Rookie Moves

Well, today was a rough day for me mentally. I was paired up with a medic, a good medic mind you, who seems to be strict and straight forward. He's not an ass, he's not out to get me, but he lets me know when I make mistakes and that I need to correct things.

I made a few good rookie mistakes in two calls. A big problem for me is that I have not had to do any EMT-Basic related skills since I finished class in September. Other than studying for my NREMT and reading up to refresh myself a bit, I've done nothing EMS related. I knew, coming into this job, that there would be things that I may have forgotten, or simply missed out on due to some time missed out at school.

The first thing that happened was on a call with an asthmatic patient. In the back of the unit, the medic asked me to set up an albuterol treatment. I'm sure we were taught this in class, but I'm pretty sure I missed out on it due to being out of class because of a family emergency. It was embarrassing when I had to tell him that I didn't know how. So I let the medic down by not knowing how to do a basic skill and he let me know. At that point, I was useless since he had to do that, plus set up the patient's IV.

From that point, maybe I was flustered and off of my game. On another call, the same day I made two mistakes. One being that I put the damn BP cuff on upside down and I put the EKG leads on incorrectly.

The professionalism of my partner is something that stands out to me. Instead of letting me know right away, in front of the patient and while I am driving, and instead of telling me in front the ER staff, and instead of telling me in front of the rest of the medics, he waited until we were in route back to station to let me know of my mistakes and that the mistakes that I made through the day are important basic knowledge and that I need to make sure that I know my job.

Mentally, I was bummed out. Like I said, I knew there would be things that I would need to refresh on and skills that need to be brushed up. I didn't want to come into this job with guys having years of experience and myself doing stupid stuff like this. I don't want to be "that guy".

I've talked to my instructor, who also works here, and I also went back and researched these skills and others to make sure that I don't make the same mistakes again. I know I'm not stupid. I'm a fast learner, but I am a hands on learner. I'm sure I'll make mistakes again in the future and I hope that whoever is there with me will give me constructive criticism.

I just don't want to be "that guy".