Traits of the EMS Professional

Working in EMS you never know what you might see. It doesn't matter if you work in a private service or for a government agency. Things can change in the blink of an eye. And you have to be ready for the unexpected. Life in EMS is not always pretty. But it is a very rewarding job. Knowing that you have impacted someone's life is a feeling that can not be expressed.

I work for a private service. What we do is mostly transports from either the hospital to home, or to the nursing home. But sometimes even in the transport side of the service we run into the worst. Weather it be an elderly patient who was discharged early or a terminal patients family member passing out because she can't deal with the stress of losing a loved one. I have even come upon several car accidents that no one was on scene for and we would stop to render care.

It takes a special type of person to work in EMS. Some who is not afraid the get their hands dirty and is able to be strong in the face of danger. They should also be a people person and be able to adapt to an ever changing environment. The one thing that stays the same is the fact that everything changes. Sometimes from bad to worse, and at other times from bad to better. And you have to know what kind of changes to make to keep things going up hill. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you do. It all falls apart no matter what.

So how do you prepare from something like this? Knowing that you have the strength to stare death in the face and say its not time. For me it's faith. Its believing that everything happens for a reason. Now its not always easy to believe that. Especially seeing a three year old girl or pulled a TV onto herself. Sometime you wonder why but you have to have faith in something.