What is it like to be a Paramedic?

So, what is it really like to be a paramedic? Working as a Paramedic is a great job. You’re able to spend your day helping people, while doing something you genuinely enjoy. When the day is quiet, you don’t have to justify yourself to anyone, by “creating” work to do; but when its busy, the hours go quick, and work is often interesting. Its one of the very few medical jobs on Earth, where you can start the day treating someone for a cardiac arrest, then go to a bad MVA (motor vehical accident) and spend hours just trying to extricate someone, and then finish the day off by delivering a baby in someone’s very own bathroom… and in all those jobs, you’re the person in control, you’re the one making decisions, and you’re the one who everyone looks to in order solve their problems.  

Of course… that’s not every day…

So, what’s it really like being a Paramedic? Well, most of the time you spend at the station trying to come up with new ways of passing the hours of the day ( many paramedics have multiple degrees, hobies, or take up writing internet blogs to make the day go faster). The majority of the work is mundane, standard cases, which involve taking elderly or chronically ill patients to hospitals…  but every now and again… something happens… and you earn every penny you make by treating a very very sick patient…

Is it like the movies/TV shows? No, we’re much more competent at our jobs… and we actually know that you can’t shock assystole (the flat line that they always show people shocking in the movies)… In the ten years that I’ve been on road, as a Paramedic, I have only really “saved” about a dozen people’s lives… that’s not so much our job… if people are going to live, they’re generally going to live regardless of our interventions… except in the rare cases of anaphylaxis, severe asthma, or witnessed VF cardiac arrest. No, we don’t generally save lives for a living… we comfort people… the single biggest thing that we can do for our patients is manage their pain with good analgesia, whether this is through reasurance, splinting, methoxyflurane, fentanyl, ketamine, or morphine – this is where we can really make a difference to the lives of our patients.

More and more these days we’re having a role in welfare issues, such as domestic violence, poor nutrition, mental health related disorders – some Paramedics don’t like this… but, it is a large part of our job. 

If you like people, and genuinely want to help people, and occasionally like a little excitement… then being a Paramedic is a great job…

Australian Paramedic…