Uniform Stories
Learning and understanding five things about EMS and life saved my career and gave my life more meaning
If you have any of these signs, then it’s time to face the music and accept your destiny to become a paramedic
Here’s an example from the annals of “you can’t make this stuff up”
Good partners are a no-brainer; when things aren’t going so well, it can be a bit tricky to figure out the cause
Too much of a good thing can lead to a bad thing, like needing paramedics after attempting to eat one of these gut-busting and heart-stopping meals
Trauma doesn’t just impact the victim, but the rescuer as well
I probably would have muddled through this existence had I not been fortunate enough to do well on the fire department entrance exams
Being uncomfortable isn’t the end of the world; suffering in silence very well could be
Some days I have to lie; I can’t risk exposing them to the worst of the sights and sounds we experience
Our communities trust us with their lives, but that doesn’t make us heroes
My brother’s death taught me a great deal, but the most important lesson I learned is how to treat your patients and their families
If you could start your career over, would you do anything differently?
I’d never had a child ask me what he was going to do after seeing his father dead
The sweats came back, the flashbacks, the images and visions and sights and sounds that had left me a useless shell
I tell myself that second guessing comes with the territory, and that I did what I could, but sometimes all we can do isn’t enough
Fortunately for me, I’ve learned over the years that hiding emotion doesn’t equate to strength.
Race from one call to the next as Michael Morse goes from facing life and death emergencies to treating minor injuries and carting drunks to detox
At some point between EMT school and passing our National Registry Paramedic exam, our brains got put into read-only mode
There are people who are angry and people who hate us; understanding the difference is extremely important
You aren’t going to learn how to survive the daily grind of EMS work in school
If somebody had told me these things, I wouldn’t have believed them
A man came running up to the emergency department’s reception area just as I sat there finishing paperwork from a simple chest pain call
These conversations are mostly one-sided and you’ll regret getting them started
We work long hours, often make low wages, and have to deal with some pretty difficult situations
I got to meet the woman that I had convinced myself had no possible chance of surviving
A firefighter-paramedic recalls the incident that was the start of a now old habit to always look underneath a wrecked vehicle
Regardless of my title, I know my job and I know what I’m worth to society, and that’s all that matters
Being the first person that a newly revived human sees following a near-death experience is not an event to be taken lightly
When EMS becomes your life, losing your job can almost feel like losing your life
When talking about the kind of work I do, people often ask me how I deal with everything that I see
If you’re reading this, do something to remind yourself of who you were when you started this whole game
Here are 10 resolutions for personal and professional success in the year ahead