A Glimpse Into My First EMS Ride-Time : A Peak Into The Lives of Emergency Medical Professionals
On February 18 I woke up at around 5 am to embark on my first ever ride along as an EMS Junior. It was one of the most thrilling and insightful experiences I had ever done in the medical field.
As I drove 40 minutes to the station in the pitch dark, I felt as though my stomach was doing backflips, I was so giddy with excitement. When I got into the ambulance I was ready to start this nerve-wracking journey.
At that point, I had been in the EMS Junior program for a couple of months now, and now I could finally utilize my learnings and skills on real-life applications.
When the paramedics and I reached our checkpoint, we waited around 4 hours until we got our first call. To be honest, I was a little disappointed because I thought I would be getting a call every hour, I also learned a lot of patience in this experience. The dispatch came through, it was about a very elderly woman with severe back pain. When we came to her house, she was in tears, wincing and crying out every time her back was moved.
The paramedics that I was riding with asked for her past medical history and did a general examination. Soon after they assessed her situation, they decided to put her on a stretcher which gave the women a great deal of discomfort.
On the ride to the hospital, I learned an amazing deal of interesting things, the correct amount of morphine dosage, and saline drip via IV. I learned that morphine was a very powerful analgesic, essentially an amazing painkiller given to patients to lessen their amount of pain.
I learned to calculate the correct amount of dosage, it was a very precise recipe since even a little bit more could cause overdosage and life-threatening problems. After the morphine and saline drip was in play we continued to the hospital.
Reaching the hospital, I witnessed something I had never seen before, it was an inmate confined to his stretcher, dressing in bright orange getting wheeled into a hospital room, he had security surrounding him and everything was happening very discreetly. It was insanely cool to witness.
When the doctor came, we provided him with information we had gathered with our initial assessment, and the family filled in him about her past medicinal history. I saw how teamwork and professionalism could transform a stressful situation into a calm and manageable one.
After, the paramedics and I made our way to another checkpoint as we were in a rotation. Throughout the ride time, I was given amazing pieces of advice as I am an aspiring doctor. I learned how to stay focused and how to journey to the medical profession involves a great deal of hard work and consistency.
On our way to the second checkpoint, we received another call, coincidentally it involved another elderly woman. This time our job was to transport her from the hospital back to her old age home. Sounds simple right? It wasn’t, the old lady had a very big personality. Though she was very elderly, she wanted to be independent. She was very picky, refusing help, and hated being touched.
Her witty commentary was very amusing to see, critiquing everything. It was very hard for me to not indulge in her humor, but I had to remain professional. The funniest thing was when we were trying to escort her onto the stretcher, she snapped and gave him a strong bite! The officer jumped back and after that couldn’t help but let out a laugh.
Throughout the ride, she was about confused, she was a memory care patient and was often in a world of her own. But that didn’t stop her mischievous personality, making worry and sarcastic comments. This second call reminded me that our job is not just about medical procedures but also about connecting with people, no matter how eccentric they may be.
Looking back, my first ride time was a blend of intense learning and unexpected humor. The experiences with both elderly women highlighted the profound impact we can have as EMS professionals, armed with knowledge, skill, and a deep commitment to caring for those in need.
