What is the main focus of the video?

The video focuses on the experiences of a tactical medic in EMS and the challenges they face.

What background did the medic have before joining EMS?

The medic was previously a chef before transitioning to emergency medical services.

What is the role of a tactical medic?

A tactical medic provides medical support in high-stress situations, often working alongside law enforcement.

How does the medic handle emotional stress from traumatic calls?

The medic discusses the importance of seeking support and processing emotions after difficult calls.

What advice does the medic give to paramedic students?

The medic suggests gaining experience in various fields, including interacting with diverse populations.

What is the significance of de-escalation techniques?

De-escalation techniques are crucial for managing agitated patients and ensuring their safety.

How does the medic view their role in relation to law enforcement?

The medic emphasizes their obligation to care for all individuals involved, including suspects and bystanders.

What book does the medic recommend for paramedic students?

The medic recommends 'Being Mortal' by Atul Gawande.

What is the medic's stance on mental health days?

The medic acknowledges the importance of mental health days and taking care of one's emotional well-being.

What is the medic's experience with critical incidents?

The medic shares a personal experience dealing with a line of duty death and its emotional impact.

SWAT medic Part 1: I wasn't prepared.

00:39:21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtAD6eONL9U

Résumé

TLDRIn this engaging video, Ginger Luck interviews a tactical medic who shares his journey from being a chef to working in emergency medical services (EMS). The medic discusses the challenges of adapting to high-stress environments, the importance of de-escalation techniques, and the emotional toll of traumatic calls. He emphasizes the need for mental health support and the complexities of working alongside law enforcement. The conversation highlights the medic's commitment to caring for all individuals involved in emergency situations, including suspects and bystanders, and offers valuable insights for paramedic students.

A retenir

👨‍⚕️ Transitioning from chef to medic highlights adaptability.
🚑 Tactical medics play a crucial role in high-stress situations.
🧠 Mental health support is essential for EMS professionals.
🤝 De-escalation techniques are vital for patient interactions.
👮‍♂️ Medics must care for all individuals, including suspects.
📚 Recommended reading: 'Being Mortal' by Atul Gawande.
💪 Experience in diverse fields enhances medic skills.
😢 Emotional toll of traumatic calls is significant.
🔍 Self-analysis after calls helps improve performance.
💬 Communication skills are key in emergency situations.

Chronologie

00:00:00 - 00:05:00
The speaker introduces a rapid-fire exchange format, discussing the transition from a tactical mindset to a medic role, highlighting the challenges of switching from a combat to a caregiving perspective.
00:05:00 - 00:10:00
The host, Ginger Luck, shares her experiences with medics, emphasizing the universal ideas and habits that emerge from their stories, and invites listeners to engage with her on social media.
00:10:00 - 00:15:00
The guest, a tactical medic, reflects on his diverse career path, including his time as a chef, and how those experiences have shaped his adaptability and skills in emergency medical services (EMS).
00:15:00 - 00:20:00
The conversation shifts to the importance of interpersonal skills in EMS, with the guest suggesting that working in food service can enhance one's ability to multitask and interact with people under pressure.
00:20:00 - 00:25:00
The guest discusses his journey into tactical EMS, detailing the rigorous selection process for joining a SWAT team and the mental challenges faced during high-stress scenarios.
00:25:00 - 00:30:00
The discussion delves into the mindset required for tactical medics, emphasizing the need for self-analysis and the ability to switch roles quickly in high-pressure situations.
00:30:00 - 00:39:21
The guest shares personal experiences with emotional challenges in the field, including dealing with traumatic calls and the importance of seeking support and processing those experiences.

Afficher plus

Carte mentale

Vidéo Q&R

What is the main focus of the video?
The video focuses on the experiences of a tactical medic in EMS and the challenges they face.
What background did the medic have before joining EMS?
The medic was previously a chef before transitioning to emergency medical services.
What is the role of a tactical medic?
A tactical medic provides medical support in high-stress situations, often working alongside law enforcement.
How does the medic handle emotional stress from traumatic calls?
The medic discusses the importance of seeking support and processing emotions after difficult calls.
What advice does the medic give to paramedic students?
The medic suggests gaining experience in various fields, including interacting with diverse populations.
What is the significance of de-escalation techniques?
De-escalation techniques are crucial for managing agitated patients and ensuring their safety.
How does the medic view their role in relation to law enforcement?
The medic emphasizes their obligation to care for all individuals involved, including suspects and bystanders.
What book does the medic recommend for paramedic students?
The medic recommends 'Being Mortal' by Atul Gawande.
What is the medic's stance on mental health days?
The medic acknowledges the importance of mental health days and taking care of one's emotional well-being.
What is the medic's experience with critical incidents?
The medic shares a personal experience dealing with a line of duty death and its emotional impact.

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Sous-titres

Défilement automatique:

