Almost Fully Qualified...

This post shall be about the month of May and my thoughts and feelings throughout, and to say that I'm holding on for dear life is an understatement.

Let's not lie and say this career choice of mine is an easy one, because it really isn't. I am constantly stressed. Sometimes I wonder how I could have ever thought being a Paramedic was for me, my dream, the job I wanted to work until the end of time. 

Why would I choose to do shift work? It's unhealthy (google circadian rhythm) and can affect not only your sleep and eating patterns, but hormone levels (including impacting your fertility) and increase your risk of heart disease, amongst most other nasty things. Being a Paramedic means you need incredible manual handling skills and awareness because you will be squatting, bending, pushing, lifting heavy patients and bags, twisting into tight-ass corners, wriggling into impossible angles to shift some heavy bugger who decided to collapse at the bottom of the stairs in a corner of a busy club. This job means you don't have 'weekends', you get 'days-off' that no one else has off, because it's Tuesday-Thursday and not even your work mates have those days off, so eating on your own, going to the movies on your own and day trips are on your own. Being a Paramedic is depressing. You only see people who are sick or hurt. People are normally upset, despite being glad to see you walk through their door. We bring bad news as often as good.

However! 

I could not possibly imagine doing anything else other than being a Paramedic.

I get to see the city (at the moment, it's London) at all times of the day. I see the striking colours of the sun setting over the horizon nearly every day and I can watch the smooth, gentle pinks lighting up the dark sky in the mornings at the end of my shifts. Humans decided to live while the sun is up, but I think there's something calming, gentle and friendly about the dark. I can have steak for breakfast, I have an excuse to eat cereal for dinner and when you're tired, you sleep, while the sun shines you rest and recharge for your next big adventure: tonight's shift.

I am unconsciously using so many muscles that I'm getting stronger. You carry two to three heavy bags at a time, up and down stairs at patients' houses, in and out of the truck, around branch, to and from work. You squat all the time, with a straight back, and picture yourself at the gym. And no need for a stair master, all the houses here are built upwards, and they always get sick on the topmost floor. And there's never an elevator in apartment blocks. 

It takes a certain person to be a Paramedic, and because I am one, I know that the friends that I am making now at work, these colleagues of mine, are more than just colleagues. I have been able to trust them, confide in them and connect with them as they are so similar to me. I may be stressed and doubt myself and my abilities, but they are going through the same things and feel the exact same way. I am not alone in thinking that 300 hours of training is not enough to become a competent Paramedic. I am not alone in missing home, or the sun or the Aussie accent.

And as a Paramedic I am welcomed whole-heartedly into strangers' homes. The look of relief as I come in with my bags and open mind and ready skills will never get old. I like being liked, I guess I'm a glutton in that way, I want more of it. I will never get tired of hearing 'thank you'.

I am almost fully qualified and will soon be out on my own, and to that I say BRING IT ON!

Work Work Work Work Work Work

I had a suggestion from my sister, the writer, that the font I used last time wasn't readable, so I'm testing this one out.

It's time for another update! Let's begin with the most important subject. The weather. It's not as cold anymore, I don't need thermals when I go outside during the day and it only drops to about 4 degrees at 11pm-ish, but reaches a high of 17 if you're really really lucky (for a few minutes). It still rains most days and the air is chilly, but hey, the sun's out a lot. By 'a lot', I mean it shines for about an hour or so, then goes, and comes back, then goes. But still chilly. All the time. You need layers. All the time. It's like Melbourne winter, which I managed to escape last year so I guess I'm being punished. It snowed the other day! I was so excited, looked like an absolute foreigner sticking my arms out of the ambulance but I loved it. It lasted a few minutes - with the sun still out - then you guessed it, stopped and came back again a few hours later. Look, either come to the UK in the winter wearing everything you own, or the summer, wearing half of the things you own, but don't bother with Spring. London has no idea what Spring is and clearly shows it. The daffodils which were all over the place a month or two ago have now all stopped blooming so it's dull and dreary. 

Now to WORK!!! I'm working under a mentor for 300 hours of placement. For Aussies coming here to work, the placement period used to be 600 hours but they reduced it for the same reason as why we're all here to begin with - the London Ambulance Service needs more Paramedics out on road filling trucks and shifts that they can't spare the time. We're all registered practitioners here, even though we've come straight from uni with basically no experience, so technically we're only given these 300 hours to learn how London works. Back home, Graduate Paramedics have roughly 10ish months to work with someone, getting their hands dirty and doing as much as they can before they take exams and, if found competent, can go out on their own as a fully qualified Paramedic. It's not like that here at all and it's daunting. I know I learn best hands-on, but still, 2 months is crazy. We've been thrown in the deep end and it's sink or swim here, at the moment I feel like I'm treading water/slightly dog-paddling. My mentor said I have a steep learning curve and that I've been doing really well, but I'd still rather have the rest of the year instead of just until June. 

