If I had only known three months ago what was in store for me when I decided to pursue a career in EMS maybe I would feel a little differently.
The last couple of weeks in my young career have been interesting to say the least. For the most part, they have been great due to having an awesome partner that I just get along with great. We are usually on the same page when it comes to things and our partnership blossomed to a point where facial expressions were all that was needed to convey commands/orders/what have you. Unfortunately since I am a rookie, I was only blessed with his partnership for one month.
Our partnership was supposed to end on Saturday, however he called in sick that night. So, I ended up with someone else that lacked a partner. Being the new enthusiastic guy, I was happy to see what this person was like. Unfortunately, this enthusiasm quickly waned. Right out of the gate, he decided he was going to be "that partner". By this, I mean he is the guy that lives by the mantra of "what I say goes" and "you're wrong even if you are right" and "I don't give two shits about anything you have to say or do". I tried to be apathetic about it, but he really struck a nerve when we were on our first call of the night. It just so happened to be a place I had been to the night before to visit the same patient for the same problem. When I was with my original partner, things clicked and he even praised me for "taking the role of the Paramedic and leading on the call" (primarily because the patient and the family were Spanish speaking only). I thought I would be the good partner and attempt to translate for everyone there only to have my translational efforts interrupted by my partner and his broken Spanish. I also did not appreciate having him and the Fire Department crew there mocking the situation and the patient. Even moreso, I did not appreciate him chewing me out because, according to him, I did not step in when needed. Dude, fuck you. You're a crap medic, you treat your patients like crap and the sad thing is that you are younger than me, yet you walk around with this glory, privileged "holier than thou" complex and get mad because I won't kiss your ass. I hope I NEVER end up working with you again. It is enough for me to quit on the spot.
Luckily, my experience with this guy was limited and I ended up getting a better (and better looking) partner for about three hours. Our night was pretty quiet until we went to this sketchy motel (most of the crappy calls are at sketchy hotels.....funny how that works out). Here, we encountered a patient who was diagnosed with end-stage liver cancer and was having trouble breathing. The patient was having difficulty breathing because their body was failing and they were just retaining fluid all over. When the patient would lie back in their bed, the fluid would back up further into their lungs. What made this call crappy is that the patient was practically homeless and had been released from Presbyterian Hospital with little more than their hospital bracelet, a blood pressure cuff and Tylenol with Codeine. They also were given some prescriptions but they could not be filled because not only was the patient's wallet stolen, but the pharmacies refused to look up this patient's health insurance information to get his medications filled. What really disgusted me about this is that, based on what the patient and their loved ones told me, Presbyterian pretty much said "tough shit buddy" and threw the patient out in order to free the bed. And here we are, with our Presbyterian name tags and the Presbyterian name proudly displayed on the back of our ambulance, attempting to provide some sort of care to this patient to help them breathe a little easier, regardless of their terminal disease. It really pissed me off that Presbyterian portrays this mantra of "Pres Cares" and how they provide high quality patient care, yet refused to continue to treat this patient. I understand he is terminal and does not have much time left, but people, it's called Palliative Care. They could be in an inpatient hospice unit instead of in a crappy motel room because they have nowhere to go at the moment and the manager might kick them out onto the street on the coldest night of the year because they called 911. They could have given the patient a supply of oxygen, or some nebulizer treatments, or at least a damn Albuterol inhaler.
All of this, compounded with the crappy schedules, allows me to fully understand why EMS has a ridiculously high turnover rate.