00:00:02
all right this is a new thing i'm doing
00:00:05
it's a rapid fire exchange where i say a
00:00:07
word and you say something back you
00:00:08
ready yep stethoscope
00:00:14
let's start over
00:00:17
i had gotten to the point where
00:00:19
i was
00:00:20
literally drawing the ketamine up as we
00:00:22
would walk in the door you know
00:00:26
and it was really difficult for me to
00:00:28
change gears from
00:00:31
firearms shots on target take out a
00:00:34
threat to suddenly
00:00:36
oh wait i'm a medic i'm i am the medic
00:00:40
[Music]
00:00:52
welcome to medic mindset i'm ginger luck
00:00:55
i'm having the time of my life sitting
00:00:56
down with medics one at a time and
00:00:58
sorting through their experiences what
00:01:00
ends up being distilled from this
00:01:02
process are ideas and thoughts and
00:01:04
habits that are seemingly universal to
00:01:07
medics and i know they're universal
00:01:09
because i've begun hearing from you guys
00:01:11
which has turned out to be the most
00:01:12
rewarding part of this little experiment
00:01:14
so please keep sending me your messages
00:01:17
i'm on twitter at genderlock atx and
00:01:20
facebook as ginger lock the website with
00:01:22
show notes for each episode is
00:01:24
medicmindset.com i've listened to the
00:01:26
raw audio for this episode at least 20
00:01:28
times i was searching for a title and
00:01:31
for a method to properly introduce this
00:01:33
medic he's a swap medic but he doesn't
00:01:35
fit neatly in the box we might have for
00:01:37
tactical medics
00:01:38
for every descriptor i wanted to use i
00:01:40
just kept thinking but he's so much more
00:01:42
than that he's a large guy muscular
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steady stable
00:01:46
and one thing's for sure he settles a
00:01:48
room just by being in it the rest
00:01:51
just check it out for yourself
00:01:57
thank you for being on the show it's
00:01:58
absolutely my pleasure talk to me about
00:02:00
the steps of you getting into ems
00:02:02
because what i know of you is you are
00:02:04
incredibly smart you're the kind of guy
00:02:06
that could have picked to do anything so
00:02:07
why did you pick ems first thanks for
00:02:09
that i guess i should preface by saying
00:02:11
that you know i had multiple other
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careers i was a chef for years and years
00:02:15
which was a very stressful job
00:02:18
and i
00:02:20
quit being a chef because i wanted a
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less stressful job and somehow ended up
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in ems which it turns out is less
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stressful in a lot of ways
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so i didn't know that you had been a
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chef are you professionally trained no i
00:02:31
started washing dishes when i was 14 and
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just worked my way up so were you ever
00:02:35
in charge of a kitchen as the chef
00:02:38
yeah multiple multiples i ran a place in
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uh
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in the caribbean for a while and that
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was very successful and probably the
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most rewarding place and then uh
00:02:48
another one that in the caribbean that
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was wildly catastrophic
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i love it that you ran a kitchen or
00:02:54
worked in a kitchen because so many of
00:02:56
our students have food service
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backgrounds when we're writing their
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resumes or when we're talking about
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their job skills they write that one off
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they don't think of it as being an asset
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to
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healthcare oh
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and i have to quickly dispel that
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because they're so similar yeah in fact
00:03:13
i was thinking about that this morning
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when i was listening to
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one of the episodes of your podcast
00:03:19
how lucky i was to have that service
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industry background
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because it allowed me a familiarity with
00:03:26
adaptability to you know changing
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situations the ability to multitask
00:03:31
under pressure socializing with
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strangers so all of those things i was
00:03:35
lucky enough to be really familiar with
00:03:37
when i came into this and it was an
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immense asset to me and it gave me a lot
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more space to learn
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the things i needed to know about
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pathophysiology and pharmacology i
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currently have a student that's a
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bartender he's one of many bartenders
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that have come through our program we do
00:03:52
a view from the door when we go to the
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hospital we'll
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sneak a peek and then we'll talk about
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what we saw i would say he saw more than
00:03:59
me um
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yeah he saw things i didn't see and and
00:04:02
and later i'm like you were absolutely
00:04:04
right i didn't notice that thing sitting
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on the counter or whatever
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yeah as soon as they walk in the door
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you pick them out and you're like oh i'm
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gonna have to spend a long time talking
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to this one
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but yeah it was a choice between being a
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police officer or a paramedic i knew
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myself well enough at that point in my
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in my life because i came to ems late
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you know i was already in my mid-30s and
