Message from a Paramedic

[Jenasaurus]

A message to the public: 20 reasons...from a paramedic.

1. to everyone slagging off the TikTok videos we do, bollocks. We are human, we have feelings and we get scared and upset too, the silly videos are morale boosting and team building, a crucial aspect when treating your loved ones in their time of need, without a way of letting off steam we would break, then who would care for your nearest and dearest?

1. We are not immune and are still at risk, yet we risk ourselves coming to treat you, paramedics get sick, paramedics die, and all to treat you, so please, don’t take the piss.

1. The freebies and incentives we get are ways to make us appreciated, it makes a change from being punched on a job or spat at, so just let us enjoy them.

1. We are not part of some government conspiracy theory. We are not selecting who gets sick, neither do we want to implant you for control. If we were going to be selective, we certainly wouldn’t be choosing ‘Karen or Susan , who attended the school of life’ and got her medical knowledge from fb. (Sorry Karen/Susan)

1. If you’ve called because you think you’ve got covid, chances are you probably have, as everyone is suspected now, there is always a transmission path, however; it doesn’t mean your going to die.

1. Please look after yourself! If you can google an array of other symptoms and watch the death toll avidly on a variety of sources I’m sure you can figure out to take paracetamol for a temperature, drink fluids, take immodium for diarrhoea, and rest. You don’t need us to tell you that.

1. We don’t do ‘check overs’. That’s what your gp does. We offer life saving treatment in situations beyond your control. Please choose wisely.

1. We don’t have amazing PPE, we have what the PHE has told us to wear, and be that right or wrong it’s all we’ve got. The same as nurses, gp’s, carers, porters, Dom staff and other key workers. Please don’t think we’re ‘ok’.

1. We like the clapping. It makes us emotional, even the hard faced staff, makes us feel proud to do our job, and yes, we probably are stood close to each other outside a hospital, but we also are inside when performing cpr and airway resuscitation, remember that when you have a moan that we don’t adhere to social distancing.

10. We are separated from our families too, just like you are, we miss our mums, dads, our sisters and brothers, our nieces and nephews, even our children, and we HATE it. But we do it to protect them. It’s not about us.

11. We are bored in lockdown too, on our few days off, we spend so much time seeing Poorly people, coming home to the same 4 walls it is driving us crazy, but we do it, to protect you. Please do the same, otherwise you will be doing it for longer.

12. We get angry at the news, at politicians, and at social unrest, however we keep our lips sealed, as much as we want to shout like you do, but we don’t, as when we see you, our issue at that moment in time, is reassuring you and helping you.

13. We are proud of the people who listen to advice, don’t break the rules, we thank you, and every Thursday, we clap for you too.

14. We don’t test for covid, shit, some of us aren’t even tested! Please stop asking us, that includes asking ‘if we think you’ve got it’ without a swab, we are clueless.

15. Enjoy the time with your family, we wish we could, everyday we go to work it makes us sad to be away from them, so make the most of it, have fun doing home school, but if you miss a day, who cares?! It’s the memories that count.

16. Please stop calling us ambulance drivers. It really does make us rage. We actually went to uni, have a degree, and some even more than that. Also, yes, women drive too.

17. If you think you need to be in hospital but we don’t, we will try to help as much as we can, however don’t be surprised if we don’t take you. Hospitals are a risky place at the minute, and we are trying to help you by not taking you.

18. Please stop wearing a mask when your in the car on your own. You look a right berk and can’t catch it if no one is there.

19. To the elderly: you break our hearts at the minute, it’s a scary place right now, and seeing us tower over you in masks, taking you away from what you know upsets us too, we just want to say sorry.

20. (Most of us) love our job. Please don’t make us hate it, by going against the rules and common sense, we are working to help you. Every patient that is sick, every patient who splatters us in sick,blood and poo, and every patient who puts us at risk, we are still there, if you need us don’t be sorry, medical care is what we do. But please, from all of us, stay indoors, wash your hands, and keep clapping

Stop with the tik toks filmed in work time in clinical areas, wearing ppe and using expensive equipment as props. Probably filmed in the same hospital that people are dying from COVID. Nobody believes it is done during a break, as breaks are staggered and not everyone would be off conveniently at the same time the tik toks are being filmed. Don’t give us the bollocks about them being de-stressing as apart from them being pure showboating there are many other ways to de-stress that don’t involve looking unprofessional and disrespectful to covid victims and their families, and posting it all over social media - don’t your trusts have a social media policy? You are losing the support of the public by posting these videos - just have a look on twitter or in comments under newspaper articles.

This kind of post makes me feel really angry.

As someone that works with people in mental health crisis, people who want to kill themselves, and people who are going through me talk he'll on a daily basis, we as staff need outlets.

In our team we've been tik toking. We've been doing pizza Thursdays in the the office. We've ordered a new radio.

These things are so important because our work is a living hell at the moment.

Clearly some people think we are not human. But we are. We have families, we have and are losing colleagues and friends. We care DEEPLY for out clients.

But ... we need to keep ourselves sane. We are in this for a long time. It's Waring.

Have some empathy.

Ignore the mean posters OP

Headache, but why do you post them? I can understand unwinding or whatever on breaks and before and after a shift, but how does posting it to tik tok help? As mental health services are a national disgrace at the moment, what do you gain from posting it? By all means film, eat and buy what you want, but I don't get the need or defence of posting it on social media.

How does this one person speak for ALL ambulance staff. I was wondering that, are they self appointed or was there a vote?

Maybe seeing it on social media actually cheers some of us up. Perhaps some of us like seeing hard working, stressed people enjoying themselves and having some down time. Or, how about this for a radical thought, some of us aren’t dementors wanting to suck the joy out of everything.

