A genuinely depressing day in admission avoidance today. 20 minutes to take a blood pressure.
Why? An octogenarian wears 7 layers to keep warm that needs to come off to expose her upper arm.
She can’t afford to heat her small 1 bed flat.
Retired nurse who gave 50 yrs to the NHS
Me ranting to mum 4 weeks ago:
“Work is pretty tough at the moment, all I want is a 2 month long nap followed by a Colonel Sanders”
Today, Mum:
“I’ve knitted you the Bernie Sanders that you wanted”.
GP: No appts today, go to the pharmacy.
Pharmacy: Can’t help, call 111
111: Sorry We can’t help we’re sending an ambulance.
15hrs later: Ambulance refers to OOHGP for abx.
Is it any wonder why patients are fed up with this system? Are we system navigators for patients?
What fills me with apocalyptic rage is the constant signposting to well-being or self help services with absolutely no emphasis on dealing with the underlying issues within a workplace which has led you to poor mental health in the first place.
#TheSystemIsTheProblem
Can we talk about error? I’m overcome with despair over a simple error I made with some equipment that could have caused patient harm.
I look around Twitter and all I see are heroes.
I would truly love to invite GPs, DN’s or hospital based clinicians to come out with us on an 🚑 and show them how we deliver out of hosp healthcare and show them our challenges
Pretty tired of “so why didn’t you...” lines of questioning at handover and justifying our existence.
Please always take the time to sign off students PAD/achievement records.
Students are unpaid workers in a global pandemic who add so much value to any team.
The least we can offer them is a quick squiggle & tips for their future practice.
We must value our future colleagues.
Let me tell you something about (most) UK paramedics.
When you ask them “how are you?”
And they reply with the top drawer line of “living the dream”
I promise you they most certainly aren’t living any dream at the moment.
I’m very happy to see Police Officers, Drs, teachers and other public workers get a deserved pay rise.
Clearly Nurses, Physiotherapists, Paramedics and other Ambulance Associates, hospital cleaners, kitchen staff, administrators and reception staff had it too easy 🧐
I went to get petrol & milk after my nightshift this AM.
I was told by a kind, non-mask wearing gentleman that I’m a liar and being paid to co-conspire with the government on the ‘hoax’ of Cov19.
Three hrs before I saw someone die from it.
Anyone else feeling like giving up?
This is a really painful listen and doesn’t represent views held by the wider profession.
I can’t believe I’m writing this, but we MUST, with humility, respect the training, acumen and breadth of knowledge of doctors.
We are an addition, not an ‘instead of’- and we undermine
I’m still thinking about this.
Paramedic practitioner tells
@mrjamesob
:
🔸It doesn’t matter that he hasn’t studied medicine
🔸He’s better than doctors because he looks up from his screen
🔸He’s essentially done medicine vocationally as he was questioned ‘for weeks’
☠️ ☠️ ☠️
Big news.
Today I’ve signed a contract to become a full time Lecturer of Paramedic Science
@UniofGreenwich
.
I finish life in green with
@SECAmbulance
at the end of the month. So happy for new opportunities. So sad to leave my mates.
*Unpopular Opinion*
I HATE the Ferrari Formula One pit stop model used to draw similarities in medicine.
Yes, we should be as efficient, but
- We don’t change tyres & refuel people.
- We don’t always work in the same teams.
- Ferrari haven’t won a championship since 2008.
As a student, you are encouraged to look at the HCPC/NMC/GMC tribunal websites to look for “what you could get struck off for”
What we probably should have been looking at is the Prevention of Future Deaths website to look at system failure rather than personal error or deviance
@LeeAndersonMP_
@chris_delaney90
Dear Lee Anderson MP.
The general public does not pay you, a public servant, to be nasty to people online.
Stop it.
Yours sincerely.
Unpopular opinion: Making ALL paramedics (NQP2->B6) into practice eds/mentors is manifestly one of the worst things we’ve done to paramedic education.
Mentoring is not a passive skill, and it’s not for everyone, esp in the current landscape.
Do paramedics ‘eat their young’?
Can 2020 be a year without focused energy on prehosp ECMO/ fantasy paramedic based REBOA/POC lactate testing to measure the severity of sepsis?
