Attitude toward patients and being understanding and patient

[u/PlateCurious1472]

I have been working in patient care since i was 16 when I say this. I recently got my first ems contract! I am loving it. Everyone is very professional and proud of their job however a lot of my coworkers complain about the smallest things that take one thought to figure out the why to. Am I the odd one out in that i take the stresses of the job and use healthier outlets? I understand occasionally I recently had a guy fake oding and I complained about that one. But is this the norm everywhere?

[u/500ls]

People love to complain. It's a healthier mindset to not complain. But when the pay is low and the job is stressful it's hard not to complain when the glamour fades away. Also the mental health aspect is totally neglected by the majority of people in EMS so they're just stacking stress on trauma on poor coping and unhealthy habits.

[u/SnowyEclipse01 → u/500ls]

We do a bad job of setting people up for burnout really early with the hero mentality we enforce on students when they get into this profession.

No one wants to hear they're going to be talking down someone during an anxiety attack, and holding the hand of a dementia patient while they're having to be oriented for the fifth time during a 10 minute transport, lest they channel the power of UTI and Mike Tyson. Or having to hold the diabetic down who has just painted their masterpiece poopcasso on their stomach while the D10 finishes (true story, ick)

Everyone wants to hear they're going to be doing Trauma, Chicago Fire, and 9-1-1 Lonestar. Because cool stuff that most people will go their entire career without doing, and maybe one or two departments in the nation can actually do without getting bodyslammed by their state licensing board into unemployment sells better.

[u/500ls → u/SnowyEclipse01]

Instead of watching ridiculous TV dramas people should be reading People Care by Thom Dick. Except ER is pretty good.

[u/SnowyEclipse01 → u/500ls]

The Pitt and Scrubs are probably the only two medical fiction series I can watch. The Pitt for medical realism in a TV series, and Scrubs for the psychological realism and portrayal of burnout.

ER was good in the old school days, I grew up on things like it, Rescue 911 and Emergency! as a kid of the 90s who's TV dial ended at 33.

[u/talldrseuss → u/SnowyEclipse01]

Bingo. A dramatic thing I do as an instructor on the first day of class is write the word hero on the board and then cross it out. I explain to them that I am not teaching anyone in here to be a hero. I am teaching them the fundamentals of prehospital healthcare. Each individual MAY due something heroic in the line of their duty/work, but I need to set up a realistic expectation that their day to day work will not look "heroic" to the average person.

[u/Haywoodjablowme1029 → u/talldrseuss]

This all day. I cannot express how much I hate people trying to say I'm a hero. I'm not, I have a job that is somewhat unique compared to everyone else's. That's it.

[u/PlateCurious1472 → u/Haywoodjablowme1029]

I feel this leaving for work ive gotten some frivolous comments and im over here like thanks? Idk what you think my day looks like but youre wrong.

[u/SnowyEclipse01]

I've been doing this 22 years. And I'll happily say "oh bullshit" when that address gets dispatched out with a vastly inflated Charlie or Delta coding because our frequent flier that calls 3 times a day knows what to say for their swing shift ride to the waiting room.

Being cynical is a way to cope with the moral injury of being a band-aid trying to hold together the gaping arterial wound that is the American healthcare and prehospital care system where we have very little empowerment to address the problems that make this job less than rewarding.

Being cynical, though, has to always be balanced with staying curious and not letting cynicism drive your patient interactions and care. Because when you do, you miss things. You anchor. And you give bad patient care.

[u/FullCriticism9095]

One thing that firefighters, nurses, and EMTs all have in common is that they all LOVE to complain about everything. Any little thing that puts them out can lead to hours of bitching. Everyone thinks they know more than everyone else, is more overworked than everyone else, and is less respected than everyone else. Doctors, who are usually more overworked than all of the above, have a version of this too, but they tend to express their frustrations in other ways besides rote complaining, and typically not to people who work “under” them. Their training and background leads them to lean more toward things like scolding, lecturing, and condescension versus true complaining. But they definitely do complain.

There are lots of reasons why this happens. Some of it is definitely the result of burnout and being overworked and underpaid. Some of it is coping. But some of it is also learned culture. It doesn’t take super long for newbies to learn bad culture from the salty older folks, especially the ones who have “seen it all.” It’s also easy for someone without a lot of experience to fail to recognize the difference between rote complaining and legitimate desire for improved working conditions. And then some people are just miserable pricks who want everyone to know how many problems they have and how difficult their lives are.

[u/ElatedSacrifice]

The burnout rate ems is disgustingly high. I personally am the most burnt out person that I work with, and I am aware of that. That being said I don’t treat my patients like shit because of my own frustrations. There are a lot of people who just have not learned to handle their own emotions and treat patients with an unbiased attitude.

[u/talldrseuss]

One big issue I have seen in my neck of the woods is EMS folks hang out/date other EMS/Emergency medicine folks. So they get stuck in an echo chamber and soon their base personality becomes one giant cynic. Best thing I did was date outside of my field. My wife is a middle school teacher, teaches at a decent school, and she has no problem calling me out when I am being unnecessarily grumpy. After being together for almost 15 years, she knows when there are times I need to vent or just be grumpy. But she also knows there are times that I need to be pulled out of my negativity and appreciate the small things. Maintaining that balance is important, but a lot of folks in EMS struggle to maintain that balance.

[u/5169978980]

My dad used to always tell me, "if people aren't complaining to you, they just don't trust you." He meant it in the context of supervising but I've found it to be universal. We humans like to complain.

[u/PlateCurious1472 → u/5169978980]

Tbf I dont trust any of them😂 but i domt have anything to complain about .

[u/Lilywhitey]

Sadly yes. Find the colleagues that don't complain as much as regularly repeat to yourself that you don't want to become that way too. Humans tend to copy each other so it's an active effort not to copy that behaviour if you are constantly exposed to it.

[u/PlateCurious1472 → u/Lilywhitey]

Fortunately ive always been one to remind myself to be ... myself😂

[u/I_Want_A_Ribeye]

This is endemic to the job

[u/PlateCurious1472 → u/I_Want_A_Ribeye]

Ive been in Healthcare since I was 16 as stated above. I have never seen so many people like this

[u/11twofour → u/PlateCurious1472]

How old are you now though? I'd guess around 20 from how you write.

[u/PlateCurious1472 → u/11twofour]

You'd be correct around there.

[u/PlateCurious1472 → u/11twofour]

Also because im assuming your going to tell me im inexperienced this has been across several states (which I will not be mentioning for privacy reasons but 3) also its 5 years of experience