Maybe hard to believe, but, I've worked emergency medicine for almost 40 years. My official 40 years will be December 2026. That's when I was 18 and joined the U.S.Army as a Combat Medic. Luckily, we had a brief break of "peace".

I'm still on the road 40+ hours a week. I do not run 911 calls (I did that '89-'17). It's essentially an Uber with fancy lights on top. Moving patients from rehab facilities out to their follow-up appointments.

If I can keep my body in tolerable shape. My goal is 50 years in EMS. I think that would be a pretty good career 🙂

[–] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have a relative that does run 911 calls. If you’re OK with me asking, do you have any advice for him when it comes to recovering emotionally after calls involving kids? He has kids himself and he’s always shaken for a while after anything with a kid.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Whatever company he's working for should be providing counseling services. Any call that is stressful, should be eligible for CISD(critical incident stress debriefing).

Could also look at this:

https://www.codegreencampaign.org/

[–] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thanks! I’ve tried to broach the topic of counseling before, but they’re in a red state and it sounds like there’s a huge stigma against actually using it. I know it would be illegal for anyone to disclose he asked about it, but that doesn’t stop small town bullshit. Then people wonder why these areas have brain drain problems…

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

It's his responsibility to care for himself. There are resources. Hope he learns to use them.