More a year of prehospital mental health provision, more a year of quality care for our elderly fallers, more a year of staff welfare?
Distant Relative: What do you do now?
Me: I’m a paramedic 🙂
Them: Ohhhh so you drive the ambulances?
Me: Well yeah, sometimes bu...
Them: Remeber your cousin? He was a long distance lorry driver!!
Three years at University. Three years. Three. Years. 😳
Looking forward to teaching cannulation tomorrow. The most important, but often missed lesson, is
#CannulaCompassion
.
16g cannulas to deliver 2mls of antiemetics is, frankly, assault. Tailoring the cannula size to the cannula requirement makes misery less miserable.
You can be pissed at not tucking into turkey with ridiculously bad
#Christmas
cracker jokes, or you can be thankful for being alive.
3 members of my family (two of them nurses) have died of
#Cov19
The embuggerance of postponed gatherings is far less than the heartache of grief.
JRCALC 2022 Updates
Summary (but watch the video!)
- Now 30 minutes of sustained asystole for ROLE
- No precordial thump in recognised ⚡️ rhythms
- More guidance on ADX & Post-ROSC care
- Congenital LQTS now a contraindication for Ondanestron
[1/n]
Me referring: I think this patient with weight loss and polyurea would benefit from a PSA at least.
[Unnamed profession] “that’s not for a paramedic to decide, [Rx Nitro]”.
PSA come back in four figures two weeks later.
When will this rubbish end.
PARAMEDICS ARE EDUCATED!
“Call an Ambulance, they’ll check you over at home”
This has to be one of the most ignorant and damaging things anyone can say towards our profession & service.
We cannot take over the deficits in primary care because our gvt and system does not see the value of DISTRICT NURSES
Writing a presentation about the *actual* work of Paramedics for a lecture I’ve been asked to give in a few weeks time.
Television programmes have very much ignored how complex our work is.
I’m really looking forward to change some perceptions (as well as changing my own!)
A great quote from
@donberwick
“Our consciousness or super ego hovers like raptor birds, exhorting us to never fail & to always be perfect at the expense of our sleep & the cost of our comfort- and yet still things go wrong”
First ROSC/R as a qualified paramedic came midway through dessert this evening thanks to the
@GoodSamApp
.
Pt awake and talking after a smashing team effort.
Sadly, whilst dealing, Larna ate the rest of my dessert.
Win some lose some in life, I guess.
Yes, paramedics feel they are more misused than an aubergine emoji.
But can we pls stop blaming patients? If they can’t access services, if they haven’t been educated, if they haven’t been empowered to make healthier lifestyle decisions- can we blame them?
We reap what we sow
I’ve come to realise 29 years into life, a year into a pandemic and 7 months into post grad study I’ve got the resilience of a McDonalds McFlurry machine.
@SepsisUK
Does ITU bed occupancy show how busy the OVERALL hospital system is?
It doesn’t.
Beds are furniture. You need staff to look after patients. Many colleagues are off sick. A lot more than the first wave.
And to share this Ron, I’m sorry to say is deeply, deeply uncomfortable.
“Remember that patient you saw?” is quite frankly the most terrifying thing to say to an NQP.
That and “An assessment has been made to your portfolio”.
How lucky are we to have dogs in our lives?
Maisie fell asleep this morning after 16 years of unconditional love & friendship- through some bloody hard times. RIP Woofer x
It’s my…*checks paperwork*….19th time working the London Marathon for St John. Very proud of this team at the finish.
If you’ve even attempted to run it this year, then a massive well done!
Friends, pls don’t buy into the narrative of ‘I waited 12hrs for an ambulance so I took myself to hospital via taxi’.
Just because a patient takes themselves to hospital doesn’t mean they needed to be there in the 1st place.
We are not Taxi drivers. We can do and think better.
Today I turned 30, and it’s been a muted celebration.
Waves of loss, despair, sadness.
But also grateful for working with people who are just as outstanding looking after their friends as they are looking after their patients- when the real dark times come.
#WaveofLight
This job is being advertised at the North East AMBULANCE Service….but if you work as a Paramedic in an AMBULANCE Service you cannot apply! This is bonkers!