I've seen a lot on road already, some scary jobs and others not-so scary. Quite a few mental health cases that just need more welfare assistance and a lot of absolute rubbish. People calling an EMERGENCY AMBULANCE SERVICE for 'I feel dizzy' and 'She's been tired all day'... Everyone has a different idea regarding the word EMERGENCY but we do our best to smile and explain to them what we can do. Including pointing them in the direction of their GP. Around the corner!!! 

I love the work though. You just shut out all your personal thoughts and feelings and nothing seems to bother you at work. You immerse yourself completely in the lives and problems of others and think strategically: Danger, Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability etc. Nothing else matters. You hop back in the truck and crank up the radio, sing, honk the horn at drivers that don't get out of the way for an ambulance with it's lights and sirens going, laugh and tell jokes, especially after a nasty job. It's the only way to remain resilient and cope with what you've just seen.

We don't get breaks though. On a 12 hour job you're meant to get a 30 minute break, I'm fairly sure, with 15 minutes of it being uninterrupted. But I haven't had one yet. If you don't, then you get to finish 30 minutes early and get an extra 10pounds. As soon as you "Green-Up" (become available for the next job), you get a whole 30 seconds before you're buzzed and the next job comes up on the screen in the truck. Once, get this, we had 40 minutes!!! The Paramedic I was working with couldn't believe it, he said it was the longest he had ever gone without a call. Back home, haha yeah, that's standard. I successfully cannulated someone the other day, I was over the moon and so proud of myself. I've stuffed up a couple but I'm getting there. I'm getting used to the different cannulas they have here which are different to what I've used at uni. 

Oh and for all your med-people reading this, we do 12 leads on nearly all patients. We don't do 3 leads at all! So if you need to do an ECG it's 12L all the way. I've more-or-less got the lead placement down, hard to feel ribs on most people with chunky torsos but when it's little 87year old Ivy from a low SES, her ribs scream at you "Place it here!!!". Reading them however is a little difficult, as we didn't have a lot of time on it but I'm picking up the important parts and learning lots from my mentor and the doctors at the hospitals we go to. Oh!! I was in the cath-lab a few weeks back and saw a guy get a stent put in! 5 minutes. That's all it took, unbelievable. 

I have a week off now as part of the roster so I'm trying to get in all the essential activities - Netflix, grocery shopping, seeing friends and loved-ones and writing you y'all back home. 

I've come to realise that I'm cursed. Yes, that's right, every time I go overseas North Melbourne seem to win. It happened first in 2012 when I came over with Berni and Jade for our TopDeck trip and such, and North won most of the games. Then again last year when us three ladies went travelling and North did quite well. Now, that I've moved here and CAN'T WATCH A GAME we are winning EVERY SINGLE ONE! Boys, look, I'm not saying I'm upset that you're winning, but 6 games undefeated is just not fair. I'm not going to pay and subscribe to watch online (because I'm poor) and I can't find a pub here that shows games yet, but I can listen to 3AW commentary so that's something. I've loved you since the 90s, I was too young to appreciate it then but now that I'm older and would want nothing more to see us win a flag and you decide to try your hardest the year I move away. Fine. Be that way.

I'm wearing my uniform so often, and tracks when I come home, that it feels strange wearing regular clothes. It's fine being outside when I'm on the job because you know what you've got. To fleece or not to fleece. But if not then it's raincoat again or nice coat? Because it'll rain, you know it will. And how many layers do you want to wear for the few minutes you're outside before you take them off and carry them wherever you end up. It's petty, I know, but if London pulled it's socks up and started with some decent weather then everyone would be much happier. One of the reasons I think all Brits are grumpy - the weather. And the water. It really is disgusting and ruining my tea! There's funky residue on the side of my cups and floating on the top, which I get off with a spoon but come on, this is yuck. 

These days you will find me:

Listening to: Elliphant 

Watching: House

Eating: Chicken with a Nandos flavouring I found at Tescos 

Drinking: An unhealthy amount of instant coffee

Reading: Notes on Emergency Health procedures (I should swap for a novel)

Until next time, take care, miss me, send me love and I'll do the same. 

Cheerio!