A Day In The Life
Are you familiar with the people running the stretchers through the door and shouting numbers at the doctors on the television show “ER”? Those are Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs). Paramedics are the highest level of pre-hospital providers; EMTs are the basic level personnel. Paramedics and EMTs are the first medical personnel at the scene of an accident or sudden illness; they give immediate care to heart attack victims, car crash victims, gunshot victims and everything in between. The sick or injured are then transported to healthcare facilities in specially equipped emergency vehicles. On arrival at a medical center, the paramedics transfer the patient to nursing personnel and report their observations and treatment procedure to the attending physician. The guidelines or procedures followed by providers are directly related to their level of training. The EMT-Paramedic is at the upper rung of a three-level hierarchy. Paramedics administer sophisticated prehospital care. They are trained in the use of complex medical equipment, such as EKGs, and are capable of administering drugs both orally and intravenously. EMT-Intermediates are the middle rung and are trained in intravenous therapy and some advanced airway management. EMT-Basics are at the first level of prehospital care and can do an assortment of things such as bandage wounds, apply oxygen and assist the Paramedic.
For EMTs and Paramedics, helping people can be an athletic experience; you have to be where people need you. Like fire fighters and other emergency response personnel, Paramedics and EMTs are involved in life and death situations. Their work can be richly rewarding, as when a child is born despite difficulties, or terribly sad, when, even after administering proper care, a patient dies. Conditions are tremendously stressful, hours long and irregular. Paramedics must be physically and emotionally strong enough to do backbreaking and sometimes dangerous work, and ready to hustle on a moment’s notice, as someone’s life may be on the line. The Paramedic never knows what conditions they might meet on any given day, so emotional stability is at a premium. “It’s a lot of stress and anxiety,” says one EMT who has been on the job for three years. “But some days you go home feeling like you really made a difference, and that’s a real good feeling.” |
