Diary: Weeks 14,15 & 16 - Back to Uni

So Instead of writing week by week of my return to Uni, I appreciate it's probably less interesting to read than zipping around on Blue Lights so I thought that I'd condense my first three weeks into one post instead.

Coming back to Uni after Christmas and the excitement of Placement was harder than I'd thought. Initially I found myself lacking that get up and go with my home studies after lectures each day. Before placement I'd happily sit for a few hours when I got back to my room and study things around what I'd learnt or read ahead on things I was going to learn but now I was having to force myself to do the same. After a few days I gave myself a kick up the back-side and just remembered how bad I wanted this and how hard I'd worked to get here and I was fine again.

Seeing all of my colleagues again has been great, everyone has their own war stories to share from Placement and hearing about their experiences helps my own learning too.

Read on to find out what I've been learning about since I got back!

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.

Diary: Week 10

Week 10 brought my first week of Placement. Switching from predictable days in University to back to back 12 hour shifts was 'interesting' - especially when my housemates insisted in screaming the house down when they came back drunk at 2am in the middle of those shifts... twice. So for anyone reading who is due to start Uni - try and get housed with other Health Care Students!

Read on to find out how I got on...

Diary: Week 9

Well my final week at Uni before Placement has now passed and I'm looking forward to getting out on the road and putting into practice what I've learned so far over the Christmas period.

Read on to see what my final week consisted of!

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.

Diary: Week 4

Well Week 4 has been and gone, they seem to be going by alot quicker now I've settled into a routine.

In Uni this week has been all about more A&P (shock!), History of the Paramedic Profession, 4 & 12 Lead ECGs and Infection Control. Read on to find out more!

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

DIARY: Getting close now!

September is on the horizon and so the start date for my first year at University is  getting closer and closer. In the past few months I've finished my College Access Course and come out quite well with  enough distinctions to satisfy my admissions criteria which is a huge load off of my mind.

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!

The Student Paramedic Shopping List

So with my University start date looming, I'm obviously putting some money into the equipment I need for when I begin my journey as a Student Paramedic.

Now before you start parting with cash, get in contact with either Students currently on your course or a member of staff that lectures for your course. I opted to email one of the course leads and asked them for an essentials and nice to have list of things for their students, here's what I'm buying:

Paramedic Career Development

Hello readers,

I thought I'd devote some cyber-space to something all aspiring Student Paramedics should know about for Interviews - Career pathways and specialisations once you are qualified. I was asked this on two of my Interviews which made me glad that I had done my research, one interview I was even asked how I would like to specialise later on down the line if I was successful and why I chose that particular career path.

So here we go with some of the options available to a Paramedic with a few years under your belt:

REFLECTION: To me a Paramedic is...

So I attended a Cardiac Arrest last night, not my first but it was the first where I was the first person on scene, working alone for some time and the only one with any sort of medical training.

To arrive at a scene of mayhem where emotions are running high, to enter a room when all eyes suddenly drop on you to have the cure for what is happening to this persons loved one, to teach someone with no experience how to carry out CPR when it is their loved one they're about to do it to, and to co-ordinate and motivate this group effort in the soul purpose of giving life back to the person laying before you.

DIARY: The road so far

It's been twelve months now, twelve months since my Fianceé convinced me (and it took alot of convincing...) that despite what I thought, I could make it into University even with my rough road with Education in life so far. I was convinced that me and Education were never meant to be - if you told the 16, 18, even 25 year old me that I would one day study at University I would have laughed and walked away! However with a shove from my better half I enrolled on a College Access course with a view of taking my Medical Career to the next level and making the jump from Combat Medic to a fully qualified State Registered Paramedic.

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.