Medical espirit de corps

[Beckjhong]

My background is as a FF/Paramedic. As a PA-S1, I'm digging the material big time. However, it's been harder than I ever thought to leave the fellas and the job.

 

Anyone else here experience this? On the other end (in practice) are there medical settings that have a similar espirit de corps?

 

Thanks.

[UGoLong]

I know what you're saying. I still ride with my old unit a few times a month for just that reason after 7 years as a PA. 

 

I haven't found exactly the same thing, but you do build up a lot of friends in the hospital setting. People start counting on you and you on them, which is at least a part of what you may be looking for. I look for opportunities for people to teach me things and visa versa. You can choose to be straightlaced and aloof, or you can just be yourself and enjoy the company of others.

[EMEDPA]

emergency medicine, especially at small rural facilities, has the same flavor as working a medic unit. not so much at the big county places where you never learn everyone's' name.

[SHU-CH]

As a former fire/EMS guy, I know where you are coming from. I worked in open heart for a while and that was a very tight group - surgeons, anesthesiologists, perfusionists and OR and unit nurses.

[True Anomaly]

I'm kinda coming back around full circle on EMS.  I had a state certification EMT-B that I let lapse once I became a PA; now that it looks like I'll be moving back "home" next summer, I'm probably going to take an EMT-B class and get it back- I think I'm ready to get back into EMS in some very small capacity and go from there.  It'll just be fun to sit in a basic class and do rotations - especially the hospital portion- and try to go as long as I can without telling people what I do for a living

[Beckjhong]

SHC-CH-

 

So it gets better?

 

Everyone-

Thanks all for the input. Who'd have thought I'd have such a hard time taking off the uniform.

[Acebecker]

Surgery had the same team cohesiveness I found in the back of the ambulance.  But nothing replaces the ambulance 100%.  That's why, as others have said, I keep doing it.  And it's worth it - I have opportunities to make a difference in the back of the bus that I don't anywhere else.  Then again, I work in UC. 

[SHU-CH]

I'm kinda coming back around full circle on EMS.  I had a state certification EMT-B that I let lapse once I became a PA; now that it looks like I'll be moving back "home" next summer, I'm probably going to take an EMT-B class and get it back- I think I'm ready to get back into EMS in some very small capacity and go from there.  It'll just be fun to sit in a basic class and do rotations - especially the hospital portion- and try to go as long as I can without telling people what I do for a living

 

 

TA - check your state EMS regs. It is possible that you can just challenge the test to get certified without taking the class. I am still a member of a vollie squad, but I do not ride too much - wife, kids and bad PA practice laws make it complicated! I mostly help with some of the education and management stuff.

[Corpsman2PA]

My background is as a FF/Paramedic. As a PA-S1, I'm digging the material big time. However, it's been harder than I ever thought to leave the fellas and the job.

 

Thanks.

Everybody moves on, or at least should be proud of you when you move on. As a Corpsman that left my Marines to further my education, it gives you a great feeling of guilt. Now I get to hear about them getting blown up, instead of being there to treat them. Sucks. But sometimes you gotta do whats best for you and your family (or future family). None of those guys ever faulted me for hanging up the Danners and rifle for a textbook. There's an understanding amongst tight knit groups that things change, but you (and they) adapt and overcome. Look at it this way, you'll always have some good stories to tell :)

[Beckjhong]

Corpsman-

 

Sage advice, thank you. Yeah, none of the fellas have faulted me at all--the guilt is all from me. There will always be some decent stories to tell!

[Just Steve]

My old medic partner is my best friend.  I helped him roof his place this morning.  I get to hear the stories of the old job, he gets a knowing ear that he can download and de stress to.  Personally, I know PTSD runs deep in EMS and we're not allowed to talk about it for fear of losing the trust of our partners and employers. Now that I am out of the business, I talk about it openly with my friends who still work in it, and give them a safe place to come talk and unwind.  Imagine the darkest days as a medic... can't tell your family as that stuff is too dark for a civilian to be exposed to.. can't tell your workmates as they will just do the game of "one upmanship" or lose their trust. Can't go to the boss, they'll treat you funny after.  Employee Assistance Programs are not always that helpful. 

 

There are days that I miss it.  But when those days start to run too close together, I set up a fishing trip, or a backyard cookout, or a night on the town with my buddies and we talk shop.  They appreciate having a safe place to vent with a person who knows exactly where they are coming from and I get a reminder that the good old days were not that good.  If they want to hear about some suggestions regarding medical decision making and such, I offer it up. 

 

I attended a PA program where there was a lot of discussion about role transition.  You're moving past the technician level now.  When you're done with PA school, contact your old squad about getting into the training and education model. Perhaps your resource as a former medic, and your expanded medical knowledge via school, can really ignite their training program and bring some folks up to the next level.   

 

Personally...I find great joy in talking folks to go back to school and further their education... tickles me to no end when they send me a facebook notice letting me know they got into PA school. 

[True Anomaly]

TA - check your state EMS regs. It is possible that you can just challenge the test to get certified without taking the class. I am still a member of a vollie squad, but I do not ride too much - wife, kids and bad PA practice laws make it complicated! I mostly help with some of the education and management stuff.

 

Already did- PA's aren't allowed to simply test out as EMT's or paramedics in Texas, or in many states- I did an abstract on that very subject a few years ago, and I doubt much has changed.  When I just checked Texas again, it's still that way.  

[dmdpac]

Pennsylvania has a Prehospital-PA provider level on the books.  To my knowledge, though, nobody has earned the designation.

[True Anomaly]

Pennsylvania has a Prehospital-PA provider level on the books.  To my knowledge, though, nobody has earned the designation.

 

My EMS fellowship was actually geared towards me getting this certification, as it had just passed legally right before I moved to Penn.  The problem is that the state EMS director, charged with implementing this certification, was apparently not too thrilled about it so they've been sitting on it ever since.  At least, that was the last I heard about it a couple years ago.  So, while the certification is still in place, there's (to my knowledge) no actual mechanism in place to actually get the cert.  Frustrating.

[dmdpac]

My EMS fellowship was actually geared towards me getting this certification, as it had just passed legally right before I moved to Penn.  The problem is that the state EMS director, charged with implementing this certification, was apparently not too thrilled about it so they've been sitting on it ever since.  At least, that was the last I heard about it a couple years ago.  So, while the certification is still in place, there's (to my knowledge) no actual mechanism in place to actually get the cert.  Frustrating.

 

Frustrating, indeed. 

 

Things are still as they were when you left or last followed up.  The provider level is still in place but there's no means to actually earn the designation.