WEBVTT - Selects: How Paramedics Work 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:03.520 Hi everybody. Chuck here, I just. 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:07.480 Realized I have almost cut my finger off while I 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:11.720 was playing with a pocket knife just now, and it's 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.920 bleeding quite a bit. So I'm gonna call nine one one, 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:17.279 and in the meantime, I'm going to listen to this 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.360 episode from April twelfth, twenty eighteen, how Paramedics Work. 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:22.079 Oh, thank god. 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:35.040 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:39.960 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:44.680 Charles W Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry Jerome Roland and 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:48.400 this is Stuff you Should Know The Emergency. 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:49.880 Real Rear Rear. 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:55.680 War er er aw. 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:01.280 We should have a new podcast called Sirens Are the World. Yeah, 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:03.360 it's just annoying show. 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.520 Ever, it would be pretty annoying, but there'd be some 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.600 subset of people who like just really despise themselves that 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:10.839 it'd be popular. 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:12.680 Among so we would love it. 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:16.520 Uh, we don't hate ourselves, do we tell me? I 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:17.120 need to know? 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:19.640 No? Okay, So it depends on the day. 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:21.160 I didn't want to hate myself. 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:23.400 Sometimes I want to punch myself. Does that count? 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:25.959 No? I know exactly what you mean. Man. Sometimes I'm 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:30.319 just like I am so sick of myself? Is that 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:31.520 is that what you're talking about? 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:34.960 That was a good song. Remember that song? No sick 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.480 of myself? No, that was Matthew Sweet. 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.680 Oh yeah, wow, that's weird that this is going on 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:46.800 right now, because Matthew Sweet just popped up like randomly 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:49.639 in the last couple of days, and like an article 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:51.400 I was reading, I was like, I forgot about him, 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:53.600 haven't heard about him in twenty years, and then bam, 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:55.600 bottom mine hoff, here he is again. 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:57.400 Well he's still around, he's in Atlantic. Guy. 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:01.360 You know, I didn't know that. Yeah, well that's cool. Yeah, 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:03.400 I know. I think I think that's like the way 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.080 it goes. Just because you had one hit in the 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.160 world came and like listened to you and then moved 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:10.000 on doesn't mean like you're like, Okay, well I guess 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:12.720 I'll go bury myself alive now in my own backyard. 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:16.200 Usually usually the artist like keeps going. 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.480 Yeah, you know, yeah, he had two hits. 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.240 Stuff, I know, girlfriend, and then the other one you're 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:21.920 talking about. 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:23.240 Yeah girlfriend, that's a great song. 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:29.079 Yeah it's a good song. Okay. So obviously what we're 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:34.880 talking about today are paramedics, para medicine really is what 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:39.440 we're talking about, yeah, which is it's actually a pretty 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:42.240 interesting topic because you kind of look into it, You're like, oh, 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.800 these people save lives. That's great. Here's some of the 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.760 life saving techniques that they do. Fantastic, But there's like, 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.840 actually so much more too. It's got a really interesting history, 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:57.519 it's got a a a it's one of those things 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.240 where it's way worse off than it should be as 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:04.880 far as like funding and like logistics and stuff like 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.800 that goes. I just find it interesting. It's it's interesting 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.959 to kind of poke into a topic and then find that, oh, 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:13.840 this is even more interesting than I thought, and have 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:17.280 it poked back yep with forceps. 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.480 So I guess we should say right off the bat 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:28.840 that the word paramedic para means alongside, so alongside medicine, 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.480 I guess, which I'm not quite sure what that means. 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.200 So what I think it means is, as follows Charles, 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:43.560 these people paramedics. They are not doctors, correct, but they 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:49.680 work with and alongside and really honestly as an extension 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:55.080 of a doctor. An So that's what I think it means, 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:57.280 because it's not like what they're doing is a different 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:00.760 type of wacky medicine. Like they're actually doing the same 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.920 type of medicine that an er doctor, an er nurse 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.520 would be doing in an er they're just doing it 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:08.200 out in the field. 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:10.440 Could you imagine how disconcerting it would be to be 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.240 like on the ground and have a paramedic come up 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:15.280 and like blow green dust in your face. 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:18.080 You're like, what are the chicken bones for? 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:18.520 Man? 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:23.159 Oh man, blow green dusting. I don't know, it would 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:25.280 depend on what the effect of the green dust was. 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:30.320 It's true, so I think that's what paramedic means. Right, Okay, 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.720 we can go we can go further back actually and 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.960 describe what ambulance means. We know that one for certain. 