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i knew myself well enough at that point
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to know that i was more wired to be a
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caretaker than i was to be
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a hunter for better or worse i think
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that police these days are often
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thrust into the roles of being hunters
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even though
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in my experience many of them are
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caretakers you know and i wasn't sure
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that i was mentally or emotionally
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prepared to deal with
00:04:45
the alienation that police officers have
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to deal with um
00:04:48
that would be really hard on me i think
00:04:51
so when i heard that i could become a
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medic and then also
00:04:54
possibly become a tactical medic it
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seemed like an ideal balance to me i was
00:04:58
listening to a podcast there's a
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podcaster named tim ferriss and he had a
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guest i think her name was whitney
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cummings she's a stand-up comic
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a successful one so he was asking her if
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she could take someone from day one
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they'd have no experiences stand up how
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would she train them he gave her like
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two months she said first night i'm
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gonna throw them up there on stage and
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they're gonna work on stage presence
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because like 90 of the job is just the
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presence and then 10 the actual content
00:05:30
and this is a hard question and it's if
00:05:32
someone came to you today they have some
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time right they've got maybe two years
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of paramedic school what would you tell
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them to do while they're in paramedic
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school to prepare them for being a medic
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would you send them to you know go work
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in the field go work in food service go
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work out
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hmm i think all of those things would be
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really appropriate
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i think i might take an even more
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radical approach than that and say
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go hang out with homeless people
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you know every night for two weeks
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get that sense of desperation of
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clinging to something
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and talk to them you know
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my partner at work has a great exercise
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that he does with students who are
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obviously intimidated by strangers he
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tells them to go home after after a ride
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out their homework assignment is to go
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somewhere like the shopping mall or and
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walk up to at least 20 random people and
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just introduce themselves and start
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talking you know and he's like gonna be
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nerve wracking for you but it's really
00:06:31
really good practice you know and you'll
00:06:33
find that if you do it in such a way
00:06:35
that you are
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approachable and friendly and all of
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that you'll often garner a good reaction
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i wonder if the students do that i
00:06:42
wonder if they do too yeah i know that
00:06:44
the ones who don't he then
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makes
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stand up and give speeches to the entire
00:06:49
fire station you know really does he
00:06:51
really put him through this exercise
00:06:52
yeah what kind of speech he leaves it up
00:06:54
to them he says you know you've got
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until your next ride out to prepare a
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speech on
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you know something that
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i don't know if he makes it medically
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related but
00:07:04
i love that yeah that's good
00:07:06
because a lot of our job is talking to a
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group of people you know bystanders
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family members
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army of firefighters yeah and and
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learning how to
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control our own emotions so that we can
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impart
00:07:20
a sense of you know calmness and or
00:07:23
you know trust to all of those people so
00:07:27
you got into ems knowing you wanted to
00:07:29
go down the tactical route and you
00:07:30
quickly found a tactical team
00:07:33
to join can you talk about your
00:07:35
indoctrination into that aspect of ems
00:07:38
yeah absolutely like any medic straight
00:07:41
out of school the first year was
00:07:44
uh
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was a constant nail biter you know
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jumping at the slightest
00:07:50
indication of a possible pager tone and
00:07:53
the constant terror that you're gonna
00:07:55
screw something up and a lot of
00:07:57
