u/Cole-Rex

That is a real thing the fire medic I strongly dislike said to me today. It’s always the ones you most expect.

An update to my post from last week and yesterday: I don’t want to be an FTO, I couldn’t deal with something this stupid on a regular basis and be responsible for their patient outcomes for 6 months after.

I spoke to the operations supervisor when I went to work two weeks ago, she said they have no one to put me with so we need to have a mature discussion of my expectations for him this time around, that it’s been three months and he’s upgraded so things will be different this time. She said it’s a fresh start and I need to give him one, so I tried because my mantra is, “every call is a fresh start.” I only started saying that because one couldn’t let go of small errors and it bled into everything, but it’s catchy so I kept running with it.

Things were not different, on day one there was a near miss med error where he didn’t verify medication (zofran) I gave him to administer after establishing an iv, had to be told to pull it if you can only make it work with most the catheter hanging out. But that’s okay, I spent 15 minutes telling him how much he sucked that morning, that would make anyone anxious, I talked him through the second IV and it went fine. We can work through this. (The conversation was in front of a supervisor for procedures sake, it was way nicer and more professional than you suck over and over again.)

Last week, a low priority dizziness goes out. We throw him on the monitor and there’s a run of vtach, and another. I hand him the pads and grab the radio to call for extra hands all without averting my gaze from the monitor ready to hit print should the moment arise. The patient as all walkie-talkie criticals do, argues about where to put the IV with my partner and I interject, just get me an IV, idc where, I just need it. I don’t really trust this dude to capture the runs so I can’t do the IV. The supervisor heard me radio for the closest unit, any level, and arrived as my additional resources and we leave. After the call I’m reviewing it with my partner because it’s a great learning opportunity to see where his situational awareness is and he’s almost done with medic school, I ask him when he picked up on the severity of the call and he tells me when you said just get me an IV, that’s not the answer I was looking for. I would’ve accepted when I started asking if the pt had a history of VTach or AFib, when I radioed for the closest available unit at any level, when I had him put the defib pads on, or when the medic that’s normally very involved in calls and care was glued to the monitor. Oh well, it’s a learning opportunity, it’ll be okay.

Leading to the main event yesterday, but first highlighting an event that’s only irritating because this guy irritates me. He didn’t know how to do a “pencil drop” IV aka back of the forearm. I show him, we all gotta learn somehow. Like I said, it’s only irritating because I’m irritated.

As we head into our main event, I must say, I told all of you, just because I wasn’t perfect in a vent post, doesn’t mean I’m terrible to work with or a paragod. I wouldn’t have been offered FTO if I was as much of a nightmare as y’all acted. I’m particular, but not a nightmare.

He took a STEMI to the wrong ER. Not just any STEMI, one with tombstones, a widow maker. The patient looked like shit, even alcohol couldn’t get the electrodes or pads to stick. We were between two hospitals, about equal distance, but one was faster route wise. We said the hospital we were transporting to multiple times. We confirmed it with him before transport. We transmitted the EKG to hospital A, activated their Cath lab, and gave them prehospital report. So you can imagine our faces when the doors open and we’re at hospital B. I quickly covered for him when staff was like wtf are you guys doing here. But after the fire medic is trying to calm me down and I’m like this could’ve been forgiven if it was the first time but it’s not and then the relaxed fire medic is upset too. I need air again, I’m going between so pissed I’m vibrating to just so pissed so I walk out and call my husband and start screaming about the situation and he tries to calm me, he says I wasn’t screaming but I felt like I was. It took everything I had in me to be a mature professional adult and not scream at him in the middle of the ER and instead yell in the direction of my supervisor and husband, again, they both said I wasn’t screaming but all the anger I felt made it seem like I was. I told the supervisor I’m not going back in service with him, this is exactly what I feared would happen. So I went home after filing pages of incident reports.

This is even worse than taking a cardiac arrest to the wrong hospital ER, it shouldn’t have happened but we only really transported because we didn’t have a safe place to work it. This time he caused a 30-45 minute delay in care with a patient already circling the drain with me ready to pace or shock. This is the difference between a good and bad outcome. Why wasn’t anything done for this when it didn’t matter? Thank the Gods that this was a STEMI center too. He’s a known problem and they wait until now to try and do something about it. I’ve never heard about this happening once and it happens to me twice, wtf. I’m still so irate right now. This killed any urge I had to be a FTO because I don’t know if I could’ve stopped myself from screaming at him in front of everyone if I was even more responsible for him or someone like him than I already am. I think precepting new hires is enough for me with everything on my plate, it’s much easier to forgive errors, but they don’t usually make them of this gravity.

