FNG. If you work in the field, you know what it means. Personally, I’ve never been happier to be called something in my life. Being the new guy here isn’t that tough, especially with the group I am lucky enough to work with.
It’s been a month in my new system, and although some things have been a struggle, I have really enjoyed myself. Some people have referred to things as being like “riding a bike” you kind of never forget. Moving to a new system as a paramedic though is nothing like that. I like to think that it is more like driving a car.
In a different country.
Where you sit on the opposite side of the car.
And drive on the other side of the road.
And the pedals are reversed.
The end point is the same. We all want to provide good patient care, and turn our patients over to the hospital feeling the same, or better, than when we picked them up wherever we found them. How we all get there though is different. Protocols are different, and treatment can be more regressive or (preferably) progressive and sometimes taking those old habits, and those old protocols and completely dismissing them can be incredibly difficult, especially when they’ve been part of your everyday life for a number of years, in my case twelve of them.
I’m not going to sit here and try to reinvent the wheel and tell anyone that I know the best way to solve this portability problem because I don’t, short of nationally set protocols that everyone follows, but as long as we are all in our own little sandboxes, that will never happen. Truth is though, I really like the way things are done where I am now. Treatment modalities are aggressive, and pretty straight forward allowing a medic to do what they feel is best and all of this with the blessing of our medical director.
With each tour, I am feeling more and more comfortable. Sometimes I feel like I’m all thumbs with two left feet, and a brain that is a step behind, but as I slowly settle back into a comfort zone, those feelings becoming more rare.
Now that 2013 is upon me, that presents a lot of great opportunities. There are more conferences, some of which I am applying to speak at, new topics to write about, new opinions to share, new challenges, and new adventures. I look forward to sharing all of that with you.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Interesting read Scott, especially since I’m going to be working in a new system soon myself – will be interesting to compare experiences!