I remember, way back when, I was asked at my interview what my long term goals were. I replied:
"Successfully completing my prehospital training and being a good paramedic."
Since then, I have and still am striving towards excellence. I did pretty well at Uni in my first year, and am still going strong. I keep myself up to date with various online blogs, publications, articles in magazines and attend professional development seminars if they all on my rostered days off (or if I can get the days off). I talk to other students about their progress and what they have learnt. I ask paramedics about their experiences and what they would do in the same situation. I have some questions that I ask many different medics, just to get a broad range of answers for the same topic. Sometimes, I challenge them with my viewpoints, or with information I have grabbed from various sources, just to see their reactions and views.
I have squirted placebo medicine up my nose just to see what the feeling is like for patients, I let observers stick ECGs on my chest so I know how bloody much it hurts to rip them off a hairy chest again (and how cold electrodes can be).
Anyway, back to topic. Talking to colleagues on station you often come to talk about others as being 'good paramedics'. Or you swap information with fellow students about their tutors; "how is your tutor?" "Yeah, he's a good paramedic". Or you look on the roster who you are going to work with next, or you are assigned a replacement partner for next week, and you ask colleagues if they know him or her. "Yeah, they're alright, he/she is a good paramedic."
I am forming a follow up post with my views and opinions on this particular topic, but for now it's over to you. No matter who you are, what background you are from...
I ask YOU, dear reader: what is a "good paramedic"?
