Driving

I've just spent an hour or so making various phone calls to various people, and am now booked onto my C1 driving theory test, have several books on the way for this, and have a plan for how I'm going to do the practical training/test.

All in all, when you add in the cost of the medical I had to do before I could even get my provisional license, this is going to work out as about £1200

My poor bank account is in pain - 10/10 on the scale!

I'm in!!

Hell Yeah!

Got the job I was after. Need to train to drive C1 class vehicles, but once I've done that, I'm in!

In the unlikely event that anyone is reading this...

... and the even more unlikely event that anyone is reading this, and not any of the other blogs which have contributed to The Handover, head over to Life Under the lights, and read the latest edition - guaranteed to make you laugh*







* guarantee may not be true, but I'd be surprised if you didn't!

The waiting game

I'm supposed to hear by today.

Waiting to hear whether I've managed to get the job of my dreams.

Yesterday I got an email from NHS Jobs - telling me I hadn't got through the shortlisting process for a different job I'd applied for - my heart was in my mouth as I waited for the page to load and tell me whether I'd got the job, until I discovered it wasn't even from the right trust.

Now I'm waiting. It's finally hit me today that I'm waiting for someone else to make a decision, to decide what direction my life is going to take.

I feel like I have to stay by my computer, just in case they contact me.

I don't actually know how they are going to get in touch, but in the meantime, I'm here


Waiting

Acceptable?

On the same A&E Support shift as my previous post, asked to take a patient to Small-Town Hospital from their home in Nearby Small Town.

His GP has seen him, and determined that there is nothing seriously wrong with him, however he does need to go into hospital for further assessment/treatment.

The patient is living alone, with no surviving family, and has no car. He is currently out of work, and living on the Jobseeker's allowance, and the cost of a taxi to hospital would take a significant chunk of your weekly income, as would the return journey. Talking to him, it is very obvious that he isn't abusing the benefit system, but that he genuinely wants to get back into work, but is having problems doing so.

My question, therefore, is this: Is this appropriate use of an ambulance? There's no accident, no emergency, and the patient does not require a stretcher or a wheelchair. At the same time, how else is the poor bloke going to get there?

Not My Job

I was doing an A&E Support shift the other day. In theory here, we (St. John) can be used to respond to anything, but in practice, we generally do Patient transport work and attend Dr's Urgents.

We were driving past Home City Hospital, when the radio call went out:

"All units, General Broadcast. Are any units clear near Home City Hospital to back up the ECP to an outstanding cardiac arrest?"

Silence

I look at my partner "We're going to have to shout up for this one, aren't we"

Just at that moment, another crew offers to take it, and we breath a joint sigh of relief.

Then we hear it

"Be advised, CPR is being refused by the parents"

"Shit, glad that's not us!"

I didn't go, but it bothered me somewhat. What kind of parents can refuse CPR on their own child? Now, fair enough, their may have been an extenuating reason - perhaps the child was terminally ill, with an awful quality of life - but surely in these circumstances, there should have been a DNR or a Living Will present. Perhaps there was, but I imagine that, if there had, control would have said this rather than that the parents were refusing CPR.

Is this grossly unfair of me - yes, I know of the existence of DNRs and Living Wills, but is their existence common knowledge?

One week into the waiting...

... and up to another whole week to go. I'm really not enjoying not knowing whether I've got the job!

Longer post when I've got something to write about, at the moment, I'm doing nothing but hanging around at home, which leads to very little interesting to talk about!

Blog-date

Nickopotamus and I met up for a pint last night. We (for the next week or two) live near each other, both volunteer for St John Ambulance, both want to go on to train in healthcare etc. and we've said several times that we ought to meet up. Well, yesterday we finally did.

It was weird - I got to the pub first, and waited for Nick (he was driving) in the car park. I felt like someone who was on a blind date - I wasn't completely sure I'd recognise him, or that he would recognise me, and was somewhat concerned about being stood up!

When he arrived, however, we recognised one another immediately (benefits of Facebook!), and pretty much immediately set about putting the world, specifically the world of St John, to rights, as if we'd known each other for some time (which I guess we had in a way, just never before in person!)

It was good to finally meet you Nick

Interview 2

I had another interview the other day. Seemed to go OK - better than the last one, although I've yet to hear whether I've got the job, I've got my fingers crossed.

Wish me luck. I really need to start something soon - I'm getting really fed up of living at my parents' house, with no income, and nothing to do. I need to start working!

Fire responding for EMS

I've been reading a lot recently about the use of the Fire Department in the US to first respond to EMS calls. Link, link, link, link, link, link

For the sake of this arguement, even where Fire provide the ambulances, I'll differentiate between Fire and EMS.

In rural areas, which rely on volunteer fireys/EMTs, I can understand them being combined (understand it, not think it's the best way forward). But in cities, and densely populated areas, the main arguement that is being used is that fire appliances can get there quicker. This, in turn, implies that EMS vehicles can't get there quick enough.

Seems to me (and to be fair, TOTWTYTR got in there first), that the unrecognised solution to this is not send FD to EMS calls, but should be get more EMS.

I don't see an issue from the perspective of EMS with using FD/PD as first responders if they do happen to be closest, or as extra pairs of hands, however, is this a good idea from the idea of general emergency services?

FD/EMS aren't expected to respond to PD calls. PD/EMS aren't expected to respond to fires. Why are FD/PD expected to respond to EMS calls?

:-)

Found out with 15 minutes of the working day left - I'm through to the next round.

Wish me luck!

:-(

Still haven't heard. Doubt I'll hear before tomorrow now.

More and more concerned it'll be bad news

Waiting

So I'm supposed to hear today if I've got through to stage 2 of assessment with one of the Ambulance Trusts I've applied to. I know that some people have heard that they have passed, and I've yet to hear anything. Not happy. Worried. I really want this job, and don't want to have to go through the process of applying for another if I can help it.

Wish me luck!

Blogging

My old blog, which I have mentioned before, was not particularly well known, or highly regarded amongst the blogosphere. Having said that, I had a good number of readers, and got fairly regular comments from them. I regularly commented on a number of blogs, and I had made friends through the blog. I was happ with my blogging career.

Now though, having had a hiatus of several months, and changing blog, I'm, unsurprisingly, not getting the same interaction. I'm sure that one day I will begin to get it again, but in the meantime it irritates me!

No real point to this post, but thought I'd share anyway!