Welcome to your first day of EMT-Basic school. You are about to embark on a long journey so it seems fit that you should be prepared for the trip. There are many reasons why you may have started down this path. The most common reason heard is, "I want to help people." A noble and admirable sentiment to be sure, but there's a lot more to EMS than simply helping people. As you find your seat and start to get to know your classmates there are a few things you need to know before we get going.
This career you're about to start training for is a hard one. It's not like what you see on TV and in the movies. When I was eight years old one of my favorite TV shows was, "Rescue 911." Every week none other than William Shatner, yes that's right Captain Kirk himself, narrated stories of real Police Officers, Firefighters, and EMT's who rushed to save those in peril. With few exceptions everyone on that show survived their ordeal and invited their rescuers to their next birthday party where everything was smiles, cake, and happily ever after. In nine years, I've yet to be invited to a birthday party. What has happened more often is that I've had to kneel in front of a scared husband, wife, brother, sister, son, or daughter and tell them there was nothing we could do and their loved one is dead.
TV and movies will give you a very skewed version of what it means to sit in an ambulance and respond to calls. If shows like "9-1-1," or "Chicago Fire" are to be believed, you'll spend each shift screaming through the streets with lights and sirens blaring to a cardiac arrest. Then fly down the highway to a child-filled SUV flipped upside down in ditch as the water is rising. To top off the day a disgruntled former office worker will walk into previous place of work and start shooting the place up only to be stopped by the hot shot paramedic who walked into the scene with no police backup to selflessly drag the wounded outside. After you do all that it'll be back to your station for a game of poker or a few beers at the bar to laugh off the shift.
What you'll really see is cars drive past the street corner your dispatcher will post you at for hours on end. You'll get to know the layout of every nursing home in your response district and you'll come to dread the words, "I just got on and this isn't my resident." You'll find yourself shaking your head as you respond once again to the same address you responded to yesterday for the little old lady in apartment 2B who is once again weak and in pain because she still won't fill the prescription she's been given for the umpteenth time. You'll find yourself wondering why someone called 911 at 2:30am for, "itching all over," and why they want to go to the ER by ambulance when there are three other legal adults who could have loaded the patient into any of the five working cars in the driveway and drive them to the hospital themselves. And that's not even the ugly stuff.
The truly ugly stuff is the wide cases of PTSD that are becoming more and more prevalent in all First Responders. For low pay you'll be disrespected by nurses and doctors who should know better and by the public who seem to think that they can do your job. While most people are gathered around a table enjoying a Thanksgiving feast with their loved ones, you'll be hoping the local convenience store still has some hot dogs on the rack that are warm. Driving through your response area you'll see the house where she lived with her husband, until he had too much to drink one night and became angry. You won’t be able to forget just how much blood can stain a carpet. You'll try to keep a straight face when the teenager across the counter at Taco Bell asks, "what's the worst thing you've ever seen," and once again the lifeless body of an infant streaks across your memory.
Like I said this career is a hard one. It's not for everyone. You'll see everything life can throw at you and then some. There will be things that will always stay with you. There will be time away from your family and friends. Your coursework will push you academically in a way many of you haven't experienced before. The preceptors you'll follow will demand perfection each and every time. New practices and guidelines will cause you forget everything you learned three months ago for what some study across the country found would increase patient survivability by a few percentage points.
So why do we do it? Why endure the blood, the twisted metal of what used to be cars, the disrespect of peers and strangers, and the time away from loved ones? To be honest I can't answer that question for you. I can only answer it for myself. So why do I not only do this job but look forward to putting on my uniform clocking in? It's because I still believe in heroes.
Now I'll be the first to tell you that I don't consider myself a hero. I'm just doing my job. However, the actions we're called to perform are heroic. In the days after 9/11 there was much said about, "those who rushed in when others rushed out." It's cliché, but it's also true. It takes a different kind of individual to move towards chaos when others are gripped by panic. Humans have a very strong self-preservation instinct that is remarkably easy to follow and just as remarkably difficult to overcome. When you think about someone who is a hero versus someone who is a coward, often it's the hero who has overcome this instinct for self-preservation. I believe there is something admirable in this kind of heroism that is to be commended and put into action.
When put into action properly you'll have the chance to literally breathe new life into someone and to begin to heal wounds of all types. More importantly you'll hold the hand of a scared drunk woman who's drowning under the pressure of life and for ten minutes your hand is her life preserver. You'll get to know the old lady who calls every day and through her get to know her grandchildren and how she worked in a factory while her husband served overseas in World War II. You’ll be the first one to hear the cry of a newborn child, and look up at the exhausted mother and say, “it’s a girl.” And every once in a while, you’ll put your fingers on the neck of a patient during a pause in CPR and you’ll feel it, the return of a heartbeat. You’ll be there when someone somewhere will dial 911 when their life is crashing out of control and the first sounds of hope will be the sirens of your ambulance.
The uniform you'll put on will quite probably carry the Star of Life emblem on it somewhere. The six-pointed star with its Rod of Asclepius within will loudly proclaim that you are that person who will walk into chaos and with calm and steady hands. You will be the person who will start to put the pieces of a life back together. You'll be the person who carries that inner pride that even though the Police and Fire Departments may get the lion's share of the news stories it'll be you that they will call when they need help.
There are many who have gone before you. They can help you face down the trials that'll bombard you as you enter this career. Use their wisdom and guidance well. Build your own legacy to inspire those who will come after you. EMS is a wild ride of boredom, routine, chaos, order, and adrenaline. Welcome aboard. Make us proud.
Eric Willett is a Lead Paramedic for Professional Med Team ambulance in Muskegon, Michigan. He started as an EMT Basic in 2010, obtained his Paramedic license in 2012, and became an Instructor-Coordinator in 2016. He currently lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.