tone of voice, actions and inactions of medical professionals can either positively, or negatively, impact upon those who trust in our care.
This is not meant to be a resentful or vindictive addition to the book. I have included it simply to highlight the words of my son when we came home. “I’d rather be electrocuted again, than ever feel as worthless and annoying as I have over the past two days.” Poignant timing to make me more determined than ever to publish.
Guidelines
For The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
We love our guidelines, or we’re familiar with them at least, so what better way to start than to set out a pattern to follow when reading this book? If you’re like the majority of humans, you will have an inherent desire to just do the right thing. If you truly are like most humans, however, you probably also have a similar level of desire to make life easier.
With this in mind, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Paramedic is designed to be a friendly companion that supports you in finding your own, individual, healthy balance between the two.
From hereon in, throughout each chapter, unless it’s a direct question or call to action, there will be no further reference to you, the individual. With a clear goal to help the reader self-reflect, without judgment, shame or accusation, taking the team based “we” approach may help us to assess our moral compass more effectively.
Through conversational tone, reading this book should feel similar to that of paramedics chatting in an ambulance, or on station. The type of setting where we can feel safe to share our thoughts, and see how we measure up to our own, and perhaps others’, professional expectations.
It’s not a textbook about skills or knowledge, not by a long shot! We read plenty of those in order to learn our craft, and no doubt still continue to do so. Instead, this one is entirely attitude based and how we choose to manage our professional careers. By highlighting examples of good, bad and ugly approaches through the scenarios we’re about to read, it takes a similar approach to the hands-on training we’re most familiar with, by putting us in the shoes of the paramedics involved. The aim of the game is that we can work towards:
Maintaining good, in fact excellent, standards of patient care as a matter of course, rather than easing off over time.
Taking pride in standing our ground as individuals, sticking to what we believe in, rather than feeling pressured into joining a different crowd.
Inciting passion in new paramedics, and reigniting enjoyment in the role, for those who may have lost their initial spark.
Ensuring continuing attention to safety measures and safe practices, rather than cutting corners and increasing risk.
Enhancing public and interprofessional respect for prehospital care through our choices, rather than damaging the reputation that’s been hard earned over decades.
Preventing unnecessary grievance or legal action from affecting our jobs, and professional registrations, rather than providing reason for complaint.
Cutting out negative inferences towards those doing a good, thorough job, rather than encouraging the positive inferences of being complacent.
Encouraging open, honest and transparent conversations in order to learn from each other, and our mistakes, rather than bluffing that “we’ve got this” in everything we do.
Establishing a community of good paramedics to support and encourage each other on road, in organisations and online, rather than seizing opportunities to criticise or mock.
Formulating consistent, reliable and replicable approaches to our own practice so that it’s just as acceptable for others, as it is for our families, rather than modifying standards to suit ourselves.
Checking in, from time to time, to reassess those standards, rather than remaining oblivious to changing behaviours until they’re out of our control.
In order to reach any of these outcomes, the book itself is structured with a “pick up, put down, then pick back up again” approach. We can read a snippet when we’re short on time, or lose ourselves in the flow from start to finish. It’s easy to skip forward or backwards, without being concerned about missing connections in between, and each chapter summarises why each aspect matters, for a quick refresher whenever we need it.
Like a trusted colleague, who understands our role in depth, we can come home to this book. Re-read highlighted areas that we resonate with, and return to it whenever we want to reassess our practice, or our priorities, on the good, bad and ugly scale.
Chapter 1 | Public Perception
Public Perception Means Everything
The fact that paramedics are in the public eye at such a high level is probably how we noticed the role in the first place. At some time in our lives, we may have experienced paramedic care ourselves. Perhaps we’ve seen ambulances buzzing around the streets on lights and sirens. Or maybe we’ve watched television shows depicting the role in ways which have somehow caught our interest.
As none of us can be perfect all of the time, it’s healthy to reflect on our performance within the public arena regularly throughout our careers. Are we heading in the right direction with our individual moral compass? Are we happy with what we’re putting out there?
The Good
Every single one of us starts our career with the goal to be a fantastic paramedic, however we may quantify that internally. Most of us are acutely aware, and highly appreciative of the fact, that we’re in a position of immense public trust. Whilst we prefer to go out of our way to uphold this professional image, however, there are times when it can be tempting to take shortcuts, particularly when we’ve been run ragged and are under pressure. Occasionally we may simply forget where we are, or who is around. We become so used to our role, and its environment, that any sense of feeling “at home” in a work setting, can begin to dull our professional senses.
There is a well-known expression that depicts this sneaky, difficult to notice, phenomenon perfectly. The situation in which we want our good paramedic scale to register off the charts, and we feel that it does. We go out of our way to do the right thing wherever possible. We aim for best patient care and the highest of high standards, but we may be letting ourselves down without even realising it. “Familiarity breeds contempt” as the saying goes. We become so familiar with certain aspects of our role, that we begin to disregard things that could be, or perhaps should be, considered more often.
Pleasing The Public v Protecting Our Peace
We’ve managed to snatch five minutes between jobs whilst our partner finishes paperwork. We’re parked alongside the pavement outside a cafe, engine running, with a hot drink in hand. We’ve all experienced it, that sublime moment of the first taste of our coffee, or biting into a long awaited sandwich and savouring the only chance we may get all day.
Just as we start to relax into it, a stranger walks up and knocks on the window to ask how they go about becoming a paramedic. We roll down the window and with a friendly smile spend a minute or two telling them where to find further information. We wish them luck with their efforts, with an encouraging
