Job Satisfaction

Do you enjoy your job?

This is always an interesting question.

The short answer is “yes – I do enjoy my job.” And the follow up question is usually “why?” In my case, it’s pretty easy to answer that.

I actually work in multiple places, all of which are related to Emergency Medical Services. I’ve had an interesting work life including two different careers prior to EMS. The first was service in the United States Marine Corps, as an infantry Marine and as a musician, and the second was in the technology sector, primarily doing computer hardware integration, writing software, and implementing data and voice communication networks. Working as an EMS provider turned out to be what I was called to do, however. And I have never looked back, although skills I’ve picked up in my past lives have come in handy from time to time.

My full-time “day job” is managing and supporting New Hampshire’s statewide trauma system. There are 26 acute care hospitals located in New Hampshire. Of those, 11 of them are designated as hospitals situated to provide care to trauma patients. Technically, every acute care hospital has the ability to provide stabilizing care and transfer to a hospital with more resources and the ability to provide definitive care to these patients. My job is to support these hospitals, whether or not they participate actively as a member of the trauma system.

I enjoy this for a simple reason: the work I do keeps the system functioning properly, which is ultimately in the best interests of these patients. Plus I get to collaborate with people smarter than me, and most of the time I get to learn from them.

My other two gigs, also related to EMS, involve teaching and actually practicing medicine. The teaching job is one I’ve done for a number of years – at this point I believe I’m in my fourteenth year. I am a credentialed instructor for the American Heart Association and I teach a number of their courses. I also am a skills evaluator for the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians. This gives me the opportunity to evaluate people who have gone through the process of being trained to work as Advanced Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics to ensure they are competent. There is also a written examination in addition to the practical skills testing they undergo. Both are important. In the future, however, this will likely change somewhat. The degree of this, as of now, is not clear.

Finally, I still work on the road as a Paramedic at 60 years of age. I have been doing this for a total of nearly 30 years at every level of licensure with the majority of that time – approximately 18 years – as a Paramedic. This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. We see patients who are sometimes in a situation they never expect to find themselves in. More often than not, it is not nearly as bad as it could be, but from time to time it is potentially devastating. Our job is to provide appropriate medical care and transport to a hospital where proper definitive care can be administered. The overwhelming majority I have worked with throughout my career have endeavored to do this, and I have been both awed and humbled by them, plus I’ve learned a lot, which I am grateful for. This is probably the most important thing about our work, and there is a legitimate reason why medicine is “practiced”; every situation is different, and what could be considered appropriate care in one may be totally wrong in another. It helps to keep this in mind.