self-analysis after every call so that
00:07:59
year you know was was filled with all of
00:08:01
those things i was really lucky around
00:08:03
the time that year was completed my
00:08:06
agency's tactical team had an opening so
00:08:08
i had to do what we all have to do to
00:08:10
get on the team which is to go through
00:08:12
first you have to pass a basic fitness
00:08:14
test in order to get on the team after
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that test you have to go through
00:08:18
a very stressful day once you get
00:08:20
through that if they you know feel that
00:08:22
you're appropriate then you have to go
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through
00:08:25
basic swat school
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i want to go back to the day how long is
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the day you know it's varied a few times
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since i got on the team
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part of what makes it really stressful
00:08:35
is that after you've done all the
00:08:36
fitness stuff and a lot of people show
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up thinking that's all they're gonna
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have to do
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you then
00:08:43
without going into too much detail have
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to go through a lot of scenarios based
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on what we actually do and uh
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and we're really lucky that we work so
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closely with the law enforcement
00:08:54
departments that that we
00:08:56
work with
00:08:57
a lot of those guys came out to you know
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as a medic
00:09:00
you know all the medics in your system
00:09:02
and you think okay you know whatever
00:09:03
these guys can throw at me i can totally
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deal with because i know these guys you
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know but then all of a sudden you've got
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you know 12 or 14
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swat guys that you have never met before
00:09:12
in your life
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standing there contributing to the
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scenarios and also analyzing everything
00:09:17
that you're doing
00:09:19
and trying to decide even if your
00:09:20
mindset is appropriate okay i want to
00:09:22
talk about what you're referencing the
00:09:25
the mindset what is the mindset educate
00:09:27
me as paramedics we're familiar with
00:09:30
really high stress high pressure
00:09:31
environments when you
00:09:34
add a lot of other stress factors to
00:09:36
that such as what we call non-permissive
00:09:39
environments you know where you're not
00:09:41
familiar at all with your surroundings
00:09:42
there's a high potential of danger and
00:09:45
you're dealing with multiple personnel
00:09:47
doing their own roles and trying to
00:09:48
figure out where you fit into that and
00:09:50
then also doing your job whether it's
00:09:52
taking care of the officers or taking
00:09:54
care of people that you know end up in
00:09:56
the scenes that we're in that's a lot of
00:09:59
a lot of things to juggle
00:10:01
and it's a lot to mentally prepare for
00:10:04
to deal with at the time and then to
00:10:05
take home afterwards you know
00:10:08
there are a lot of medical calls in my
00:10:10
career so far brief as it is i go back
00:10:13
and go over with a fine-tooth comb and
00:10:15
and
00:10:16
think about all the things i could have
00:10:17
done better or should have done and
00:10:18
didn't
00:10:19
i also
00:10:20
spend a lot of time after
00:10:22
swat calls
00:10:24
literally just analyzing how i moved
00:10:26
from one structure to another and
00:10:28
whether or not that placed myself or any
00:10:30
of my teammates in danger yeah like an
00:10:32
after action review walk your brain
00:10:35
through every single step you took
00:10:37
interesting and when you reference the
00:10:39
team who is the team don't assume that i
00:10:41
know anything because i don't okay a
00:10:43
swat team is made up of how many people
00:10:45
and how many medics sure who's there
00:10:48
sure usually whether it is a pre-planned
00:10:52
mission in other words you know if it's
00:10:53
a warrant that we're gonna serve at such
00:10:55
and such time tomorrow morning or it's
00:10:57
something that drops unexpectedly you
00:10:59
know and we all get called out for it
00:11:02
usually it's
00:11:03
at least
00:11:04
10
00:11:06
maybe as many as 18
00:11:07
swat personnel
00:11:09
and that may also include negotiators
00:11:12
and other people usually we try to have
00:11:14
at least two tack medics uh often we end
00:11:16
up with just one so when i say the team
00:11:18
that's who i'm talking about all of
00:11:20
those people and a lot of times the way
00:11:21
we do it especially if it's a if it's a
00:11:23
pre-planned thing is that one of us will
00:11:26
stay with the ambulance stage somewhere
00:11:28
nearby and the other will go in with the
00:11:30
team wherever we're going and depending
00:11:32
on the structure you know if it's a
00:11:33
really big structure we'll make entry
00:11:35
and do all the things that the team is
00:11:36
doing with the exception that we're not
00:11:38
armed if it's a smaller structure we'll
00:11:40
just post at the door and wait till
00:11:41
they've cleared it because then we'll
00:11:42
just be one more body inside there's not
00:11:44
enough room for that so you are unarmed
00:11:48
it's something that we go back and forth
00:11:50
on a lot it's a very uh uncomfortable
00:11:53
position to be in
00:11:55
but on the other hand
00:11:56
i know there are tactical ems
00:11:59
teams in the country that have that that
00:12:01
are armed we are not at this time i
00:12:03
think
00:12:04
the intention is that maybe we someday
00:12:05
will be but our administration has a lot
00:12:08
of hesitation about that my hesitation
00:12:11
is not
00:12:13
well i think i think what it comes down
00:12:15
to and this is i think one of the most
00:12:18
important aspects of
00:12:20
dealing with
00:12:22
taking on the role of a tactical medic
00:12:23
what it comes down to is is
00:12:26
remaining aware of your role the
00:12:28
officers that we work with
00:12:30
they're in that capacity of being a
00:12:31
police officer all the time even when
00:12:32
they're not on duty you know i know
00:12:34
these guys i know that their minds are
00:12:36
you know bent that way that's how they
00:12:37
do things you know and they do it every
00:12:39
day so
00:12:40
it becomes very instinctual to them on a
00:12:42
lot of levels
00:12:43
the decision about whether or not to
00:12:46
employ a weapon becomes very instinctual
00:12:48
to them in our tactical ems team you
00:12:50
know we compete in small swat
00:12:52
competitions and stuff like that so
00:12:54
