I had a pretty terrible ambulance clinical shift today. I didn't do anything clinically wrong or dangerous, just started out fumbling some really basic stuff that I thought I had down already, which got me frustrated at myself, and it was all downhill from there. All shift as much as I tried to turn my mindset around I kept getting flustered and fumbling and forgetting really basic shit like putting the damn automatic blood pressure cuff on, making my preceptors have to prompt me and take over tasks for me WAYY more than they should have to at this point in my training (7 clinical shifts in and not even the very first one was anywhere near this bad!) and I just got more and more irritated with myself over it.
I thought I was doing an okay job of concealing my frustration, but apparently it was way more visible than I thought, and my preceptor had some very blunt feedback for me about it (which I do appreciate because she was totally right) "You're hard to teach because you get so mad, it feels like the last thing you'll be able to accept is constructive criticism. You need to get along with people and be easy to teach as a new EMT." (She also gave me some other more specific advice as well which was also helpful.)
Did anyone else really struggle with handling their frustration with themselves and not letting it show outwardly and ruin their focus turning the whole shift into a downward spiral?? How did you go about working on this?? I really don't want to be giving off the energy that I was today because I genuinely do always appreciate constructive criticism and like to get along with people but I'm apparently shit at hiding my exasperation and come off angry and closed off
You need to hold on to that preceptor for dear life- it’s rare to find one who can deliver uncomfortable feedback like that.
Everything comes down to skills and habits- both require practice. Once you think you’ve got an assessment habit down pat, you throw some change in to learn how to become agile.
7 shifts in is nothing. That’s not enough time to build your foundational skills or habits- it’s totally reasonable to get thrown off of your game.
From here, just make sure you’re self aware of when you start that downward spiral. Figure out the internal pep talk you need to have to center yourself so that you don’t stack your losses- don’t let one unimpressive call become two.
^ THIS, OP! It’s so hard to find someone who will be straight with you to your face like that.
I totally understand getting frustrated with yourself, I am a perfectionist and hold myself to a high standard and get upset with myself when I don’t learn quickly enough for my liking. 🤣 So I also get frustrated with myself on new jobs. I’ve been working on giving myself grace.
But, to the point of coming off as hard to teach, start asking specific questions about your training to your preceptor, especially after a call where you feel like you messed up a lot. “I’m getting frustrated with myself because I keep forgetting to put the BP cuff on. What’s the best order of steps to take once I get in the back of the ambulance with the patient so I don’t forget anything?” Then literally write that down in your notepad and follow it until it becomes muscle memory for you.
I would love to, unfortunately my program rotates us around to different stations so I'm not sure if I'll get her again. Thanks for the advice.
Good luck! As soon as you feel good about something, change how you practice. Start taking blood pressures from the other seat in the truck, assessments on the road and In the residence, create agility for yourself. You’re still super fresh, so also give yourself fair goals to work towards
You need to slow down...its just a job, the shit isn't going anywhere. You have 20+ years to do it
It sounds like this could stem from being too amped up in general, and you may need to find a way keep yourself calm. When the sympathetic nervous system is in charge, our brain becomes less engaged, and the crazier the situation, the less cognitive ability we have. Experienced people don’t get amped up on routine calls and when they do have a high acuity situation, they can fall back on prior experience and training to get them by. You’re just not there yet.
In the meantime, focus on the routine tasks. Do the rig checks so you can put your hands on anything immediately. The same goes for your equipment, make sure you can set up the suction without getting flustered and know what can go wrong with it. People love to replace the canister and not cap the unused ports, or not have the lid on correctly, either will keep it from working. Same for the oxygen equipment, take the regulator off and on a few times so you can do it with practiced hands.
I don’t know about the splashing water thing another poster mentioned, but they make a good point about breathing. At some point in the call, check in with yourself and your breathing. Do you catch yourself breathing fast and getting too worked up? That’s a good time to take a few slow, long breaths.
Therapy. Start it now.
It's in the plan for sure
In so sorry there are this many people giving you the advice of getting yourself wet/dabbing water on yourself. It seems not that helpful. Just came here to say this.
LOL thanks. The spirit of their message is still helpful though, that I need to find a good way to reset after being thrown off.
Yeah I wouldn’t throw away what they said. I think it’s all about finding ways to calm your nervous system. I think tomphoolery said it best tbh.
Just to clarify, it's just one person who replied to their own post, and that person admitted that they are not yet in EMS.
If u ever go to paramedic school. Your preceptor will be the same way. Even worse. Those are the best preceptors because they actually care
For sure, she was definitely right and I thanked her for her honesty. Unforch I probably won't work with her again because our program rotates us around to different stations
Don’t sweat it. EMT school is scarier than it needs to be. You’ll be fine
“I’m new. I’m learning. No one is perfect. This is why I’m in training.” Whatever works for you, gotta get some more accurate and constructive thoughts in there. And, I think, be able to laugh at yourself a bit to defuse some of that stress.
Sometimes being able to label it for what it is helps take some of the sting out. “Rookie moment! Blame the new guy!” Again, whatever language helps you label this as an expected part of the learning process and peace out a bit.
7 clinical shifts is peanuts.
For me what helped was "When you get mad , You do bad . You start making mistakes. When I did firefighting in the California Conservative Core they said to fight one fire at a time or one job at a time otherwise if you are to worried about another fire you can't focus on the one your fighting or putting out. Its important that you learn from that . And you have someone that is a good teacher you will learn from them and not hate them and dread work . When I would make a mistake I would make a joke about it
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No, I dealt with my emotions like an adult.
Whoof, I empathize with this a lot. I am not yet in this field, but in general, my frustration with myself mounts high and fast and I've cried in my boss's office at least twice.
In the setting you're in, you don't get many chances to go cool off. If you're able to take 5 minutes though, it's good to do. Find something sensory that works for you. If you're able to keep a thermos of ice cubes on hand such that you can in some way step aside and run an ice cube over your face, the inside of your arm, etc, that might be helpful— physically cooling your temperature off in these situations can help a lot. Breathing exercises can help with this too, legitimately.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy felt completely useless the first time a therapist recommended it to me— like it just didn't connect with how or why my frustration escalates at all. However, it is in hindsight something that was essential to me being a lot better at this than I used to be.
Finally, somewhere external to parse the thoughts without leaning into them might be helpful. I'm talking about an anonymous bluesky account somewhere or something (I suggest bluesky because my own bluesky gets so little interaction when I'm TRYING to get engagement, it's dead on there, probably useful for this.)
Trying to think of ways to physically cool your body down that you can do if you aren't able to step away— I haven't watched this video, but it claims these breathing exercises will lower your temperature. (I'm talking abt temperature bc it is DIRECTLY correlated to my own frustration, and I imagine it might be for yours, this is anecdotally a thing for many people I feel. I don't know if it's that frustration causes the temperature to go up or if it's just that cooling off is calming.)
Even just getting a little cold water dotted along your hairline and underside of your jaw, next time you have an opportunity to wash your hands, can help a LOT. Dampening my hairline in the sink is a big one I use at work myself (again, very different field).