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!

You are clearly annoyed about the fact a man was asked why he didn’t have children. That’s it.

Why you had to turn that one instance in to a thread where you slag off paramedics and accuse them of being unprofessional and gossips I have no idea.

You really need to either lighten up or gain some perspective because this attitude and level of annoyance surrounding a man being asked why he didn’t have children is really strange.

And as I said before, you need to think about why you’re using that annoyance as an excuse to generally be nasty about paramedics. Just bizarre.

This, and so much of what so many others have said.

YABVU

The 'why didn't you have children?' question stuck out to me at the time as an unusually tactless question but it was asked by a very new (and young) paramedic who was trying to find out, not that subtly, if the patient had support or if he was coping alone. Paramedics are human.

Goodnight all, sweet dreams.

I think it’s important to see the patient as a real person with a life (just been on a cruise etc) you have to care about the patient to do the job

Christ. Inappropriate is such a weasel word. I bet you disapprove of anything you regard as a personal question and that your definition of personal or gossip is wider than most people's. They are putting people in scary situations at their ease and probably adding to the medical history, not being nosey. They'll never see those patients again but need to build an instant rapport - of course they chat. And they aren't going to tell the whole world what they learned on each job.

Is that you, Hyacinth?

Go and plan your next candlelit supper and calm down.

🤣🤣

Interesting opinions on here. I generally take opinions that are formed from watching a television programme with a pinch of salt to be honest. Those programmes are engineered, edited and produced to make what is considered good, interesting tv. Everybody shown in the programme has to give multiple layers of consent for the footage to be shown. Patients and relatives are usually shown the footage very early on in the production process and again when it’s basically complete.

I was actually in a few series of one of these ambulance reality programmes many years ago. It was a strange experience and I didn’t really enjoy it so have declined being in any since. Sometimes, as with all human beings, we read the situation wrong and conversation can end up appearing awkward or somewhat inappropriate. You do need to remember though that television is heavily edited so you don’t really have any idea of the true context of the conversations. You’re really only watching snippets of a job spliced together. It’s difficult to make a true judgement once you realise this.

Having said that, there are some terribly inappropriate and unprofessional people still lurking in the profession sadly, though most of them seem to old stylee rather than newly qualifieds. If a newly qualified is making mistakes in conversations that’s likely down to inexperience, naivety and lack of confidence and will improve fairly rapidly.

Nurses glued to screens? Not because they want to be, because senior management have made it mandatory for the nursing workforce to become a junior management workforce, registered nurses aren't allowed to be bedside nurses anymore, we spend our days having to input data by strict timelines to justify having the staff on the floor, otherwise they get pulled away to other areas. EVERYTHING IS COMPUTERISED. I used to love sitting with patients hand writing their notes but now it's all on the computer.

Also OP, YABU.

I think it is slightly ironic that someone is complaining about paramedics etc gossiping about details of a patient whilst they are watching a programme which gives the viewer all the details about the patient. Why are you watching it if you think personal details shouldn’t be shared?

This was an "Angry from Tunbridge Wells" post, meant to lighten the moment.

So much instant hostility... 😊

Well I watch it from the other side of the world, and am always very impressed with how kind and caring the staff are. They strike up a conversation with their patients to try to keep them calm and put them at ease, and add a bit of humour for the same reason. What do you expect them to talk about? They are hardly going to start an argument over politics or religion, they just chat about life in general.

I was about to say this.

My DH almost died 4 years ago. The paramedics came, and after he was stabilised, I was so very grateful they spent just a couple of minutes talking to me before they blue lighted him off.

It meant that the trauma I saw (my DM trying to do cpr), wasn't as bad as it COULD have been.

It also helped them get a picture of who he was.

And honestly, I'd rather a human in my house when I'm sat there bawling.