we're all able to shoot and to do all
00:12:56
the things that the swat guys can do
00:12:57
that doesn't necessarily mean that we
00:12:59
are accustomed to thinking in that role
00:13:01
every day right
00:13:03
so if we were to become armed
00:13:05
we would have to give a lot of thought
00:13:08
to
00:13:08
how that changes
00:13:11
our mindset and whether
00:13:14
i'll give you an example i remember when
00:13:16
i was in basic swat school and of course
00:13:18
i hadn't deployed with the teams at that
00:13:20
point we were doing a hostage rescue
00:13:22
drill on a school bus
00:13:24
and we were using what we call sims guns
00:13:26
that shoot little paint bullets they're
00:13:28
painful but not hopefully you know
00:13:32
hopefully unharmful you know it's very
00:13:34
stressful there's all these people in a
00:13:35
bus you have to run in the bus and and
00:13:37
so i was very much in a swat role
00:13:38
because that's what i was doing in swat
00:13:40
school
00:13:41
and so i ran in and put shots on target
00:13:43
and all of a sudden the cadre who were
00:13:46
training us
00:13:47
said we've got a pediatric patient down
00:13:50
outside you know
00:13:53
and it was really difficult for me to
00:13:55
change gears
00:13:56
from
00:13:57
firearms shots on target take out a
00:14:00
threat to suddenly
00:14:02
oh wait i'm a medic i'm i am the medic
00:14:05
and so that is my job now to go take
00:14:07
care of this this patient and i think
00:14:10
i think it's
00:14:12
probably
00:14:13
easier in some respects for
00:14:15
you know people who've been in the
00:14:16
military in a medical capacity 18 deltas
00:14:19
para rescue guys because
00:14:21
they get more used to switching roles
00:14:23
like that but because we haven't been in
00:14:25
that other role up until now i think it
00:14:27
would be a big thing to take on taking a
00:14:29
tool out of your toolbox so you don't
00:14:31
even have to worry about the option of
00:14:33
using it right
00:14:35
on the other hand there's this whole
00:14:37
other aspect which is that because we're
00:14:39
unarmed
00:14:40
swat personnel have to be detailed off
00:14:42
to hold security for us at all times if
00:14:45
something would ever happen
00:14:47
in those situations and for some reason
00:14:49
we didn't have security
00:14:51
we'd be in a very
00:14:53
delicate situation you know that's the
00:14:56
argument i've heard that people make for
00:14:58
you guys to be armed is that if the
00:15:00
people who are protecting you become
00:15:03
they become injured or can't
00:15:05
be a physical barrier for you that you'd
00:15:07
be exposed right
00:15:10
yeah and it's a terrifying prospect and
00:15:12
i could go way down the rabbit hole with
00:15:14
this for hours but you know one of the
00:15:16
things i think about is is that
00:15:18
sometimes
00:15:19
certain people in our society have a
00:15:21
tendency
00:15:23
a sort of reflexive tendency to think
00:15:24
that force is going to solve
00:15:27
any situation and even i mean
00:15:31
obviously the best swat guys that i work
00:15:32
with know better you know that force is
00:15:35
is the option you want to employ last
00:15:38
and that if you are able to think
00:15:40
critically through a situation there are
00:15:42
often multiple other avenues that you
00:15:45
could explore rather than using force
00:15:47
you know that's the whole reason we have
00:15:48
swat teams really
00:15:50
say more about that what are you saying
00:15:52
the whole reason we have swat teams is
00:15:55
to quote a really bad movie
00:15:59
that came out uh i think back in the 90s
00:16:02
swat was it yeah
00:16:05
i think in the movie some guys did you
00:16:06
know some swat guys did some bonehead
00:16:08
stuff and and their commander afterwards
00:16:10
was like special weapons and tactics
00:16:13
where were the tactics
00:16:16
which may be the only takeaway from that
00:16:17
movie which would otherwise be a small
00:16:19
murder of your time you know
00:16:23
and i think that the swat guys that i've
00:16:25
been around are really good at that
00:16:28
they're really good at
00:16:29
planning as much as possible
00:16:31
and and considering all
00:16:34
options and avenues to avoid having to
00:16:36
use force um and that's something that
00:16:39
probably doesn't get seen by you know
00:16:41
society at large very often because
00:16:42
they're not privy to these conversations
00:16:44
and these briefings and all of that you
00:16:46
know i want to sit there for a second
00:16:48
this idea of de-escalating
00:16:50
something
00:16:52
because that is something medics have to
00:16:54
do i would i'd venture to say it could
00:16:56
come up every shift where you've got an
00:16:58
angry patient or bystander or family
00:17:00
member
00:17:01
who's experiencing some level of anger
00:17:03
because i've watched agitated patients
00:17:06
in the hospital be either de-escalated
00:17:09
or escalated by the providers around
00:17:11
them i wasn't formally trained in some
00:17:13
really great tactics some simple things
00:17:16
i've watched nurses i mean every every
00:17:18
patient's different but they will talk
00:17:19
to the patient but not look them square
00:17:21
in the eyes really hard
00:17:23
they'll kind of submit a little bit with
00:17:25
their eyes but their hands are on
00:17:28
and talking to them so there's some
00:17:29
active things going on but they're also
00:17:30
these passive almost anthropological
00:17:33
maneuvers they did yeah it's very primal
00:17:35
you know any part of your background
00:17:36
that you can help give insight for a
00:17:38
paramedic student new medic or somebody
00:17:40
that wants to get better at
00:17:42
de-escalating agitated patients
00:17:45
boy that's uh you know i've ridden that
00:17:47
roller coaster for sure and uh and gone
00:17:50
at it both ways in fact only a few
00:17:51
months ago my partner
00:17:53
confronted me we'd had a whole series of
00:17:55
psych calls and and i had gotten to the
00:17:57
point where
00:17:59
i was literally drawing the ketamine up
00:18:01
as we would walk in the door you know
00:18:03
like
00:18:04
so yeah uh and he confronted me about it
00:18:06
a little bit he was like
00:18:08
can i just talk to him for five or ten
00:18:10
minutes first you know
00:18:12
and i would say like okay you know but
00:18:15
i'm right here
00:18:16
and i should point out that you know
00:18:18
especially in the case of of psych
00:18:20
patients you know people with
00:18:21
schizophrenia bipolar disorder etc
00:18:24
i hate
00:18:25
having to sedate and or chemically
00:18:27
restrain those patients i know that
00:18:28
they're already dealing with things that
00:18:30
i can't even possibly comprehend it
00:18:32
often
00:18:33
becomes a better option than for
00:18:35
instance you know handcuffs and being
00:18:38
piled up on by other people and
00:18:40
i started my paramedic career very much
00:18:42
with the intention of like i'm just
00:18:44
going to talk to everybody you know
00:18:46
i love everybody we got this you know we
00:18:49
can solve any problem sure uh and then
00:18:51
hit that point when i was like drawing
00:18:53
up the ketamine as i walk in the door
00:18:55
and now i'm trying to find that balance
00:18:56
between the two you know where i'm
