So I'm back at school doing more practice and studying and some final tweaking before I become a working Paramedic. It's a bit frustrating to be back at school and doing everything for pretend, after spending 6 weeks, with real equipment and real patients. School at the college, has been out all summer and now we're all back. The area where the Paramedic students are located, isn't very big and there are a lot of us. We returned from our stages to realize we had no classroom anymore. The Paramedic section has two groups of people the students doing the 10 month AEC and the students doing the 3 year DEC. The Dec students get the better equipment, and all the classrooms so the students doing the AEC, about to be on the road doing it for real in two weeks (like us) have no equipment to practice with, or any place to practice. Very frustrating.
We all shared stories about our stage and we all seems to have a great experience. One of my teachers asked me and a classmate to speak to his 1st year DEC students about our thoughts on the profession and our gols for the future. He chose my classmate because she didn't like the road and doesn't want to be a Paramedic, and I loved it and showed a lot of passion for it. So we addressed the students and told them about our experiences. I was honored that he chose me to speak.
Yesterday I went to Urgence Sante for an information session on their hiring process. It's ridiculous. It would start on October 7th, and by the time it's done it's November 28th. They make you take a bunch of tests you've already taken, such as a TAPTA ( Test D'apptitude Physique, Technicien Ambulancier) and UVU (utulisation d'un vehivule d'urgence). The whole process takes too long, so I really hope I hear from CETAM.
I want to talk a bit about something that's really been bothering me about the DEC students. They walk around with shirts that say PARAMEDIC on the back of them, even though they were specifically told not to.. I find that completely inappropriate. They are not Paramedics they are Paramedic Students there's a big difference, to me it's the same as a Med student walking around with a white coat that says Doctor. Yes they have some training, but not enough to call themselves Paramedics. I think being called a Paramedic is something you earn. Something you earn with experience, until you've had to do CPR for real, or give a report at a hospital,or have had puke on your hands, and had the responsibility of some stranger's life in your hands, then you're not a Paramedic, and it's disrespectful to the real Paramedics to call yourself one when you're not. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, am I making a big deal out of nothing or do I have a point?
My friend Ian started school in Ontario last week, and he seems to be liking it and doing real well, I wish him the best of luck on his journey, and hope I can help him in anyway I can. I have no doubt he'll make a great Paramedic and one day be almost as good as I am. ;)
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3 comments:
almost as good eh? haha
let me know how things with cetam and or US goes
oh and about the paramedic thing. I think until you graduate the program then you are not a paramedic. For me it's as simple as that. During the scenarios we do we have to introduce ourselves as paramedics but outside of the environment we don't call ourselves that. All of the patches we have for our uniforms say Durham College Paramedic Student. So I don't think you need to have done CPR or anything like that on a real person to be called a Paramedic. But I do feel that once your instructors consider you a paramedic thats when you are truly a paramedic.
I would like to mention that I said DEC students walk around with PARAMEDIC shirts on. I would like to clarify that a few DEC students do, not all of them, not even most of them, but a select few.
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