@HeadacheAgainToday
I have empathy. I am a nurse. I just don’t see the need to post tik toks of myself dancing at work as I feel it is unprofessional and disrespectful to patients and their families. Also, a haka style dance by a whole department of nurses recently upset Maori’s in New Zealand because of the cultural appropriation - is that ok too?

Please answer this: how does it help your mental health to plan, choreograph and film a dance at work, and then post it on social media? I am interested in why you can’t address your mental health in a more appropriate way if you are a healthcare prodessional? Please answer / how does it help your mental health?

Perhaps, but others quite right for valid reasons don't. It isn't hard to see why people find it insensitive, especially if you work in a caring profession. People have had mental health care in the community ripped away, others have family members who are not permitted to visit at all, sort of understandable, but seeing grinning MH staff dancing away is a bit of a twist of the knife. Just trying to see how uploading it adds to the destress element of the dancing itself.

It is all very patronising. Wherever it came from.

These posts are so embarassing. I'm a HCP (not a paramedic) and I loathe it when other HCPs profess to speak for everyone. Especially when it's patronising, sneery shit like this.

Sounds like somebody very arrogant and full of their own importance.

TLDR.

(Too long, didn’t read)

As for trying to save your life by not taking you to hospital.... There's lots to be said about that. See other threads on here.

This kind of post makes me feel really angry

Re: tik Tok I don’t know how it is allowed considering patient confidentiality. I saw a tik tok of nhs workers recently and you could see the white board in the background with what looked like patient notes.
How on earth is that not breaching data protection rules?’

TLDR.
A self professed paramedic. He has a degree you know. He's saving your life by not taking you to hospital. He loves the clapping/discounts/tiktoks as it beats being spat on. He thinks he is a God and that we should all shut up because he's out there while we're sitting on our arses at home. We should be grateful for him. Or her.

@Alsohuman it’s not about sucking the joy out of everything - they are paid to do a job, as healthcare professionals (the clue is in the word professional) why would this involve breaching your trusts social media policy and posting these ridiculous dances? All they are serving to do is to turn the public support for the NHS around. De-stressing? Why not go for a walk? Do some online yoga? Have some online counselling? Watch a comedy tv programme? Do a tik tok dance at home? Have a zoom party with friends when off duty? The public DO NOT want to see nurses dancing like idiots, they want to have confidence in their professionalism.

Jesus H Christ, what a bitch-o-rama of a thread I've never seen Tik-Tok, but if paramedics want to share videos with each, what the fuck is it to me? Anyone else looking at this - are you 11?

with each other

Yeah, they are not doctors but they gate keep access to doctors. Cant tell you how ill you are but wont let you see anyone that might. Cant do tests, cant answer questions. Save you life by doing nothing. Tell you its dangerous to go to hospital because it is full of covid and yeah, you might have COVID, but then again you might not. No way to tell cause guess what, no testing.

No testing. No doctors. No assessment. No treatment. No information.

why would this involve breaching your trusts social media policy and posting these ridiculous dances?

It’s clearly not every trust’s SM policy. Our local hospital’s comms team has posted one on their official FB and Twitter accounts.

It's all very well and good for their mental health doing the tik tok malarkey but what about ours? Stay home protect the nhs save lives watch us DANCE

in the meantime I'm in tears today my daughter is stuck in a welsh university my sons are arguing should I fucking dance too? No because knowing my luck I would hurt myself and require an ambulance and get scolded for not taking care of myself and wasting valuable time and resources

@Alsohuman in that case it’s just poor judgement as most Trusts policies say you should not be using cameras in clinical areas.

The public DO NOT want to see nurses dancing like idiots, they want to have confidence in their professionalism

Yes. Also the bigger and more long term issue is that once this crisis is over there is going to be an end to this ridiculous view of HCP as heroes. The people building you/the, up now will be the ones who are quick to use these misjudged videos and posts to knock you/them back down again.

And don't expect the government- you know, the ones who are responsible for almost destroying the NHS - to protect you, to call you heroes, to argue the case against the avalanche of criticism that will come your way. You are all just playing into their hands. Optics matter. Be professional now, stop this pathetic attention seeking and protect yourselves in the long term.

We certainly don't want to hear arrogant paramedics telling us off. They signed up to a job that is to save lives. Why they want praise for it I don't know. They were not conscripted.

I'm sorry but this mantra of all nhs staff are angels and should be bowed down to needs to be stamped out and I've met some terrible paramedics in my time. I'm sure most of the them are good but there are people who are shits in every profession. A friend of mines 3 year old child died a couple of years back of an asthma attack after his mum rang an ambulance and the paramedics turned up and decided he didn't need to go to hospital despite him having history of being in intensive care with previous attacks. My aunt who yes is an alcoholic but rang an ambulance suffering from a heart attack and when they turned up they told her it's people like you who waste NHS time and money. It wasn't even alcohol related, she was having a heart attack. So I can't get enthusiastic about treating paramedics like they are gods, they are human good and bad like the rest of us.

I know, @Porcupineinwaiting, we can't get the answers and the care that we need, but it's not the paramedics' fault. They haven't been given the resources needed to do any more than make sure you are not critically ill and in need of hospitalisation and then move on. I know this from recent experience.

I also know that without the paramedics' assessment and decision-making when I fell very ill 5 years ago, I would have died at home.

Just because something is posted by a Comms team, it doesn't mean it's appropriate. They can, and do, mess up. I imagine the CEOs of many hospital trusts are going to be reminding all,staff of social media rules next week. My brother in law is a chief exec and is planning on doing just that tomorrow. Anyone breaking the rules will be disciplined, covid or not. It is inappropriate