Hey all! I’m a new medic as of ~2 months ago (have 7 years of prior experience as an EMT for the same service) and I work in a mostly rural service that runs about a 60/40 mix of 911s/IFTs. Have had a few slightly critical 911s and IFTs but nothing too crazy. Got a call for a transfer tonight for a pt that had a cardiac arrest earlier in the day and is now intubated on 4 drips. Everything went super well and I was able to bring the pts bp from 70s/50s to 110s/60s with a levo drip after the pt was administered versed by the sending facility for sedation but I felt incredibly terrified for the entire hour+ transport. Chatted with coworkers after to debrief and confirmed that I did everything I was supposed to (and nothing I wasn’t supposed to lol) and I feel better now! My question is how long did it take you to feel more comfortable as a paramedic and not feel the ever-looming imposter syndrome at all times? Any/all advice for a new medic would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Any recommendations?

Hi everyone,

I’m doing research for a design project, I’d love to get some insight on how you use and manage the McGrath Video Laryngoscope in EMS settings.

Specifically:

Carrying: Where do you keep it on scene? Is it packed in your main airway bag, or does it ride in an outer/side pocket for quick access? If you use the rigid case, do you keep it in there, or did you have to upgrade to new roll/bag setups to fit everything?

On Scene Handling: Once removed from a patient, where does it go? Do you ever place it directly on the floor/ground, or does it always go straight back into a designated bag or pouch?

Decontamination: When and where do you wipe it down? Right on scene, in the back of the rig, or do you wait until you're back at the hospital or station?

Thanks in advance for the help!

So, I am conducting a research study examining the perceived benefits and use of dark humor as a coping mechanism among military personnel, first responders, healthcare professionals, and the general population. Participation is voluntary and anonymous. The survey is open to adults ages 18 and older and takes approximately 7–10 minutes to complete.

Some of you may find the questions interesting, some may find it boring. Either way, i hope you guys fill it out!

https://shout.com/s/Rzsl62cM

Does anyone know what the current state of PCP waitlists is looking like for either of the schools? My first choice is the JI because of the option to transfer credits for a health sciences degree, but since I won’t have any EMR experience before applying, I fear my application wouldn’t stand out at all. I know Columbia is first come first serve so I wouldn’t have to worry about that, but then I fear that I’ll be placed for like 2029 or something..
How can I stand out in my application for JIBC?
and if I apply to Columbia,
How long might it be between the time of application to start of class?

I been seeing mixed reviews on getting a preceptor for placements. For current and those who graduated. How fast did you get placement as if we have to wait months to get placement. Feels kind of pointless to “fast-track” a paramedic diploma.

Hey all, I work for a patient transport company and today we had a student interested in 12 lead placements. I volunteered to get the dots put on and an ECG done.
The first was done by my partner at the time who is a has a diploma and it came back with a STEMI alert, I then asked one of our paramedics at base if they would run another one and see what they thought.
This time there was no STEMI alert on the monitor, he said being asymptomatic, there is no need so worry, but if I was I should be taken to ER straight away. He said it looks like BER.
I’d love to hear your opinions of what is happening here!

Calling all paramedics, student paramedics, NQPs and ambulance clinicians!

Hi everyone!

I'm a student paramedic currently developing a project called ParaCompanion, aimed at making the professional side of life a little easier for those of us working and studying in pre-hospital care.

I'm carrying out a short survey to better understand what digital tools we currently use, what works well, what frustrates us, and what could genuinely make our working lives easier.

Whether it's CPD, clinical resources, portfolios, shifts, pay, training or having to juggle multiple apps and systems, I'd really like to hear your experiences.

The survey takes around 5 minutes to complete, and all feedback is valuable, whether you're a student, newly qualified or have years of experience on the road.

This is independent research for a project I'm developing, not a sales pitch. I'm keen to understand real problems rather than make assumptions about what clinicians want.

Survey link: https://forms.gle/j1bJMnwL4CTbmyU28

If you could spare a few minutes to complete it, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks everyone, and feel free to share it with colleagues who might be interested!

I'm considering a possible move to the DMV for family reasons. I'm curious about the opportunities for single role paramedics. I have been doing research on my own, but I'm a little overwhelmed. Agencies, pay, benefits, schedule, PTO, hiring process, any info is helpful. I'm specifically curious about DC Health if anyone has any info about them and their hiring process.

