South Bend Tribune
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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Rob Rose, a lieutenant with the South Bend Fire Department, has been a paramedic for 14 years. With the South Bend Fire Department for six years, Rose, along with other paramedics with the department, are also firefighters, who are trained in both areas of expertise.
Rose called his work as a paramedic a thankless job because he mostly only sees people at their absolute worst. He recently talked with Tribune correspondent Jennifer Ochstein about his opportunity to help people while at the same time satisfying his adrenaline addiction.
What type of education does one need to become a paramedic?
At minimum, a high school diploma, and you must be at least 18 years old. And you must have two years of schooling. It’s equivalent to an associate’s degree.
Where can you get that training?
Ivy Tech has it, a lot of community colleges have it and some larger fire departments offer it. But today the best way is through a small community college. Individual fire departments can run the course, but they have to be affiliated with a college or one of the hospitals.
I went to Southwestern Michigan College and Kalamazoo Valley Community College. But locally Ivy Tech offers it and is affiliated with one of the hospitals.
What are some of the duties of a paramedic?
Our days are really busy. We run anywhere from six to 14 calls every 24 hours. And one call takes at least an hour or longer. A fire can last anywhere from 20 minutes to several hours, but the average medical call is one hour or longer.
After every call, we have a very lengthy report we have to submit, and we have to do some small PR stuff, but we’re mostly pretty busy running calls. A lot of paramedics are also involved with river rescue, tactical rescue and Haz-Mat. We have all the duties of a firefighter, but we’re paramedics on top of that.
Is the majority of your time spent as a paramedic or firefighter?
The majority of calls are spent on EMS. We’re well into this year, and the city ambulance has been out on almost 9,000 calls this year. On average there are six to 14 calls per ambulance every 24 hours, and we have seven ambulances.
We work 24-hour shifts. That’s the same with all fire departments, and you don’t really get any rest during that period of time. You do get some down time, but if you do get to fall asleep, it’s typically only for a few minutes. We haven’t been able to get any additional staffing in the last three to four years even though we’ve doubled our runs over that time period.
We work on a rotating schedule. ... On average, it’s a 56-hour work week. And there’s a handful of us who work on the helicopter that’s affiliated with the hospital. That takes up our day off in between our work schedule.
What types of skills or personality traits should one have to be a good paramedic?
Tolerance. What you do depends on what area you work, shootings versus car accidents. In more urban areas, you have more violent crimes. You and your partner have to keep an eye on each other because you’re responding to someone when they’re not at their best.
I’m assigned to the west side rig, and I’ve been assaulted, spit on, we’ve had weapons pulled on us. We have to be on the defense.
On the side of taking care of people, you have to care about people. You have to be able to listen to them, and you have to have a thorough understanding of the body and the medications we give.
We also do some surgical procedures in the field. If someone is choking, we can insert a tracheostomy. If someone has a collapsed lung ... we can reinflate it. We’re working under the direct supervision of a doctor, and we’re trained to their liking. I work directly under a doctor’s license. It’s a good way to bring the ER (emergency room) to the patient. We’re the eyes and ears of the doctor.
The biggest skill is knowing people. You’re seeing people at their worst time, when they’ve just had a heart attack or a car accident. And you’re also dealing with family members. People skills are huge. I always tell the people that I train that if you don’t have an instinct for the job, you’re not going to go far with it. It requires a special type of personality to deal with people who are at their worst. After two years of school, I firmly believe that you don’t even learn the job until you’re on the street. And it’s up to the agency to assign you to a senior person to help with those skills.
What are some misconceptions people have of paramedics?
The misconception is that we’re just ambulance drivers. People really abuse the 911 system. They’ll call for a baby teething, a hangnail or STD (sexually transmitted disease). There’s a huge abuse, and they take up a large percentage of our calls. I’ve transported for hangnails, slivers, teething babies. I’ve gone to people’s houses to teach them how to change a baby’s diaper.
It’s not the blood and guts and gore that makes you burn out. It’s the call where you’re spit on or assaulted, or the calls you get at 3 a.m. because of a sliver in someone’s foot. We have what we call frequent fliers — we know we’re going to get a call from them to take them to the ER. They’re there for 20 minutes and then they go home. This is very, very common. The problem is that they tie up two firefighters and paramedics, and now we’re out of service for someone who really needs us.
This is a great example: Last week, I responded to a mosquito bite on a 4-year-old. I’ve had people call from the bus station or airport with a fake complaint. We take them to the hospital and when we get there, they run off because they live just a few blocks away.
It pays me the same whether I transport someone who’s shot or who has a hangnail, but if a call comes in for a fire, that’s two less people to search for victims. It angers me, but I have to treat it as if it’s the real deal.
What’s the job market like for paramedics?
There are municipal paramedics and private paramedics. With municipal, like South Bend Fire Department or Mishawaka Fire Department, those are difficult to get into. ...
Private companies have to conduct more recruiting, but municipal (agencies) have a waiting list just to apply. But all-in-all, there aren’t paramedics out there waiting for jobs because not a lot of people want to do it. It’s a thankless job.