Joining the Dark Side

After seven months of waiting, I received a phone call yesterday from BCAS regarding scheduling an interview in the next few weeks. I sent in my employee application about seven months ago, as I mentioned, when the strike had little resemblance as to what it is now. I was sold a decent sounding job when I first spoke on the phone to the BCAS human resources department, who definitely downplayed the whole $2/hr and 6 month probation aspects. I'm not going to go into details, but it was almost made to sound better than Alberta, if you can believe that. Working for BCAS when I moved out here has always been in my plan, and now that I have the opportunity to be hired by them, I believe I can help in constructive ways to implement change in the structure of the service.

**On a side note, even if had the availability to work at the Olympics (classes would prevent this), I would refuse on principle. BCAS may be doing damage control with the hiring they are doing right now, possibly compensating for the currently higher turnover rate and filling positions to do standby at the Games, but I would refuse to be part of their real reason that they legislated an end to a legitimate strike.

But getting back to why I still intend on working for BCAS. Working as a paramedic while in school is integral to my plan for med school, and justifies the money, time, and effort spent getting the credentials to get to this point. The major reason though, the reason that stands above all else, is the fact that I truly miss working EMS. I miss going lights to a call, bringing a sense of control to an chaotic situation, and doing my best to help people. There is a certain pride in knowing that you hold a certain skill set to deal with emergencies, and a humbleness that goes along with constantly learning and reevaluating yourself after every call.

The phone call yesterday really symbolized, for me, the chance to do the job I'm passionate about again, regardless of the politics around it. The storm of discontent and government indifference will pass, but the job remains the same.

I don't really like to go on the internet and bitch about it as Peter Griffin suggests, but I feel compelled to at least comment on this abrupt and disappointing end to the BCAS Paramedic strike.

First, I don't work for BCAS. I'm originally from Alberta and recently (as in 3 months ago) moved to Vancouver Island for university. I did my EMR, then EMT training in Alberta, and worked full-time and casually for a few different services throughout the province for about a year and a half. I didn't have any difficulty finding a full-time position immediately after licensure. I did, however, decide to commute to northern Alberta to work for a remote basic-life-support ambulance service on a native reserve for my first year of EMS. Although Calgary EMS was definitely an option for me, I felt I should follow the advice of senior medics and instructors, and go cut my teeth at a rural BLS service before I worried about working for an urban service. Even though I was away from home nearly all the time, I made a very decent wage, which was augmented by working casual shifts at more proximal services. For the trade off of driving 8 hours twice a month to work, I was compensated for it, and had the opportunity to gain some experience and hone my skills before I moved on to a service in my own community. I did this because I thought it benefited my career, not because I had to, which makes all the difference. There was no 6 month probationary period, no $2/hr pager pay, no union dues, and no requirement of scattered shift-work for five years until the possibility of a full-time position. Imagine how many graduating doctors there would be if this were the job prospects for them...

The reason this strike bothers me is that all the young men and women recently out of high-school, looking for an exciting and challenging career will doubtfully choose EMS in B.C. with the state it's currently in. The advice I give to new EMRs is to do their EMT training in Alberta and continue to work there, so they can actually take home a viable paycheck and serve the community in which they actually live. They can fully enjoy and be challenged by working EMS in a full capacity, without worrying if the power will be turned off when they get home. I honestly think the current system BCAS has in place does little to attract prospective paramedics, and to be honest, I don't think the union helps either. A paramedic's rank and value in a service should not be determined by hire date, but rather their technical skills, knowledge, work ethic, and patient care ability.

This government's decision to forcibly end the strike will only prove to band-aid this plethora of mounting issues that are clearly caused by perpetual mismanagement, bureaucratic ignorance, and incompetent planning.

Learning

I thought paramedic training was intense. I am now learning that first year undergrad studies with a full course load is as much about time management as it is about work ethic. It's not so much the work load that is challenging as it is the diversity of the work. I hold very high standards for myself in subjects even where my weaknesses lie, which makes excelling in subjects I loathe an exceptionally hateful task. Read: English. 

Paramedic training never delved that deep into the nuances of biochemistry, microbiology, pharmokinetics, or pharmocology. The focus was more hands on, follow protocol, follow procedure, fine tunes motor skills, and so on. I found my base of knowledge was vastly added to when I began working on car full-time. Conditions manifested in real life, with tangible details, are rarely forgotten. These cases of injuries and illnesses described in textbooks could now be taken out of context and literally be seen, heard, and palpated. It is one thing to read about paradoxical chest motion, to see it with your own eyes though, is quite another. Patient after patient, month after month, these cold hard facts begin to crystallize with the ever-growing base of experience. This combination emboldens your confidence, but as more time goes by, you come to understand that there is an absolutely vast amount of information you haven't learned. You shift your focus from perfecting what you already know, to acknowledging your own ignorance. This realization signifies that learning and mastering is a never-ending process, a life-long undertaking.

This is the phase I've entered into now, and am more excited than ever to throw myself entirely into my goal of becoming a doctor. Whatever the workload, the odds, the lack of sleep, or the difficulty, I know that this is the right path(although I'll probably bitch and moan about it).

I'll stick to the basics for this first post. The introduction. I've decided to publish a blog documenting my experiences as a Paramedic and Pre-Med student for two reasons:

The first being that I have found reading blogs on these subjects have guided and reassured my decisions to continue striving for my goals. They provide a great resource of hard-earned experience and insight, from day to day issues to the bigger questions that we might encounter on our respective paths to medicine. I hope that with my own stories and thoughts I can lend the same hand.

The second reason is that I enjoy writing and, like most people, need an opportunity to vent. You've been warned.