00:18:58
getting
00:18:59
i hope better at gauging
00:19:02
the threshold for combativeness and
00:19:05
trying to either you know trying to use
00:19:07
everything i can to de-escalate before
00:19:08
that point and then not being too
00:19:10
hesitant once that point is reached yeah
00:19:12
to go ahead and do that i mean i always
00:19:14
say that one of the most important
00:19:16
things about being a paramedic is is to
00:19:18
take your shoes off at the door
00:19:20
uh obviously don't take your shoes off
00:19:22
of the door because who knows where
00:19:23
you're going to be stepping in but
00:19:24
in a metaphorical sense the the sense of
00:19:27
respect for other people for their space
00:19:29
uh whether that's a physical space or an
00:19:32
emotional space that they inhabit not
00:19:34
only to be able to take your shoes off
00:19:35
but then
00:19:36
to try and feel what it would be like to
00:19:38
be in somebody else's
00:19:41
especially with these patients who are
00:19:42
in those really distressed places
00:19:46
that is something that can only come
00:19:49
with getting outside your own comfort
00:19:51
zone whatever is familiar to you and
00:19:53
makes you feel warm and fuzzy and makes
00:19:55
you feel like you're in control
00:19:58
if you're able to either through some
00:20:00
mental exercise or through an activity
00:20:03
or through a field trip do something to
00:20:06
break out of that and try and imagine
00:20:08
what it's like for somebody else to be
00:20:09
in that other place that's uncomfortable
00:20:11
to you
00:20:12
imagine what it's like for them to be
00:20:14
there all the time you know
00:20:17
and then
00:20:18
to think of what
00:20:19
you would want to hear if you were in
00:20:21
that uncomfortable place
00:20:23
you know and i'm not saying that i mean
00:20:24
that's
00:20:25
a sort of dime store
00:20:27
philosophy response to the question but
00:20:29
i think i think that
00:20:32
dynamic is the only way
00:20:34
that you can approach
00:20:36
those people with any sense of integrity
00:20:39
it's not wrong to play a role
00:20:41
you know sometimes you have to play a
00:20:43
role in our job in order to you know
00:20:45
facilitate somebody's well-being
00:20:47
it's something we all do all the time in
00:20:49
the case of someone who's dealing with
00:20:51
psychological or emotional problems
00:20:54
there has to be an element of sincerity
00:20:56
to playing that role and that sincerity
00:21:00
won't come unless you've been
00:21:02
uncomfortable yourself
00:21:04
that feels really true
00:21:06
that's that's those are some true words
00:21:08
yeah thanks i don't think any patient in
00:21:11
that situation expects you to understand
00:21:12
them i think they'd be angry if
00:21:14
you try to imply that you do i actually
00:21:17
ran a call you know we tried the talking
00:21:20
thing for over an hour and and i ended
00:21:22
up
00:21:23
poking the bear a little bit you know
00:21:25
and we ended up in a chemical restraint
00:21:27
situation
00:21:29
and i felt really bad about it you know
00:21:30
but i also recognized that we didn't
00:21:32
have a lot of other options at that time
00:21:34
and i ran another call two weeks later
00:21:37
that was an mvc and it was the same guy
00:21:40
and i was really trepidatious rolling up
00:21:42
to their car i was like first are you
00:21:43
guys okay you know and they were like
00:21:45
yeah we're okay you know
00:21:47
and i said well i don't know if you
00:21:48
remember me but i met you a couple weeks
00:21:50
ago
00:21:51
and his mom said yeah i just went and
00:21:52
got him out of you know the facility we
00:21:54
were on our way home and got into this
00:21:56
fender bender
00:21:57
and i said well you know you look really
00:21:59
good man and he was like man thank you
00:22:01
so much and
00:22:03
i don't know i think he was aware that
00:22:06
there was no certainly no malice in what
00:22:08
i did if only we could always see them
00:22:10
after they get a little healing you know
00:22:12
we catch people in their moments they're
00:22:14
in a moment sometimes sometimes it's a
00:22:16
chronic you know psychological condition
00:22:18
but sometimes we catch people in moments
00:22:20
yeah it's a snapshot and they're such
00:22:22
they're much more complex people than
00:22:24
that yeah
00:22:25
i'm sure we could solve a lot of road
00:22:27
rage problems if we
00:22:28
could
00:22:29
could all just get back together later
00:22:30
and be like hey you remember when you
00:22:31
got me off and i was feeling this where
00:22:34
were you from
00:22:35
okay we're cool now right you know
00:22:38
i want to go back to you being embedded
00:22:40
with the swat team and i want to talk
00:22:42
about well you said you're unarmed so
00:22:44
there's not the opportunity for you to
00:22:46
neutralize a threat to kill someone
00:22:49
well there's plenty of opportunities for
00:22:50
me to kill someone but it all involves a
00:22:52
lot of paperwork and possibly my medical
00:22:54
license so
00:22:56
right your mission going in is not to
00:22:59
neutralize the threat right can you say
00:23:01
what your mission is and this is the
00:23:03
part that i think gets gets tricky for
00:23:05
anyone in a medical role in the tactical
00:23:07
environment
00:23:08
your mandate
00:23:10
as it always is in ems is to take care
00:23:13
of everybody who needs help
00:23:16
and sometimes
00:23:18
even in you know regular ems we're all
00:23:21
familiar at least with the concept if
00:23:23
not
00:23:24
having experienced those calls when it's
00:23:26
somebody that you really
00:23:28
don't want to take care of
00:23:30
for some reason you know whether they're
00:23:31
the drunk driver who caused the accident
00:23:33
that killed
00:23:35
you know kids or you know something
00:23:38
along those lines but we're still
00:23:40
obligated to do so hopefully would have
00:23:43
a hard time living with ourselves if we
00:23:44
didn't that certainly becomes
00:23:46
exacerbated
00:23:47
in the tactical role because
00:23:51
i think some people think that we're
00:23:52
just there for the officers um
00:23:55
and that perception is probably
00:23:57
reinforced by the fact that we look just
00:23:59
like the officers except we don't have a
00:24:00
gun on you know but we're not just there
00:24:03
for them we're also there for
00:24:05
the suspect and we're
00:24:08
certainly there for any potential
00:24:10
innocents that are caught up in
00:24:12
whatever's going on there
00:24:14
and i've had some some
00:24:16
very awkward and uncomfortable
00:24:17
experiences
00:24:19
uh attempting to in some way
00:24:22
assist
00:24:24
at least you know emotionally with
00:24:26
people who are caught up in
00:24:29
somebody else's drama that has elicited
00:24:30
a swat response
00:24:32
because in that role we look like cops
00:24:35
even if we say you know i'm i'm the
00:24:37
medic you know we're still going to be
00:24:39
perceived as part of that team and we
00:24:41
are part of that team you know
00:24:43
there's a whole other aspect to that
00:24:45
that i can
00:24:46
talk about with you if you want
00:24:48
um
00:24:49
i want to hear it all yeah
00:24:51
so we end up in these situations you
00:24:52