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:45.200 Yes, that came around in fifteenth century Spain during the Inquisition. 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.520 They clearly had a lot of need for medical work yea. 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:54.320 And they actually had field hospitals that were called ambulancius right. 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:56.919 It was just basically like a mass unit out in 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:04.000 the field. And then eventu the French shortly after, I 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:08.360 think under Napoleon they innovated on the ambulance and said, well, 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:10.640 that's great, that's neat that we have these things out 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.239 in the field. But there's some guys way over there 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:18.560 who are injured, and they probably wouldn't die if we 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:23.440 could get them to these ambulances, these field hospitals, right, correct. 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:28.560 So they came up with basically mobile ambulances, which is 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:31.360 this idea of a flying or a moving ambulance, which 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:34.800 is like a little medical facility that they would put 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:38.599 the people into and move them away from battle to 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.400 go patch them up, rather than waiting for the battle 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:41.880 to end. 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:42.360 Well. 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:46.080 Yeah, and before that, even during the Crusades, and they 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:49.520 also had a great need for medical care, there were 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.600 the Knights Hospitaller Hospital. 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:55.960 Or I think Hospitalita. 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:58.120 Oh whoa, is. 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:00.360 There an extra I might be putting an extra bull 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:02.280 in there. Well, that's a right I'm known to do. 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:05.400 That's pastime time, Knight's Hospitaller. 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:07.760 That's what I'm gonna say of the Order of Saint 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:11.760 John of Jerusalem. And they were the first kind of 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:16.160 the first people to practice emergency medicine on the battlefield. 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:18.920 And they even invented the what we. 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:23.239 Now call the stretcher, although it's still called a litter 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:24.919 in some circles. 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:29.480 Yeah, it's a pretty intuitive thing, but it's it works. 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:30.520 Someone had to think of it. 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:34.200 A couple of sticks with some canvas stretch between them. 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:36.520 Throw a person on there, you can pick them up. 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:38.440 Two people can pick them up and get them off 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:39.880 of the battlefield, lickety split. 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:40.360 Hooray. 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:44.640 So yeah, so this is the idea of emergency medicine 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:49.600 grew basically exclusively out of warfare over the centuries. 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:52.960 Well yeah, but what's remarkable to me is that from 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:55.680 that time I had the right idea, let's get these 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:59.000 people out of here quickly. It took about one hundred 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:02.760 and thirty years all the way until the mid to 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:08.040 late nineteen sixties until they said, hey, wait a minute, 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.040 if we actually put trained medical people in these things 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:16.040 and weren't simply driving people to a hospital, we might 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:16.960 have even more luck. 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:22.600 Yeah, that was the late sixties and then amazing it is. 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.400 And at the time it was so a lot of 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:30.160 medicine was practiced through house calls, right, including emergencies Like 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:31.920 if there was an emergency and you could get a 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.080 hold of a doctor, the doctor was expected to go 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.120 out to that emergency and do what they could, but 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:43.160 more often than not, either the cops or local morticians 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:47.120 were tasked with basically was called like a scoop and 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:50.360 scoop and run or scoop and carry, where you just 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:52.840 basically get the person out of that car wreck or 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.680 from the bottom of that ladder or whatever just happened 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.320 to them, throw them in the back of a car, 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:03.240 a cop or a hearse. I would looked it up. 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:10.240 The ECDO one the Ghostbusters ambulance is a modified Cadillac Hearse. 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.720 Oh yeah, so they would dress the sinking feeling. It 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.160 really was for a mortician to show up in ahearse 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.240 and be like, I'm gonna take you to the hospital. 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:20.680 Depending on what happens, you may be back in the 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:21.240 same car. 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:23.760 Yeah, and talk about a conflict of interest, you know 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:24.120 what I mean. 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:25.200 Oh, that's a good point. 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:30.720 Hopefully not but yeah on paper, yeah right, Or they 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:33.679 just you know, casually put their hand on the person's 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:38.240 nose and mouth in the backseat. Dry. The thing is, though, 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.120 is whether the mortician or the cops were getting you 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.920 to the hospital. Even when you got to the hospital. 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:46.480 It's not like there was such a thing as an 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:49.520 er room. E Ers didn't come about really until like 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:53.800 the mid seventies, where you could find them in fair 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.600 abundance around the United states like ers just didn't exist. 