Alexander Kozlov

Professor Batty
English 28
1 June 2017

How to Be an EMT and Keep Your Job

In 2012, I was employed as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) at a company

known as Dependable Care Ambulance. In contrast to paramedics who are more

comprehensively trained in anatomy and have the ability to administer drugs, EMTs were mostly

responsible for transporting individuals to the hospital for different medical reasons. Dependable

Care in particular specialized primarily in delivering scheduled patients who could not transport

themselves to appointments at hospitals, medical facilities, and dialysis centers. Despite passing

both a course and National Registry test to get the position, I still felt inexperienced and nervous

when I first started. Drew Hamilton, my first partner, was similarly new to the job and to being

an EMT. He was assigned to train me since the other EMTs were quite lazy and did not want to

bother training him or me. As this only added to his own feeling of inexperience and to his

workload, this frustrated Drew. I knew when I began working there, that if I had any hope of

keeping my job, I would have to win over Drew. Eventually after I befriended him, I discovered

that the training we went through together strengthened our eventual friendship, which outlasted

the company.

During our training it annoyed Drew when he was stuck with me for our twelve hour

shifts. It was obvious that he didnt enjoy having me as a partner and even more so that he had to

train me. The conversations I attempted to have always seemed forced and went nowhere. It was

incredibly frustrating for me to sit in silence with the person who hated training me. Hey, are
 Kozlov 2

you watching any movies or tv shows right now? I asked, desperate to hear anything but a one

word response. Not really said Drew. In the following silence I reflected on all of my mistakes

on our previous patients. This was a common back and forth with my partner Drew. Eventually

though, I found the one topic that would break through the awkward silence: video games.

Although video games was a gateway to earning his friendship, I still had to earn his trust as

partner.

Even though I passed the course, and could spot the signs and symptoms of common

medical illnesses, the two actions that they did not go into detail was how to properly lift the

patient and how to fill out paperwork. Surprisingly enough, these two tasks were what EMTs

spent most of their time doing. The paperwork was how we, as a company, justified transporting

the patient to medical insurance companies like Medicare, who paid for the transport. For

example: if I were to log the patient as being in great condition, being coherent, and able to

ambulate without our care or gurney, then Medicare would not pay for the transport, deeming

that a modified wheelchair van would transport the patient and provide adequate care. When I

first started lifting patients, I was not incorporating the appropriate technique, which is incredibly

dangerous for everyone involved. To illustrate the point: a coworker had slipped his back lifting

a 400 pound patient up three steps. Fortunately, that enabled me to get his shifts until his back

had healed. Luckily for Drew and myself, I never compromised the patient or either of our backs.

Eventually I did learn the correct technique, which is to stand as closely to the patient as

possible, keep your back straight, and lift with your legs. Due to my large size, once I mastered

that, I became better at lifting than Drew, which was an incredible personal victory and one step

closer at securing my position.

 Kozlov 3

Although I spoke with him about video games occasionally and was able to lift, I still had

to prove myself to him in terms of patient care. When I started working, the patients could tell I

was new to the job, due to me constantly asking them if I could take their vitals every fifteen

minutes. This was something that was taught in classes, but rarely practiced by EMTs on dialysis

calls. For patients that EMTs see twice a day, three times a week, getting their vitals taken every

fifteen minutes seems redundant to them. For patients that werent our regulars that needed to be

taken to an Emergency Room(ER), we always took vitals. I remember one patient specifically,

an elderly woman with schizophrenia that was being transported by us from her convalescent

home to the ER. During the transport, I took her vitals and although her vitals fell into the

standard ranges, she seemed very depressed. After talking to her, she was under the impression

that no one believed what she said or cared for that matter. This is something common for

patients that have a history of having an altered mental state . Although they could be completely

coherent, if they have a history of it, everything they said is constantly doubted. Throughout the

transport I would swing the conversation to cheer her up, and try to validate her words as much

as possible. After transferring care to the ER nurses, she seemed to be in a better mood. It was at

this point that Drew stopped hating me and started seeing me as an equal, this was because the

other EMTs who worked with us wouldnt have bothered to care for patients past the

expectations of the job. It was at this point that I felt that I had secured my position at

Dependable Care Ambulance.

We were partners until 2015, when the company went out of business due to Medicare

reform. Medicare stopped paying our company for our transports for the reasoning that our

patients could have gone to their appointments without the use of an ambulance and EMTs. That
 Kozlov 4

was true for some patients but not all; I remember a patient that was an elderly Russian man that

was a victim of gunshot wound to the head during a carjacking. Due to nerve damage, he was

paralyzed in a position of laying down on his right side for the rest of his life. He had dialysis

three times a week, and could only be transported by gurney. We would transfer him from his

bed to our gurney then from our gurney to the dialysis bed, because his body would not allow

him to sit down straight. I have yet to hear news on how he is doing, because he wouldnt be able

to be transported through the wheelchair van.

After the company went out of business, Drew and I continued to be very good friends, in

fact I just went to his wedding last month and had a great time. My experience working under

him and eventually with him was challenging but rewarding. Because of this experience, I feel

confident in my ability to tackle any obstacle in any workplace, with anyone regardless on how

much they dislike me at first.