the first paramedic get up my nose! We are no threat to their jobs because, even if we stop the clock, there’s a limited number of complaints a CFR can treat. For instance, we do not knowingly get sent to trauma – we’re neither trained nor equipped for it.

Just because someone is “only” a volunteer doesn’t mean they should be treated as a nuisance.

I must admit that the vast majority, 99%, of the professionals I meet are either neutral or (mostly) really support CFRs and appear to value us. They are generally a great bunch, ready with a joke or a bit of ribbing when appropriate.

Shame about the 1%.

Not Responding

I didn’t sign on today. That must be the first Sunday in nearly a year that I haven’t – and I was away from home then, but not now.

The thing was, yesterday, particularly in the early evening, I was spending an unusual ammount of time on the ceramic pedestal in the bathroom! Essentially, I’d got a dose of the sh1ts.

I’d been out yesterday for much of the day, so luckily got no calls. Come the afternoon, I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable and then… Well, eye-of-a-needle stuff!

I’ve been feeling OK today, but I daren’t risk it. Passing on some food infection bug to an already sick patient could see them off, or at least delay their recovery. I don’t usually do anything on Mondays and by Tuesday my bug count should be low enough for the gloves etc to do their bit.

I used to work in the food industry, so I’m very aware of the issues that food infections can cause. Face it, I was the shift “technical resource” for food safety.

Food-bourne bugs are a ruddy nuisance. My younger grandson (yes, I’m THAT old) has been suffering from an E coli infection that has affected his kidneys – luckily he’s well on the road to recovery now. Unfortunately his dad works on a sort-of farm, and that’s always a potential source of bad news.

Having worked in a few technical jobs in the food industry (in the past) I’m very aware of the problems and sources of food infection. Where this sod came from, I haven’t a clue.

Domestic Emergency

Just about ready to sit down at the ‘puter tonight (after I’d signed off), and decided to get myself a small libation.

Shock! Horror!

Hardly any gin and precious little tonic!

I thought I’d got some yesterday, but the search proved fruitless. (My memory for peripheral things is crepe [or something like that] at the moment.)

Dashed out to see my dealer (Tesco in this case) and Lo! – my craving was satisfied.

How could I forget something as important as gin? I know I’m having memory issues at the moment (stress), but surely not for something so important.

Tomorrow’s different; that’s ale!

Wheelchair Wreck!

The other day I was driving along and minding my own business when I thought I saw an electric invalid trike on its side, with someone still sitting in it!

I stopped and put the hazards on. Then I had a look.

Sure enough, a lady of a certain age was on her side, still within the chair. There was no footpath at this point and it looked as if, whilst trying to keep close to the edge of the road, she’d overdone it a bit.

Some people at a bus stop a little further back on the road came up. My stopping must have attracted them, along with the yellow vest I’d put on. Two big blokes quickly moved the chair, before I could stop them. That meant I had to kneel on the tarmac to support the patient with my thighs. I was wearing shorts (it was a HOT day) so I got a good pattern on my kneecaps.

Another (female) peron came to tell me she’d called the ambulance. I was rather pleased about that, as I knew my way home, but not on what road we were on.

Through all this, the patient (80 if she was a day) was telling me how OK she was, in spite of not having been able to crawl out of the chair. She admitted she’d taken a bang to the head/neck and felt dizzy, but didn’t feel like that constituted a need for an ambulance. I informed her differently.

My mates in green suits arrived within about five minutes. I’d done a preliminary check on the patient as best as I could whilst still supporting her, but they went into more detail. (My knees were still in contact with the bl**dy tarmac through this!)

There was no contest; the patient was going in. The crew decided that she’d be OK to walk the few steps to the ambulance, so that’s how we did it. Off she went.

I just wonder how long she’d have been there if I hadn’t, purely by chance, spotted her at the side of the road. The people at the bus queue obviously hadn’t seen her.

My knees have now recovered!

You’re Going In!

I’m really impressed with some of the professionals we work with. They’re great.

Tonight I was called to a 50+ female with, imho, a stroke – probably a minor one. Neck hurt, eyes photosensitive, high pulse though good sats, sweating though feeling cold (temp 40+). Still talking.

The main thrust of her talking was that she didn’t want to go to to hospital.

Tough! The crew arrived, and their diagnosis was the same as mine. Whatever she said, she was going in.

They managed to over-ride her objections and took her off. No one said the “S” word.

I couldn’t have persuaded the patient to go to hospital in a month of Sundays. However, the professionals simply ignored what they determined to be defensive/fear-induced comments. She was going in.

Full Stop.

Depression

I appear to be a bit prone to depression. A few years (well, quite a few) ago, I had to take a year off work with it. Luckily my GP wrote it up as “work-related stress” so my employers were not too keen to blow me out. Being fair, they were a caring company too – not many of those left!

Since Christmas, I’d been noticing that I was feeling more and more stressed. I’m sure it affected my work a bit. More recently, my (three different) employers decided that I was to be made redundant, but that I could apply for a similar job that would cover all three in different ways to the status quo. Knowing the person who would be doing most of the interviewing, and just how much she took to me, I knew I wouldn’t get the job.

After a week, I started to feel really down. I’ve said to a few people that the stress stage was like being a sealed can full of water left on a stove – the pressure just builds and builds. When I got made redundant, it was like someone had punched a hole in the can, and everything went up in steam and boiling over.

I’m off work at the moment, but still Responding. I find that very satisfying, and I haven’t got time to think about feeling down.

This got me thinking. Why was I stressed/depressed in my job, yet find working alongside the Ambulance Service really satisfying? Going to a patient who, in spite of our efforts, we can’t revive does not particularly affect me. Sure, I feel sorry for the family, but eventually we all have to go. Let’s hope I’m 105 when I die, shot by a jealous husband!

My education and training have been in the scientific/technological fields. I can fix things – not mechanical things, but systems. I can train people in this too, but I find extensive paperwork boring. Sure, I can write reports – some long – on trials I’ve carried out on systems and developments, but tabulating accidents of no particular importance bores me.

I’m a problem-solver, not an administrator. (Administrators have my greatest respect. I definitely couldn’t do their job, but I don’t expect they would like to deal with a CVA.) I’d really like a job where problem-solving is an everyday thing. Ideally this would be the Ambulance Service, but our Trust is not taking anyone on, in any position.

Has anyone got any ideas where I could look?

Incidentally, I’ll carry on Responding until I can no longer afford the fuel for my car!

Giz A Job

I’m being made redundant (sob!..er..sorry, that should read “brilliant!”) from my day job. At the moment, my CFR position seems safe, but the wages are poor – £0.00pa.

I’d really fancy a change (I’m currently a H&S Officer, and I’ve worked in Quality Management). Obviously, with my interests, I fancy something allied to First Aid or the Ambulance Service. Unfortunately my local ambulance trust isn’t recruiting for any job. With the proposed cutbacks in just about every public service, I can’t see that changing in a hurry.

I’m going to do a PTLLS (C&G 7303) course that would then make me qualified to teach First Aid. I could quite fancy that, but I’d prefer the sharp end.

Any ideas as to what else I could do, ideally ambulance/First Aid related?