Focus On: Left Ventricular Failure (LVF)

Well my blog is filled with tips on becoming a Student Paramedic and ramblings in my Diary. So I thought I'd try and add some more information for those currently studying or about to begin studying. Prompted by a recent job I attended, I thought we would take a look at Left Ventricular Failure (LVF). Read on to find out more!

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...

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!

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 1

Well it came around quick, the first week of Uni has been and gone.

What can you expect? Well that will vary from Uni to Uni as you'd expect but a common theme throughout will be death by PowerPoint, various inductions and health and safety briefings - but also an overview of the course.

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.

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 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.

Let's talk about using your "previous experience"

Having been successful at Interviews and gained a few offers from University for Paramedic Practice I feel like I can comment on previous experience and how to use it.

When I was preparing for my Uni Interviews all of my friends, relatives and fellow Access students would happily tell me that several years as a Combat Medic in the Army will mean I would breeze my way into Uni... I wish I'd shared their confidence!

Gaining that relevent experience

Okay so you've decided to take the plunge and embark on the long road of becoming a Paramedic. But now you need some experience to talk about on your Personal Statement and at Interview.

My first article is going to look at ways that you can volunteer around your current role if it isn't relevant or around study to gain that valuable experience.

Community First Responder
So first on my list is the Community First Responder which aslong as you can drive and have access to a car is an excellent choice to gain experience (though bear in mind that alot of