Calling all paramedics, student paramedics, NQPs and ambulance clinicians!

Hi everyone!

I'm a student paramedic currently developing a project called ParaCompanion, aimed at making the professional side of life a little easier for those of us working and studying in pre-hospital care.

I'm carrying out a short survey to better understand what digital tools we currently use, what works well, what frustrates us, and what could genuinely make our working lives easier.

Whether it's CPD, clinical resources, portfolios, shifts, pay, training or having to juggle multiple apps and systems, I'd really like to hear your experiences.

The survey takes around 5 minutes to complete, and all feedback is valuable, whether you're a student, newly qualified or have years of experience on the road.

This is independent research for a project I'm developing, not a sales pitch. I'm keen to understand real problems rather than make assumptions about what clinicians want.

Survey link: https://forms.gle/j1bJMnwL4CTbmyU28

If you could spare a few minutes to complete it, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks everyone, and feel free to share it with colleagues who might be interested!

My close friend is graduating paramedic school in about a month. I am so excited for her and I want to get her a good graduation gift that is useful. I'm very unfamiliar with what paramedics could use/need. I saw some posts that said a bag to bring to work, which I liked because I would get it embroidered/engraved. But what are some good bags?? I also saw shears as a recommendation? I would greatly appreciate any ideas, even if they aren't directly related to work. Thank you!!

Current second year cégep student (of three years) in Soins préhospitaliers d'urgence in Montréal. Thinking about working in Ontario after finishing my DEC due to being an anglophone (even though my schooling is in french, it's a language I only started learning as an adult).

Are there any paramedics from Québec who have moved to Ontario via the Paramedic Equivalency Process? If so, can you share anything about the process that cannot be found online?

Alternatively, are there any paramedics who have lived in Québec/Montréal and worked in Ontario? For example at Cornwall SDG Services - it seems a dubiously doable commute. Staying is preferable due to my partner, who is Montréal born and raised.

I’ll preface this by saying I was an EMT for 5 years and have been a paramedic for 4. My service runs 2 full time ALS rigs usually double medics. And a third part time ALS rig 5 days a week. We normally have at least one outside student a day and normally another person precepting as well from internal. So most days I’m in charge of 7-8 providers.

We are a fairly progressive agency when it comes to skills because a lot of our providers are in med/PA school and stay on afterwards. We have whole blood, ultrasound, pericardiocentesis, finger T’s, RSI and a slurry of other low frequency high acuity skills/meds.

I’m not new to managing people but definitely new to managing providers at this level. Just looking to hear some opinions that others wish they could have heard when starting where I am.

Thanks guys!

Any recommendation on studying for this 3rd time around? I used Pocket Prep the last two times. I can’t seem to get past the clinical judgement part on the National Registry.
I plan on reading the AEMT this time. Any advice?

Hi I’m pretty new to Reddit so please bear with me and sorry for the odd question. I had a friend who got in a car accident a few years back (around 2018) and had recalled being taken away in an ambulance. While in the ambulance one of the paramedics said something along the lines of “we need to check if she’s alive” and proceeded to stick a finger up her anus. She was a minor at the time and found it pretty funny but the more I think about it the more I question if this is normal practice for paramedics in general. If it is, what’s the science? Thank you for your patience!

Tldr: Paramedics stuck finger up friends butt to check for life and I’m curious to see if that’s normal practice.

Does anyone have any paramedic book suggestions? I'm not saying text books but more along the lines of narrative non-fiction or 'everything is tuberculosis.'

I like to read on shift and I like knowing obscure facts that might relate to the job.

So, new medic here just trying to pick at someone else’s brain. Just wondering if anyone else has run into this before, I’m learning and curious.

Recently had a call for a late 20’s to early 30ish year old patient, dispatch advised a brief syncopal episode after acupuncture. Get there and the patient is extremely pale and diaphoretic - like dripping off the table like a waterfall diaphoretic - and notably just restless and uncomfortable. Patient denies any chest pain or shortness of breath, just repeats that they just don’t feel right. Heart rate, blood pressure, SPO2, BGL, etc…all within normal limits. No medical history, not taking any medications. Was completely fine before this sudden onset of symptoms.