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.560 It was here you go, doc. I know you delivered 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:04.080 a baby and you treated somebody else for angina, but 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:06.880 now you've got to put this person's head back together. 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:08.040 Wow. 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:10.760 Yeah. And it was all just medicine at the time. 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:13.839 So yeah, the idea of getting somebody to a hospital 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.920 and having a medical person, a professional in the car 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:21.360 that's transporting them. It came out of Ireland, I think, right. 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.640 Yeah, big shout out nineteen sixty seven to doctor J. 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:29.720 Frank Pantridge of Belfast. He had a study. He published 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.760 a study that said, hey, you know what, we have 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:37.200 more success saving people's lives when our mobile units have 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.840 a physician or a nurse inside. 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:44.040 Right, And everyone went, huh, never really thought about that, 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.559 but there it is, there's a study. Yeah, pretty cool. 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:51.880 So he definitely set the stage for this. 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:56.320 And then the year before there was a report I 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:58.400 think it was a year earlier, right, the one from 0:09:58.800 --> 0:09:59.959 Congress in America. 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:01.360 A couple of years sixty five. 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.079 I think it was like the National Academy of Sciences 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:07.520 or somebody basically got together with another group and said, 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:10.920 let's study accidents. And what they came up with was 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:19.480 this idea that there was like this overlooked disaster that happened. 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.960 Like accidents were a huge, major leading cause of injury 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:27.520 and death in the United States, and this inquiry determined 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.840 that we weren't doing much about it, and specifically a 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.600 lot of people died who otherwise wouldn't have if there 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:38.200 had been something like an emergency medical service to attend 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.280 to them at the accident scene and on the way 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:44.520 to the hospital, and then having the hospital actually know 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.160 what they were doing as far as emergency medicine goes. 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:49.280 Yeah, it's just staggering to me. 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.080 It seems so intuitive and I can't believe it took 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:56.439 that long for this to happen, you know. And in fact, 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:03.360 the Emergency Medical Systems Act was signed in nineteen seventy three, 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:06.040 which basically said. 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.079 We need a standardized system here. 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.520 Yeah, a nationwide That was after that paper came out 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:12.760 in nineteen sixty six. 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.120 Yea many years later. I mean that's a speed of government, 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:19.400 I guess. And then in nineteen seventy seven the publication 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:24.360 of the first very first national standard Curriculum for EMTs 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:26.079 and Paramedics seventy seven. 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:26.760 Yeah. 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:32.240 And then so alongside this para, this they there were 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:34.920 people like around the country, at universities around the country 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:39.160 and around the world who were kind of all recognizing 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.480 all of this at the same time that there's a 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.000 lot more that could be done for people who were 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:49.240 injured in accidents. And so you had the people at 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.600 pitt University of Pittsburgh taking up the cause. 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:53.319 Panthers. 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:58.400 Yeah, they started is that the Panthers, Yeah, huh. They 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:03.760 started creating some of the first curriculum for paramedics, some 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:07.720 of the earliest tests for paramedics. The University of Cincinnati 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:11.400 came up with the first curriculum for training physicians in 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.600 er medicine. I think the University of California was an 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:21.920 early entrant into the world of teaching paramedicine. And then 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:23.839 I think they were the first one to be accredited 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:27.079 in nineteen eighty, Like they had their operation going for years, 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:29.120 but they were the first one to say, hey, somebody 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:31.000 take a look at this and make sure we're kosher, 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:36.239 and then we can say we're an accredited training facility 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:37.120 for paramedics. 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:39.680 Amazing, it is pretty amazing. 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:45.400 And then the problem is this, So the federal government 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.800 got into the act in nineteen seventy three, with the 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:53.120 Emergency Medical Services Act. But by nineteen eighty one there 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.760 was an omnibus budget that said we're out, We're done, 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:59.680 We're not funding emergency services anymore. And then from that 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:03.800 point forward, the emergency service system in the United States, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:07.880 whatever had been developed to that point, broke into patchworks 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:13.160 of state, local county programs, sometimes multiple ones within a 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:15.160 single county. I think there's a county in Michigan that 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:20.680 has like eighteen different emergency services and that has kind 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:24.720 of created this where we are now, which is people 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:28.600 doing the absolute best they can in what amounts to 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:30.280 a broken system in a lot of ways. 