Proud to be Partners

By April Saling
EMT-Basic, NW Ohio

Partners.

To the public, the word conjures up thoughts of spouses and business associates. In EMS we think of our partner as the person who always has your back. That person you work with, day in day out. The one you learn from, and who learns from you.

One does not normally think of EMS and hospice as partners, working together in the community. I know I didn’t, especially at first. That all changed when I took a position with a new employer.

Recently I’ve been privileged to become a part of a private ambulance service that holds a contract with two of the larger local hospice facilities. At first I was conflicted. I came into this profession wanting to fix people, to help them get better. To serve the community. While thankfully my sparkier days are behind me, it still seemed wrong. What could I do to help these folks? I would be taking them somewhere so that they could die.

I didn’t think there was anything I could do for them ... until I went on my first hospice run.

Just three months before, he had been working 40 hours a week. Gardening, playing with his grandchildren, even bowling on a league a few nights a week. Now his body was betraying him. He was riddled with cancer. After exhausting all of the treatments available to him, his oncologist told him that he had maybe another month or two to live. In excruciating pain, and not wanting to burden his family any more, he alone made the decision to enter the inpatient hospice facility.

The family was not dealing with his decision well. His adult children fought over whether or not this was the right thing to do. His wife sat shell shocked, unable to come to terms with losing her best friend. Their Father, Her Husband, Our Patient, remained resolute.

We were called to transport him. The family would follow us in their cars. When I was finally alone with him in the back of the truck, all he wanted to talk about was the New York Yankees. Not about cancer. Not about alternative treatments. Not about his life expectancy. He just wanted to talk about his beloved Yankees.

That’s what he needed the most from me. I wasn’t going to cure him. I wasn’t going to be able to help him with pain control. I wasn’t going to solve the tension between his children. But for 15 minutes, in the back of a bumpy ambulance, I was able to distract him from reality. Even if it was at my expense; he teased me mercilessly about my obsession with Derek Jeter. As we were preparing to leave him in his new room, he grabbed my hand and said, ‘Thank you, young lady. It’s a wonderful thing you are doing.’

All I could reply was, ‘You’re welcome.’ I squeezed his hand back.

I’ve been told that part of being a good EMT is realizing that there is always something to be learned from an experience. From every interaction with a patient or a facility. Working with hospice has proven that to me time and time again. In some ways these experiences have provided me with some of the most useful education I’ve ever received.

I’ve learned more about communicating with patients and their families in the last five months than I’ve learned in four years of working in EMS. It doesn’t matter how many dosages you have memorized or the number of treatments you can provide, if you can’t communicate with people, you will never be effective as an EMT or a Paramedic.

I am proud to be a part of a partnership with hospice. I’m honored that I’m being trusted to take care of these patients in their most fragile state. It’s been both a humbling and rewarding experience, and one that I’ll never forget.