know where we're dealing with that same
00:24:54
sense of alienation to some extent that
00:24:56
the cops deal with all the time you know
00:24:59
which you know really makes me
00:25:01
empathic towards them
00:25:03
and then we're also you know dealing
00:25:05
with
00:25:06
situations where we may feel
00:25:08
a lot of anger
00:25:09
and and maybe judgment uh but we still
00:25:12
have to do our jobs so there's that
00:25:13
aspect of it and then the other aspect
00:25:15
of it is that
00:25:17
you know you are there for your officers
00:25:19
and
00:25:20
and
00:25:21
you go into some
00:25:23
really stressful situations with these
00:25:25
guys
00:25:26
and so you see them
00:25:29
dealing with the stress of their jobs
00:25:31
all the time
00:25:32
and you worry about them all the time
00:25:36
do you worry about them getting
00:25:37
physically injured on their job are you
00:25:39
worried about them their mental health
00:25:41
or all of it or both unquestionably yeah
00:25:43
you know
00:25:46
i uh
00:25:48
i've had some rough calls
00:25:51
since i graduated school and all that
00:25:55
ah give me a second yeah
00:26:04
probably
00:26:07
cry away and then we can either we can
00:26:09
leave it or not oh i got no issues with
00:26:11
it uh so yeah i've had some rough calls
00:26:13
you know i've had pediatric arrests and
00:26:16
you know various others i've had you
00:26:18
know domestic abuse cases that were very
00:26:19
distressing to deal with
00:26:21
um
00:26:23
and i've you know cried a little bit
00:26:25
here and there for some of them uh and
00:26:28
i've also surprised myself a lot by not
00:26:30
crying at some of them when i thought i
00:26:32
should
00:26:34
but i dealt with uh
00:26:36
a line of duty death for a police
00:26:38
officer i was the
00:26:39
responding medic and it wasn't a swat
00:26:42
call it was something else
00:26:44
um
00:26:45
and i knew
00:26:46
right away there was nothing we could do
00:26:49
but we did everything we could and uh
00:26:55
i wasn't prepared
00:26:57
at all
00:27:00
you know i i think
00:27:03
i think i held it together really well
00:27:05
all the way through the hand off and
00:27:07
everything
00:27:08
and then lost it in the bathroom at the
00:27:09
hospital
00:27:13
and i came out
00:27:15
to find
00:27:17
a couple
00:27:24
i came out to find a couple of good
00:27:25
friends of mine who were also co-workers
00:27:28
swabbing the back of my ambulance out
00:27:31
because there was so much blood
00:27:35
you know and i thought okay i'm
00:27:36
definitely gonna need some help after
00:27:38
this
00:27:40
but even then
00:27:42
i wasn't
00:27:44
prepared to
00:27:48
to walk
00:27:50
that road even briefly
00:27:52
with
00:27:54
that officer's co-workers
00:27:57
and his family
00:28:00
because
00:28:01
you know we
00:28:04
because we were there and it was an area
00:28:06
that we work in all the time so we knew
00:28:08
several of the officers that worked with
00:28:10
him
00:28:11
really well
00:28:13
and uh we were at the
00:28:14
funeral and all that and
00:28:17
and it was
00:28:18
you know i'd obviously dealt with lots
00:28:20
of deaths in my career by that point you
00:28:22
know lots of dead on scene where i had
00:28:24
to console family members and
00:28:26
help them in whatever way i could
00:28:28
lots of arrests that you know we weren't
00:28:30
able to get them back but this was the
00:28:32
first time that i had to walk down that
00:28:35
grieving
00:28:36
process with the people connected
00:28:38
to that person
00:28:40
it was really
00:28:43
a much heavier weight than i thought it
00:28:45
was going to be
00:28:47
you know and of course we went through
00:28:49
you know our critical incident
00:28:51
debriefing processes and and uh
00:28:54
you know we're lucky to work in a really
00:28:56
supportive agency that offers us a lot
00:28:58
of resources
00:29:01
and as is typical of me in
00:29:04
some cases
00:29:05
i
00:29:07
was
00:29:08
absolutely intent on making use of those
00:29:10
resources and then weeks and weeks would
00:29:13
go by and months and months would go by
00:29:15
and
00:29:16
and i still haven't and now
00:29:19
you know now sometimes i find myself
00:29:23
you know tearing up at the silliest [ __ ]
00:29:26
you know just really tiny things
00:29:30
and uh
00:29:32
so you know i tell
00:29:33
students
00:29:35
i warn them i guess
00:29:36
when they show up that uh
00:29:38
you know i'm not a sympathetic puker i
00:29:40
can deal with feces just fine um
00:29:43
if somebody starts crying there's a good
00:29:44
chance i will too
00:29:46
so
00:29:47
and that's new or that's always been the
00:29:49
case well it's always been the case to
00:29:51
some extent but
00:29:53
i think
00:29:55
i think it's just a lot closer to that
00:29:57
threshold than it ever was before you
00:29:59
know
00:30:00
and i don't know if that's because i
00:30:02
haven't
00:30:03
you know i i mean i talk about it with
00:30:05
my wife because she's
00:30:07
awesome and you know enormously
00:30:09
supportive
00:30:11
but i haven't talked about it in an
00:30:13
objective setting with anybody
00:30:15
and i think that's
00:30:17
i think that's my bad absolutely you
00:30:19
know it's my bad to myself and it's my
00:30:22
bad to people who might deal with my
00:30:23
fallout so i mean if there's anything
00:30:26
that anybody listening to this might
00:30:28
garner from it it's that
00:30:30
you shouldn't stint yourself
00:30:32
in that way you know
00:30:34
is it possible that the tearing out more
00:30:36
easily is a positive side effect
00:30:39
it's possible sure you know and i i mean
00:30:42
i guess i would be really
00:30:44
a lot more worried about me if i wasn't
00:30:46
you know yeah my mom
00:30:49
who's
00:30:50
you know i've spent most of my life
00:30:52
growing up with my mother and uh
00:30:54
you know my father's great too but i
00:30:56
would you know i didn't live in his
00:30:57
house most of the time
00:30:58
and she's always been big on you know
00:31:00
talking through things you know and
00:31:02
maybe a little too much sometimes and
00:31:04
she has this tendency now to call me up
00:31:07
every couple weeks and without really
00:31:08
even talking about anything else going
00:31:09
like
00:31:11
so you okay
00:31:13
and i'm like yeah i'm fine mom it's
00:31:15
no big deal we had two calls yesterday i
00:31:17
slept all night i'm fine
00:31:19
she's like okay
00:31:20
i mean you just seemed a little short
00:31:22
lately
00:31:23
and i'm always like well
00:31:25
did i just seem a little short or was i
00:31:27
just a little short because my mom likes
00:31:28
to talk a little too much you know i'm
00:31:30
never really sure yeah um you have to
00:31:33
look at that though right
00:31:34
and i'm i mean i'm immensely grateful
00:31:37
to her the point of
00:31:39
that story other than
00:31:41
processes that we go through as medics
00:31:43
is also that you know in the in the
00:31:45
capacity of working closely with
00:31:47
law enforcement officers
00:31:49
you're
00:31:50
constantly hyper aware of both the
00:31:52
physical danger that they're in but
00:31:54
you're also seeing them
00:31:55
after they run really bad calls or
00:31:58
sometimes after they've had to
00:32:01
use lethal force on someone
00:32:03
um
00:32:05