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.040 Should we take a break, sure, all right, when we 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:37.040 come back, we will put the broken system behind us momentarily. 0:13:37.800 --> 0:14:33.680 Talk about e mts and paramedics. 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:08.040 All right. 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.840 So if you want to ride in an ambulance or 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:16.320 drive an ambulance and get on the scene and help 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:18.680 someone out who's in need, there are a couple of 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:22.040 ways you can do it. You can be an EMT 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:28.280 emergency medical technician. And this is the person who has 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:32.200 undergone about between about one hundred and twenty and one hundred. 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.600 And fifty hours of course work there. 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.240 They are well trained and all kinds of life saving procedures. 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.840 If you need CPR, if you need oxygen administered, if 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:46.240 you were having some bad allergic reaction, that your life 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:49.680 is in jeopardy. But there are limits to what they 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:52.600 are allowed to do. So one thing they cannot do, 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.440 even in the case of giving shots is they can't 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.480 break the skin, right, which is super interesting. 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:00.320 I never knew that. 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.560 Yeah, I didn't know that either. But you can consider 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:09.240 an EMT like an entry level paramedicine professional, right, that's 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:11.320 where you would start. And in fact, I think you 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:13.360 have to start as an EMT to go on to 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:15.720 the next level, which would be paramedic. 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:15.680 Right for sure. 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.840 Yeah, so if you're a paramedic, you have about ten 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.120 times the amount of coursework in schooling under your belt 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:24.440 by the time you're a paramedic. And I think you 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.400 do have to have about six months at least of 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:33.920 immediately prior EMT experience to start becoming a paramedic as well, 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.640 which I'm sure is the way most people go. As 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:39.400 you start out as an EMT and then you move 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:41.840 on to the next level, which is paramedic. 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:43.720 Yeah, which, like you said, ten times, so that's about 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:46.720 anywhere from twelve hundred to eighteen hundred hours depending on 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:51.240 your state or your municipality to get certified. And this 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:55.400 is where the real action can happen. You can give 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:58.560 an IV, you can if someone's having a heart attack, 0:15:58.600 --> 0:15:59.320 you can deal with that. 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:04.160 You can operate defibrillator, tibulator, fibrillator, fibrillator. 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.160 It's fun to say once you master it, they should 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:07.520 have just. 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.520 Called it the clear machine. 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:16.200 Yeah, the but it's a it's a lot of work 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:18.160 in a lot of hours. And one of the people 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.520 that they interviewed in this article said that, you know, 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:25.240 it's really grueling, and when you're in paramedic training and 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.600 school and doing your course work basically for a year 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:30.680 or two, you can just say goodbye to your friends 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:31.120 and family. 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:31.440 Yeah. 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:32.120 I saw that too. 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:33.240 Yeah, that's tough stuff. 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:40.160 So the paramedic is actually they operate under the license, 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.200 not just like like under the direction, but under the 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.239 license of a physician in their locale. 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:46.440 Right. 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:48.560 Yeah, there's a couple of ways that you can do it. 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.200 And as you'll start to see, like I saw a 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:55.200 quote that it said, if you've seen one emergency medical system, 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:59.280 you've seen one emergency medical system. They're all just so different. Yeah, 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.400 and the whole thing so patchwork. But there is a 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:08.720 national standard, which I think is the National Emergency Medical 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:14.880 Technician Registry Exam. That's like the national exam, and then 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:16.879 you may have to pass like a state and or 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:20.000 local exam too, depending on where you live. But there 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:23.280 is like a national accreditation and national coursework. But then 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:26.680 how the system functions and runs is what's the patchwork 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:27.240 part of it. 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:29.879 Yeah, and it'll cost you. I mean it depends on 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:31.600 where it is, of course, and what program. But the 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.520 example they used in art article is the UCLA Center 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.720 for Pre Hospital Care, and they quoted about ten grand 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.280 for just the tuition. And then, of course, like any 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:44.960 college or coursework, you're gonna have to pay for books 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.680 and equipment and uniforums and stuff like that. 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:49.080 That's exactly where they get. 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:50.160 You plaid skirt. 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.359 And then after that, though, the good news is is 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:57.760 that you have a really good chance of getting work. 