To think that the programme Ambulance doesn't show paramedics in a good light at all?

[LucyLaundry]

I'm am very grateful for all emergency workers and the difficult pressures they are currently under is awful and it's certainly not a job I could do.

However, I'm shocked at the amount of intrusive questions (Asking elderly people why they never had children?) and the general gossiping about patients. I understand the need to pass on factual updates but some of the story sharing is wholly inappropriate.

I enjoy the programme but it's really opened my eyes, and not in a good way!

Feel free to never call an ambulance OP, no matter how life threatening your situation is, for fear of being asked chatty personal questions by the paramedics. I couldn’t care less if the call handlers wore full on fancy dress never mind a cheerful ear ring, thank goodness they are there to get help to desperate patients. I wouldn’t last a day, I’m sure I’d be sobbing in the toilets by lunchtime and I work in social work so I’ve heard some challenging things over the years.

Ok so I’m going to flip this,

I deal with this stuff, my name badge is a unicorn. Do you want to know why? Because I need something to remind me that while my work is horrific some days it’s also lovely, and that at the end of the horrible shifts it’s ok for me to let it go, go back to my family and enjoy life with them. You think it’s distasteful, for me it’s how I get through the shift.

And as for smiling, I smile so I don’t cry. I don’t cry at work because if I do I can’t do the next job. I have to smile, it’s how I make sure I can continue and only have my break downs when I am ready for them. That may not be when you think it’s appropriate but I have to look after my own mental health first.

So before you judge my unicorn badge, my fun pens and earrings and my smiling, imagine how it feels to deal with someone who’s escaping domestic violence and their story reminds you of your past. Or how you cope when a child has died and you know you have to carry on and the next job may be a waste of your time.

My cousin works in our local hospital, visits all wards doing her job.
Twice she has put in offical complaints regarding 2 higher level nursing staff due to their behaviour/attitude/manners .
The first she witnessed while visiting her DM who was on a ward (behaviour was toward another patient and family).
The second was when she herself was in urgent care from the nurse practitioner. My cousin spoke to her at the time and told her an official complaint was going in. She mentioned this to colleagues after and before she mentioned who it was 3 of her colleagues named her!!
Most staff are amazing but others shouldn't be allowed near a patient but when retention and staffing is so bad what choice do you have?

Op, with respect, get a grip

If you had to listen to or witness half the things we do you'd probably end up rocking in a corner

If we want to wear fun earrings or chit chat to put a frightened pt at ease then we will

I guess you won’t be calling on the paramedics in your hour of need then?

I’ve had to call them, twice. They were bloody outstanding both times. They saved my 18 month old grandsons life. Enough said!

What’s your job OP?

Op - AIBU?
Everyone - yes
OP - no I'm not.
Why bother asking the question if you think you are right op, just a waste of everyone's time

The 'inappropriate chit-chat' actually has a purpose (well most of the time).

It helps you monitor how someones doing, if they start out able to witter away with you and that starts to fade, thats a sign things are going downhill.. and of course vice versa.

It can also really help to take peoples minds off whats going on - the last thing you want when lying on the ground with a broken hip, or gasping in your bed, not knowing when you can get in the ambulance, is someone silently working away or sat there doing nothing, or worse... just focusing on discussing the relevant details of how bloody ill/injured you are.

It may even help the paramedic to block out the rest of the awfulness and get on with the specifically necessary stuff.

SO it may seem inane, it might seem mindless, and because you're talking to strangers in awkward situations, sometimes it might pitch things wrong (in which case you back out and change the subject quickly) for that patient... but it is not without purpose at all!

Stuff like "they've been on a cruise" isn't gossip... it is useful... was there a norovirus outbreak, did it visit a mosquito area... did they just overindulge in the buffet.. I work in a pharmacy and we do directed small talk - someone comes in with an infected bite, you try to work out if it was in the UK or abroad etc. Sometimes we must seem nosey... and ours is rarely life or death like the paramedics deal with all the time.

How I think of this is that some jobs are 'inside' people's lives. I have one of those jobs. We see the terrible, gritty reality of everyone's lives. Inside people's homes when they aren't ready for visitors, when they are vulnerable and weak. We end up, just because of the job, seeing and hearing things no one typically would. Which breeds a kind of immediate intimacy that no one with an 'outside' job understands.

I have to ask questions about sex, violence, drugs and all sorts within ten minutes of meeting someone, sometimes. It is a strange and special place of privilege. But we aren't strange or special. So we have to talk things through, and we sometimes get the level of intimacy wrong.

But 'outside' people will never really understand what it's like for 'inside' people.

The paramedics I've had dealings with were far superior to the Doctors with their bedside manner and dealt with my late dad with dignity and humour
They are great and do a tough job really well

I understand that chit chat and banter is partially diagnostic and to provide a wider picture but in my experience can be quite misleading where undiagnosed ND may be in play. I have 2 autistic DC and am probably autistic myself and didn't appreciate my response to ambulance transfer to hospital for one of them being questioned as abnormal. It was normal masking for me. But not emotional enough for them. Hence they fagged it.

Flagged!

Here we go. All health care professionals should just not talk at all- they just should hand out an information leaflet and not converse at all. They also shouldn't be allowed to smile now apparently as that's inappropriate 🙄

I love watching this. They.must witness some terrible things
Many of their patients are elderly and live alone. A friendly chat and some care and kindness can llift the spirits of an old lady who may have not seen or spoken to another human for days/weeks .
I fail to see how that is inappropriate

It’s a shit job. They have to unload.

A detective came to my house after I reported a serious offence. He commented on how many remote controls we had on the table (my dad is a gadgets fan) it really made us laugh at the time and we still laugh about it 25 years later

Obviously they have to unload. They are human not robots. But I think this should be provided as part of the job. To prevent burn out. To process the shit they have to deal with. This would be better for patients too.

Are people actually complaining that 999 call handlers (non patient facing roles) wear rubber duck earrings?

I was a 999 call handler for an ambulance service. During one night shift I finished up on a call, came off to be told they'd just attended a call at an address where a colleague and friend had taken their own life, then I had to go straight back onto the phones because there were calls waiting to be answered. The first call I took after that was a cardiac arrest.

If emergency call handlers want to wear daft earrings, it's none of your fucking business.

Making the patients human is coping, but asking them questions keeps the patient calm and feel valued, for many it may be the first conversation in a week.
The handlers have spoken to the patient supported them through anxious waits etc knowing they are now happy and a bit about their lives is important for the handlers mental health. The next call could be a suicidal person or a death.
The patients or their families will have given permission for the filming and the screening including any conversations in the ambulance

lol.

Go onto the HCPC tribunal website. Look at how many upcoming tribunals are paramedics.

Theres no excuse for asking people they didn't have kids.

There are elements which come across as unprofessional. I suspect some of it is regional culture though.

It’s the worst job in the country. I’ve not been hugely impressed by the paramedics that I met throughout my career, but it’s not a job I could do.

It's the fact they waste half the program showing the crew talking inane crap about food/ pets etc. I don't want to watch that. It's the patients I'm interested in not what the crew has for dinner the night before

Paramedics are trained to keep you talking to keep you calm and prevent ptsd in patients. YABU. They do an amazing job.

I couldn't give a rats ass about what they wear. I'm so grateful for the super speedy ambulance despatched week before last when I was having a whooping cough kind of attack. It arrived within minutes.

The handler could hear me and was so kind with DH who was terrified. He could wear a pink tu-tu as long as he was the calm patient person he was.

As for a smile black humour is the only way to go.