and i mean i i can tell anybody who
00:32:07
would ask that that's not an easy thing
00:32:09
for anybody to go through
00:32:12
as you're describing this process of
00:32:14
concern for law enforcement it feels so
00:32:16
familiar because it's the level of
00:32:18
concern i have for paramedic students it
00:32:20
also makes me tear up if i think about
00:32:23
it too hard and i'm wondering you know
00:32:25
do do
00:32:27
the professors in the automotive
00:32:28
department you know
00:32:33
you know what if jimmy just never gets
00:32:35
the hang of that carburetor you know
00:32:37
um no the fact is that that our field is
00:32:40
is riddled with
00:32:42
with dangers and hazards emotional and
00:32:46
physical you know and and
00:32:48
you know
00:32:49
when i talk about my my concern for my
00:32:51
law enforcement co-workers you know that
00:32:54
of course also applies to all of my ems
00:32:56
co-workers and
00:32:58
you know and
00:32:59
god my poor co-workers who work in
00:33:01
dispatch you know those guys get
00:33:02
forgotten all the time and that's one of
00:33:04
the most emotionally grueling jobs i can
00:33:06
think of yeah for sure they do get
00:33:08
forgotten yeah you know there's not a
00:33:10
whole lot of other
00:33:12
fields that you could go into that would
00:33:14
engender
00:33:15
in in a civilian world that would
00:33:17
engender the need to be so alert
00:33:21
to long-term damage
00:33:23
whether physical or mental what's
00:33:25
interesting is as students i don't get
00:33:27
many complaints from them about
00:33:28
nightmares and
00:33:30
symptoms of ptsd but as graduates do and
00:33:33
i think it's because it's a bit of a
00:33:35
cumulative effect i think it takes a
00:33:37
little time uh the only nightmares i
00:33:40
ever have these days are still about
00:33:41
restaurants you know
00:33:43
really yeah it's always it's always
00:33:44
about like you know finding myself at
00:33:46
some
00:33:47
walk-in chef gig where the diners are
00:33:49
all sitting down and i have no idea
00:33:51
what's on the menu and you know
00:33:53
i'm wearing an apron and nothing else
00:33:54
which normally i'm comfortable with but
00:33:57
in my dreams it's always a little
00:33:58
traumatic you know it's
00:34:00
no no bad ems dreams no you know i don't
00:34:03
i don't think i have had any bad dms
00:34:05
dreams me neither yeah i've had bad
00:34:07
teaching dreams yeah i'm late to class
00:34:10
yeah no that makes perfect perfect but
00:34:12
no ems dreams yeah you know i don't know
00:34:14
if it's
00:34:15
because we're so alert
00:34:18
to those hazards that our brain i mean
00:34:20
maybe there's a whole
00:34:23
lot trunk somewhere in my brain where
00:34:24
they've just filed all that ems stuff
00:34:27
you know at some point it's going to
00:34:28
come out in a really
00:34:30
i don't know hopefully artistic and
00:34:31
creative way but uh
00:34:34
yeah it doesn't come out in that way
00:34:39
all right this is a new thing i'm doing
00:34:41
it's a rapid fire exchange where i say a
00:34:43
word and you say something back you
00:34:44
ready yep stethoscope
00:34:50
let's start over
00:34:52
okay okay type of stethoscope
00:34:55
type of stethoscope lippmann
00:34:58
type of boots
00:34:59
uh solomon
00:35:03
type type of monitor
00:35:06
phillips
00:35:08
have you ever called in sick to work for
00:35:10
a mental health day absolutely
00:35:12
what type of phone do you have
00:35:14
a cellular
00:35:18
[ __ ]
00:35:21
no i use it you don't have a bat phone
00:35:22
no i use an i use an iphone now but you
00:35:24
know i'm not addicted to it
00:35:28
why are you being so reactive to that
00:35:29
question
00:35:31
because i resent
00:35:32
my iphone
00:35:35
do you look at axis deviation on 12
00:35:37
leads
00:35:39
ever
00:35:41
no not really
00:35:42
have you ever fallen down on a call
00:35:45
lost your footing
00:35:47
no
00:35:51
have you ever had a patient die in front
00:35:52
of you yes
00:35:54
you ever done chest start
00:35:56
no
00:35:58
do you listen to heart tones no
00:36:01
have you ever heard of the code green
00:36:03
campaign
00:36:05
heard of it not familiar
00:36:07
do you watch netflix yeah what do you
00:36:09
watch
00:36:11
most recently stranger things and luke
00:36:13
cage
00:36:14
i know what stranger things is i don't
00:36:16
know what luke cage is it's one of their
00:36:18
new based on a comic book series
00:36:21
yeah
00:36:22
takes place all in harlem it's good
00:36:26
last book you read
00:36:28
tana french's uh suspense novel the
00:36:31
trespassers
00:36:33
and then right before that i read
00:36:34
sebastian younger's book tribe it's a
00:36:36
good one yeah
00:36:38
do you use a kindle or do you use
00:36:41
paperbacks or actual paper man so you
00:36:44
know
00:36:45
i grew up
00:36:46
with a parent who's an author
00:36:48
which literally fetishized books
00:36:51
in my house and uh it was really kind of
00:36:53
sacrilegious to me to consider e-readers
00:36:55
for a long time but i couldn't possibly
00:36:57
give it up now
00:36:59
a book that you'd recommend to a
00:37:01
paramedic student
00:37:03
man
00:37:05
you know
00:37:07
probably
00:37:09
any of atol gawande's books but being
00:37:11
mortal i think is a really important one
00:37:13
for
00:37:14
anyone in the healthcare industry in
00:37:15
america to read i know what i wanted to
00:37:17
ask you
00:37:18
it's funny i haven't already asked
00:37:20
because this is one of my more burning
00:37:21
questions oh good now i'm excited ask
00:37:23
away this is what other people would be
00:37:25
carrying like just your average civilian
00:37:27
i think would want to know the answer to
00:37:28
this so try to be as honest as possible
00:37:30
okay i think there are a lot of people
00:37:31
that would that wonder about this
00:37:35
i gotta take this one seriously
00:37:38
she's so old and sweet she's extremely
00:37:40
sweet she has some spaniel in her yeah
00:37:42
uh border collie and springer spaniel
00:37:44
and
00:37:45
really bad breath she's 13 or 14. yeah
00:37:48
yeah wow she's going blind going she
00:37:51
can't hear she can't hear [ __ ]
00:37:54
okay so here comes the big whopper okay
00:37:59
and i know you've i know you've been
00:38:00
asked before this
00:38:02
so i hope the question's not offensive
00:38:06
you really have to work hard i'm giving
00:38:08
i'm giving this so much preface this
00:38:09
better be like
00:38:17
we talked for hours
00:38:20
this one was an amazing one and i could
00:38:22
not make myself delete one bit of it so
00:38:26
i broke it into two parts uh so stand by
00:38:29
he will be back
00:38:31
[Applause]
00:38:33
then we graduate you know and we go off
00:38:36
and we become terrified paramedics in
00:38:38
the first couple years on our truck and
00:38:39
we're like oh god i'm gonna you know
00:38:42
royally screw this at any moment and uh
00:38:45
and then you know your third and fourth
00:38:47
year comes along and you're starting to
00:38:48
feel better and then your fifth and
00:38:50
sixth year comes along and you're
00:38:51
starting to feel like man you've you've
00:38:53
actually got this kind of wired you know
00:38:55
and then you kill somebody
00:38:59
[Applause]
00:39:05
[Music]
00:39:16
bye
00:39:17
[Music]