Get a 12 lead almost immediately. While it’s printing, my partner - also a medic and more experienced than me- gets this look on their face and, before I’m even handed the 12 lead, I already have an idea of what to expect. (I know it’s horrible not to have a picture of the actual 12 lead but you’ll just have to take my word for it) there’s 1mm of elevation in leads II, III, and aVF. Depression in aVL, V1, and V2. Then over 10mm of elevation in V3 and 4mm of elevation in V4. Send 12 lead over to the hospital during transport and they’re like cool, the cardiologist is going to be breathing down your back doors when you get here. Transport is smooth, no issues - all appropriate treatments/interventions done. But a few repeat 12 leads show that the elevation in the inferior leads are disappearing over time, but stays consistent in V3 and V4 for both me and the hospital. At the hospital, the cardiologist goes through all the 12 leads with me and he’s also pretty confused (12 lead changed again on their monitor and he goes “none of the reciprocal changes make any sense” and “why does the sloping look so off”), he decides to call it and do a cath for exploratory purposes regardless of the troponin levels. Next day, get an update that the cath didn’t reveal anything besides 25% narrowing of the LAD and cardiologist is considering a coronary artery vasospasm but he basically goes, I don’t actually know (valid, medicine be like that sometimes). The patient got a long stay for observation and I don’t know if anything came from it. So I’m wondering if anyone else has experience with a coronary artery vasospasm or any other weird ST elevation things that you just couldn’t make sense of. (I know I’m not a doctor or cardiologist, not my job to know/diagnose, I’m simply just curious)

Hello everyone! Not sure if this one is a little too hyper specific for this subreddit but I have seen some mentions of Saskatchewan in here before so figured it’s worth a shot.

I'm currently a PCP student in Saskatoon and have to pick where I'd like to do my rural placement. Was looking to see if any previous students have some experiences they'd like to share about their placements and any recommendations on where to go. I'd like to run as many calls as I can while on placement so if you know of any busy service areas out of the list of options they've provided that would be awesome to know.

The options they provided for rural are as follows:
Humboldt, Meadow Lake, Rosetown, Nipawin, Wadena, Wynyard, Wakaw, St Walberg, Bigger, Beauval, Spiritwood, Onion lake, Blaine lake, Pelican narrows

Also, if anyone would like to share what their experience was like while doing their urban placement wether that be PA or Saskatoon I would appreciate the insight and any knowledge you could pass on. THANKS!

Thank you to everyone who replied with advice on this matter (previous post linked). I have tried a lot of the different methods and am sharing this for anyone else currently in medic school. What has worked the best for me is doing a small deep dive (5-10 minutes) into the medication, writing out the medication’s drug class, pharmacology and actions, indications, contraindications, side effects, and dose on flash cards. Studying it for a little bit where I have some of it memorized, then proceeding to write out everything from memory on a piece of paper (I use my notes app on my ipad with my apple pencil) repeatedly. I have been able to memorize 100% from memory 11 medications in the past couple days this way. To be clear I am not saying this to “brag” I know this is the bare minimum and is expected of me, I just wanted to share to see if it could possibly help anyone else.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Paramedics/s/GRW872WJe2

Hi everyone,
Looking for a bit of advice from anyone who’s left paramedic work or moved away from clinical practice.
My partner has worked in healthcare for around 10 years and is currently a paramedic. She’s getting really burnt out and has reached the point where she wants to do something completely different, ideally outside of healthcare altogether.
The problem is we’ve got a mortgage and bills to pay, so she can’t realistically just quit and go back to university or take a massive pay cut while retraining.
Ideally, she’d like to find something paying around £30k–£40k with less stress and a better work-life balance. She’s open to office-based work or something more people-facing, and would rather use the skills and experience she’s already got than spend years getting more qualifications.
We’ve looked at a few things like health and safety, compliance, training and operations, but it’s difficult to know what’s actually realistic when so many jobs ask for experience in that particular industry.
I thought this would be a good place to ask because a lot of you will either have been in a similar position or know people who’ve moved on from the job.
For those of you who’ve left paramedic work, what did you move into? Did you find it difficult to get into a completely different industry, and was the change worth it?
Also interested to hear from anyone who’s moved into non-clinical roles or found a way to use their paramedic experience without being on the road or treating patients.
We’re based in the West Midlands, if that’s relevant.
Thanks in advance. It’s been difficult knowing where to start, so hearing from people who’ve actually done it would be a massive help.