"What ya mean you don't get paid?"
"I don't get paid, it’s voluntary"
"Are you mad? Why do you do it then?"
That is the conversation I seem to have with most people when I explain I'm a volunteer medic.
On the 24/01/2006 I went to my first meeting of my local voluntary ambulance organization and it went from there.
Why did I go?
Emergency medical care has been something that always interested me; my lifelong goal from an early age was to become a Firefighter/paramedic with the Dublin Fire Brigade, so becoming a volunteer medic was a step in the right direction.
I did my basic training, got my uniform and started going on duty.
Initially it was daunting, despite not treating a patient for who knows how many duties, I was in uniform and on an ambulance. Even though I was always accompanied by senior members anytime I treated a patient my adrenaline went into over drive accompanied by sweat and tremors.
But eventually I settled. I felt comfortable; I started treating patients with less supervision, I was no longer just doing task after task, I was looking at the bigger picture, thinking two steps ahead. I had found my niche. This was for me.
Initially when asked why I do it, my reply would be "Ah sure someone has to" "Or there’s a job that needs doing". I always tried to avoid the cliché "To help people".
I didn't want to be a cliché.
So I had to spend time thinking. Then it clicked. On the first day of a course the instructor asked us one by one to introduce ourselves, state our unit and say why we were on the course.
"To increase my skills" "The duties we do require a certain level of skills" "Because it’s the next step" A sample of the answers others gave.
All very relevant reasons I thought and probably would have said the same if they hadn't have said it before me.
Then it was my turn "To give me a greater knowledge and skill set so as to provide the best possible care for my patients, to maximize the best possible outcome for them".
It was completely off the cuff, just got a lot of thoughts floating about my head and mashed them into a sentence......and it worked!
That was it! I want to do the best for the people in my care. I am not the be all and end all, there’s usually a long road ahead of them when they leave my care. But I know I'm a cog in a big machine. If I can get the ball rolling in my patients care the outcome will hopefully be better.
So now when asked why I give up my free time to stand beside a football pitch in the rain, babysit intoxicated punters at a concert as they fill sick sack after sick sack or be deafened by motorbikes as I sit in a lay by at a road racing event I answer "Just in case, to do what I can for who I can"
That’s the simplistic version. I'm not going to lie, I still get a buzz from it, I still get satisfaction from a job well done and boy do I break out into a small grin when a patient or relative says "Thank you" and genuinely means it.
fair play mate
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