Last weekend was my first shift with BCAS and also my first call in almost 6 (six!) months. Despite being swamped-busy with other things, I still managed to find time to work-in my orientation so I could get back on car. Even though the one call we did get during my shift was an uneventful one that we ended up not transporting, I still was excited to get back in the mindset of EMS again.
Reflecting back on when I wasn't in university, working full-time at a high volume station, I know I definitely took some of the good things about the job - the reasons that I got into EMS - for granted. I would go to work knowing that we'd take a the usual run of non-emergent calls, but I always could count on a few serious, challenging, and exciting calls that reminded me all over again why we do this - the adrenaline, achievement, and general feeling of elation...it's hard to explain.
In general, I'm thrilled to be working again...and the thought is always there of how much I'd love to go on to become an advanced care paramedic right now rather than be in university. Despite this, I know being an ACP would satisfy me for a limited amount of time. At the end of the day I would still be handing off my patients to doctors and surgeons, then off to the next call...that desire to be an instrument of definitive care would always be there. Because of that, I'll continue to chew on this bullet called pre-med (it's a pretentious term - but what else would we call it?) studies so I'll have the opportunity one day to be the doctor cracking a chest in the ER, inserting a chest tube, or clamping a lacerated artery. Or hitting patients with a walking cane. House...