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:00.920 I get the impression that if you have gone through 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:04.240 all of your paramedic training, you're not sitting around like 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:06.240 there's usually a job waiting for you somewhere. 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:09.240 Yeah. I saw that as well, And actually it doesn't 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:12.800 necessarily pay super well now people, So if you ever 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.159 see a paramedic, be extra nice to them for sure, 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:18.760 because not only are they running around saving people's lives, 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.440 they're not getting rich off of it at all. They're 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:24.920 doing it because it's something they care about. Yeah. But 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:30.600 despite that, despite the mediocre pay, I saw, it's going 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:32.880 to be one of the most in demand jobs over 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:35.120 the next like ten to fifteen years. I really wish 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:38.800 I could remember the statistic exactly, but I think they're 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:43.560 like expecting another like fifty three thousand EMT jobs or 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:47.080 paramedic jobs to be added to the American economy over 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:52.600 the next decade maybe. So it's definitely a growing career 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:54.080 for sure, growing profession. 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:55.560 Yeah, and you mentioned the pay. 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:59.120 If you go to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:03.440 to kind of a mean salary or something, they do it. 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:05.560 It's not really they should separate it out, but they 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:10.399 lump in EMTs and paramedics, when, of course EMTs don't 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:13.159 make the kind of money they're paramedic would. But they 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:15.879 had a mean annual wage of about thirty one thousand 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.600 dollars a few years ago. And if you're in the 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:25.480 top ten percent, it's about fifty four thousand, and apparently 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.040 the state of Washington is one on the higher side. 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:32.280 You can get as high as seventy one grand in 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:35.639 the state of Washington, right, But I mean, you know, 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.080 that's a good living and a decent living. But it's 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:41.399 not like like you said, they don't go into this 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.560 because like, oh man, you know that thirty one grand 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:46.359 a year. It's sort of like being a school teacher. 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:48.000 It's a I feel like it's a calling in a 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:49.280 lot of cases for sure. 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:54.280 For sure, as I was saying about the license that 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:58.640 they operate under. Right, So if you're a certified paramedic 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:02.359 when you are are depending on the state you're in, 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:04.720 you may be operating under the license of the state 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:08.800 medical director, like that's where you have your license, or 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:11.520 you could also be operating under the license of a 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:15.320 local physician, like that physician's license covers you, covers the 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:19.000 physician's assistant, basically everything working for everyone working for him 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.320 or her, So you might be operating under that physician's license. 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:26.840 Or I didn't know this man during an ambulance ride, 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:30.600 so remember how just adding like a trained medical professional 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.520 to the ride from an accident scene to the hospital 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:37.160 improves outcomes, and we've done that since nineteen sixty six 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:40.879 at least they figured out that if you can communicate 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:46.560 with a doctor an er physician en route, you could 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:51.600 also improve outcomes. Even more so. During this transportation from 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:55.280 an accident to the hospital, the paramedic is probably in 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:59.920 touch with an er doctor who is instructing and advising 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:03.000 and consulting with the paramedic to figure out the best 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:05.280 course of action, the best course of treatment, and then 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.200 how to carry that out. And from what I understand 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:12.160 at that time, the paramedic is operating under that physician's 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:14.000 license in that state. 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:16.600 Would that make you feel better or worse? 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:20.720 What that the paramedic was getting instruction from a physician? 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:24.959 Yeah, Like, if you hear this going on, I don't know. 0:21:25.359 --> 0:21:26.440 I would say. 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:29.000 Part of me is like better because it's a doctor 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:31.040 telling you that, But the other part of me is like, 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:33.480 don't you know right? And you would hate to hear 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:36.480 the doctor say we'll get the something something and for 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:37.920 the paramedic to say the what. 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:41.560 You're right, I don't know what that is. I've never 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:42.520 seen this before ever. 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:45.040 Have you ever had to take an ambulance ride for yourself? 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.280 No, no, Thank goodness, I. 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:49.160 Didn't think I had either, but then I did. Remember 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:54.000 when I was thirteen or fourteen, my brother was sixteen 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.800 or seventeen, we were in a car wreck. There were 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:01.960 eight people in a g and my brother's jeep that 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.639 was once my dad's cheap and that was definitely not 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:08.560 safe to do to begin with. But we were going 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:10.800 to a movie after church on the Sunday night. 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:11.960 A bunch of kids in. 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:16.399