@ParamedicsUK
@NHSEngland
@AACE_org
Nasopharyngeal Airways: A 🧵
NPAs are hollow plastic tubes designed to ensure patency of the airway between the naries & post pharynx.
They’ve been around since 1958 in a variety of sizes and have a ‘flared’ end to stop them migrating down the airway & causing obstruction
Today I graduated with dearest friends with a first class honours in Paramedic Science
@UniofGreenwich
which is amazing.
But my making my Dad weep with pride at my ceremony was just the best.
The more ambulance programmes I see, the greater the argument that we shouldn’t use people’s suffering for the general public’s entertainment.
Victorians visiting ‘lunatic asylums’ is an affront to our moral compass today- but is there a difference to todays television shows?
Bullying is still rife in the ambulance service & unshackling those whose lives are made miserable by it, by highlighting & guiding others towards greater and happier opportunities healthcare & other sectors have to offer will, one day, be a humbling legacy.
It continues to be a privilege to administer the vaccine to those who are housebound or resident in nursing & care homes in South London and Kent.
Over 700 done so far- and not one vaccine wasted.
Back to Ambulancing Monday.
Being kicked out of the [Ambulance Trust] community page, just after highlighting we need an increased sense of community is the most NHS thing that’s ever happened to me.
Work emails at 22:15 about using the right code on a PCR.
Are we really suprised we aren’t getting good quality sleep?
Work email app deleted from personal phone 😌
There are two people at my station alone, not even leaving the job, but LEAVING THE PROFESSION because of things like this.
When will we realise the direct relationship between staff welfare and PATIENT SAFETY?
front line ambulance staff being told to not wear their soft shell jacket in winter due to IPC… ummm… I have no words. Is there anything more that can be done to make me feel like I’m expected to perform like a robot?!?!
#paramedic
#ambulance
Here's a thing- shall we keep retweeting the Samaritans number or remind staff of an
'open door management policy, or shall we work upstream and not accept that poor mental health in the ambulance service is inevitable?
It baffles me. It absolutely baffles me.
Have deleted the “mask on airway circuit”post as people got personally offensive for 0 reason.
But I guess that’s Medtwitter for you?
It was an idea not to lose a BVM mask/have flexibility PDQ in PH practice. That is all. Calm down lads.
Today, my family lost its second member to Covid-19.
Retired Nursing Sister Yvonne Kennedy fought the disease, along with many others so bravely and will be very sorely missed.
Thanks to
@uhbwNHS
for first class care.
It was such an honour to be a paramedic at the mall for the HM Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral procession.
Certainly a life memory to be a part of.
But how lucky are we to have our armed forces? Today, like everyday, they have done a faultless job & made us all proud.
Live from winners row:
Patient: “Have you got your bus pass?”
Me: “Bus Pass?”
Patient: “Yes”
Me: “errrrrm how old do you think I am?”
Patient “Oh errrrm, I’m going to be nice..errr....middle fifties?”
I’m 28 years old. 28.
*Cheesy post*
The pandemic has shown us that good crewmates & colleagues are vital in this job. The last year paired with
@SianMwinter
has been the best. Whilst very sad we split as a duo, I’m so proud she starts her paramedic training next week. It’s been so much fun 🚑 💪
It’s all done & it’s all over.
3 years of hard work with this amazing crew (and others!) for which I am so thankful.
Some incredible memories- I will miss this so much!
Ms Swee Ang.
Trained the orthopods who looked & operated onme as a kid at the London- now with such humility, sharing experiences with
@TraumaMasters
students with a lovely canapé reception.
Humbled to even sit next to her.
Just to highlight again; that whilst the government drive for minimum staffing standards during strike action- there has NEVER been any standards of minimum safe staffing levels in the 🚑 services ever- since 1884!
Safe care is judged by the ⏱️ and not pt centred approaches
A complete privilege to have had Firefighter Steve from Maidstone
@kentfirerescue
work with us over the last two days on our Ambulance.
Learnt so much in extrication, smoke inhalation and search & rescue from him.
Hoorah for
#jointworking
! 🚑🚒💨