For Students: 6 Second ECG Simulator

Just thought I'd share this quickly for those Student Paramedics out there that stumble across this.

A colleague first showed the 6 Second ECG Simulator to me and it's a good way to pass 10 minutes of your time every so often to see what your interpretations are like. Arguably there's more on here than we need to know - but you can never have enough knowledge!

I'd recommend going through the teaching sessions for the rhythms before having a go at the game, and certainly stay clear of this until you've read into ECGs or started them at Uni.

Diary: Week 12

Week 12 brought my first week out on the Ambulance. This meant meeting my Mentor for the first time, getting to know those I'd be working with on my Station, and getting into the swing of things out on the road.

This week I was on a double crewed ambulance (DCA), this meant working with a Technician and my Paramedic mentor. On my first shift, I learned what equipment and consumables should be on the back of the vehicle and where to get anything that we were short of - by the end of my 4th shift I was comfortable doing this without prompting after seeing what we seem to use alot of and not alot of during out shift.

Read on to find out how the rest of my week went.

My Student Paramedic Reading List

So you've got an offer, or you've just began your studies and you're wondering what books should be filling that space on your shelves/drawers/floor (depending on the organisation of the Student...). Most Uni's will give you a reading list, some won't, but some of the ones that do will have a list as long as your arm that will lead you to think they get royalties from some of the Publishers.

So, what I thought I'd share with you is the books that I'VE found useful, you can make your own minds up from there! Read on for a breakdown of what I've got on my shelf and what I use them for.

The Health Care Professions Council... And You!

Well it's that time of year where those aspiring Paramedics out there start to look at preparing your Personal Statements and battling through UCAS to get your University applications in.

With that in mind I thought I'd dedicate a little bit of cyber-space to the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC), why? Well you'll need to learn about them at some point and in all of my Interviews last year I was asked how the HCPC relates to the Paramedic, if you're really clever you'll also look at the HCPC Paramedic Standards of Proficiency and the Student Ethics guide and try to use those key values and standards and reflect on them in your Personal Statement, so read on...

Diary: Week 2

The first 'proper' week of my Course this week - and don't I know it.

We've been bombarded with Anatomy and Physiology, professionalism, and Basic Life Support for both Children and Adults this

Life & Death On The Streets - Stuart Gray

So I was recently doing some work abroad and I stocked up on a few books before I left, with my Paramedic Course looming ever closer I thought I'd look around for any books that could give me a good insight into what I'm getting myself into. I ended up picking up "A Paramedics Diary - Life and Death On The Streets" by Stuart Gray.

Read on for how I found it!

RESOURCE: In-Depth Bag-Valve Mask (BVM) Analysis

Good afternoon readers,

I'll be quiet for 3 weeks as I'm off out to do some Medical work out in Germany, but before I leave I thought I'd share with you what I thought is an excellent in-depth analysis of best practice use of the BVM - it might be basics to some but it never hurts to refresh something that's so simple to use, but can be devastating if you get wrong.

American College of Emergency Physicians - BVM

Hope someone finds this useful!

RESOURCE: Easy 4 H's & T's revision (ACLS)

Hello Readers,

Pretty good video below on the 4 H's and T's otherwise known as the reversible causes of a Cardiac Arrest. Pretty good for revision, whilst there's plenty of material out there for ACLS - I think this is one of the better revision videos going.




Hope this helps!

Paramedics and the Military

So I thought I'd start April off with something I know a little about. If you've come across this blog it's likely that you would like to become a Paramedic sometime in the future, there are a few Career options open to you once you have successfully attained State Registration - Ambulance Trusts are the obvious ones but there's scope to work Privately, in remote/hostile environments abroad or at sea, or as another option: Within the Military. Now we're specifically looking at the Army and the RAF here as the Navy don't have Paramedics within the service (they have Medical Assistants instead). So let's look at how these two Services use Paramedics.

One to Watch: Junior Paramedics

Just a quick one really for prospective Student Paramedics out there, it's worth a watch of BBCs latest documentary "Junior Paramedics" JUNIOR PARAMEDICS EP 1 - all the episodes are on iPlayer at the moment but if you're reading this a few months from now and this link no longer works then just search the program title in YouTube and catch them there.

The series provides a decent look at what to expect on your first ever placement, it's a little cheesy and it doesn't really show you much of the Uni side of the course but nevertheless it's not a bad insight really!

My Personal Statement

I mentioned in a previous post (PERSONAL STATEMENT TIPS) that I'd put a copy of my own Personal Statement up that successfully got me several offers for University Paramedic Courses. Interestingly I haven't looked at this for a few months, re-reading it now there's small refinements I'd make to it - which goes to show you really need to write this up a good few weeks/months before you intend to submit it so you can proof read it again and again!

REMEMBER: DO NOT JUST COPY AND PASTE THIS AND USE IT AS YOUR OWN - ALL PERSONAL STATEMENTS GO THROUGH A PLAGIARISM TEST, IF IT'S FOUND TO BE TOO SIMILAR TO AN EXISTING STATEMENT YOU WILL GET REJECTED!! - Friendly warning!

My Golden Rules for Success

I've wrote quite a few lengthy articles about specific things you can do to prepare yourself to be successful at getting onto a Paramedic course at Uni - I thought I'd now summarise quickly some key thoughts on what really helped me at the Personal Statement stage and then Interviews.

1. The Health Care Professions Council (HCPC)
L/H - 1000051CStandards_of_Proficiency_Paramedics.pdf - This is your bible for the next few years. If you read through this it states exactly what is expected in a Paramedics Professional Conduct and the Qualities of a Paramedic - you can put money on your University of choice using alot of these standards as the framework for their marking criteria at Interview - During Application and Interview stages you need to demonstrate you live up to these qualities, think of examples - lots of examples that show how you do. Also make sure you can state the role of the HCPC in the Governance of Paramedic Practice - you will get asked this at Interview I promise.

So you got an offer! What next?

Congratulations, you got that dreaded "Your application status has changed" e-mail and it was what you were hoping for. First of all breathe - all that pressure, stress, worry, sleepless nights is all over, enjoy your achievement - you were top of a very big pile of people wishing to become a Paramedic.

Personal Statements

Hello to any readers that stumble across this!

I want to have a quick post on Personal Statements. The feedback I got from all 4 of my University Interviews was that my Personal Statement (PS) was "excellent" so I thought I might talk about what sort of things I added in to it.

"Start off 'punchy' with a story and leave them wanting more" was the advice I was given - and so I did!

The beginning
My opening 4 lines was literally a story about a severe trauma incident I dealt with in the Army. I talked vaguely about the situation and then left it on a cliffhanger before moving right into my profile.