evilrobotshane

It’s of course impossible to know whether someone (even oneself) is actually coping, or just accumulating material for the burnout, until either the burnout happens or you die of old age without it having happened. A useful distinction I’ve heard made though is between empathy and compassion. I like to think I can be very compassionate with my patients, but they don’t hang around in my system long after discharge or handover (except the inevitable few that get under the skin).

Safe travels on that long road to recovery! A UK brother paramedic.

Thanks for the AMA! Not prevention-related, but I’m doing a literature review at the moment looking at ECMO* treatment after drowning, most specifically under what circumstances a patient should be transported directly to an ECMO centre rather than the nearest emergency department. What are the gang’s thoughts on this? Is ECMO more useful for rewarming hypothermic drowning patients than for its lung bypass feature? Is Covid-19 changing the landscape of ECMO availability in the UK?

*to keep it understandable by all, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a machine that takes blood out and does the work of the lungs (and potentially heart) without needing your actual pulmonary system to be working fully, and puts the blood back

Think about what you’d regret not having done, and then take steps toward doing those things.

Medic refers to doctors; para refers to working alongside (like a paralegal, or paramilitary). So it means working alongside doctors, which isn’t a particularly good description of the job. In my opinion it’s a more accurate title for what nurses do these days, and nurse in turn a more accurate title for nursing assistants. But it’s stuck.

That’s great, thank you very much and best of luck in your collective endeavour!