Edit: y’all this is my partner, not a student

We have FTO openings and I asked if I could do it as a part timer, I got told that since we have so few slots we need to save them for full time, but they would make me an FTO in a heartbeat.

Should I even really be considering this? I’m in school full time, I have a toddler that I’m the primary parent of half the week, my husband is about to start medic school, I’m studying for my MCAT, and I’m about to be a volunteer rural paramedic.

Why am I even considering this, the pay raise is like 2%? Someone talk sense into me or push me further into lunacy.

I have an interview for my local rural volunteer side for a paramedic with the option to get fire certs. You also get hiring preference for the paid side.

Like I got the panel questions from a buddy. I planned to dress nice. But like do I approach this like an oral board, which the last one I did I didn’t take seriously at all, like no preparation what’s so ever. I think I did pretty well, I just opted not to move forward because I wanted to continue medic school and that was the only stability I really had at the time.

Do I just show up looking nice and take a benzo to hide my neurosis? Or do I show them who I really am with professionally bound packets containing all my certifications and resume explaining how this is apart of my 10 year plan to improve local EMS and become a medical director?

I’ve been a paramedic for almost 4 years, all in my local system with 2 years as an EMT. I’m leaving towards complete neurotic person I am because of getting into medical school doesn’t work out I’m aiming to be EMS1. I just need to get out of private ems where we’re pressured to just pass people and create more bodies. And if I don’t know any of the people interviewing me they don’t know how awesome I am and it’s my first introduction to them. So yeah, advice?

This partner I had was dumb as a box of rocks, actually, I think the rocks are smarter because they had a purpose. (Less dramatic edits)

He couldn’t do anything without being directed, even after 6 months to learn my habits and being the only one he worked with.

I had a count down to the shift bid when it was announced because I wouldn’t have to work with him anymore. He asked to buddy bid and I said I couldn’t cuz it would mess with the shift I needed.

First month or so together I told him three times a call was an emergent return. I’m in a flow state that was interrupted by getting a moment to breathe and noticing we’re stopped at an empty intersection. (I had a patient with an allergic reaction with airway involvement, I had told my partner we’re going back lights and sirens three times before getting in the truck because I had an intern, he acknowledge me and said he understood. I get a moment and notice we’re stopped at a red light and empty intersection and ask if we’re going code 3, he says, oh my bad, I didn’t realize that’s what you wanted, after the call I ask about it and he just apologizes, I move on.)

A few months later with a GI bleed out both ends I’m prepping and checking the suction and there’s a mask on the airway I’m trying to work with. Sitting there with his thumbs up his butt or something while fire and I work with the EKG leads still not placed after I threw them at him and told him to do it. (We have an emergent GI bleed going on, while I’m managing the airway and monitor, I say hey, put the leads on, and place the cables over the shoulder for him to grab, he acknowledges me and does nothing.)

Our last shift together he took a cardiac arrest to the wrong ER. Fire told me to handle it or they would. His excuse was they got seen faster with us jogging from one ER to the next… I texted him I moved the truck to the other ER and he still brought the gurney to the wrong ER. (He took a cardiac arrest to the trauma er entrance when the main ER entrance is across the hospital, when I asked him about this he deflected blame instead of just saying he made an honest mistake.)

He was so dumb I refused to downgrade calls, I’d just throw an IV in and go oops, my call. He upgraded to advance tho so I can’t do that anymore. (On calls that could go either BLS or ALS, I would just do ALS rather than downgrade calls to him.)

He drove horribly, I was constantly covered in bruises from his driving, no amount of yelling easy fixed it. (On a perfectly flat and even road with a crunchy wrist fracture that I gave max dose of fent to, he finds every bump and my patient was screaming in pain.)

He couldn’t draw zofran for me for fucks sake, no matter how many times I tried to help him. I’ve shown many an EMT how, the super awesome ones could be talked through it if they didn’t know and I was busy.

I tried to guide him gently and sternly. I just can’t do it again. He needed to be directed to do any and everything. The mental load of dealing with him was exhausting. It’s not a me problem because I’m great with new EMTs. (I tried to help him in every way I knew how, and nothing worked. I just wanted to set him up for success and only found stress.)

TLDR: they put an idiot back on my shift and I can’t do it again. Help.

I’ve emailed, I’ve texted, I can’t find a phone number. She just send the monthly update things.