Have you ever started a new job, and had to go through a training evaluation phase? That is a pretty common thing in EMS. Maybe you, yourself, are a training officer for your company. Companies and departments need to be certain that you are competent as an EMT or a paramedic. They need to ensure you are sufficient with your practical skills, you know the medications they give, ambulance driving, you geographically know the area and the local hospitals, radio procedures, SOPs, etc. So, they teach you, they watch you, they evaluate you, and then you might be released to function on your own, you might need remedial training, or you might be terminated.
If you are lucky, you’ve had a good training officer. Someone who actually wants to train, they want to help you learn, they want you to succeed. However, that is not always the case. This training process can be intimidating, it can make you question everything you thought you knew, and it can even break you a little. Occasionally you might get a training officer who wants to emotionally crush you. They want to see how much stress and judgement you can handle, and still be able to do your job to the standards set forth by your company or department. This can be somewhat similar to going through bootcamp in the military. They are historically known to yell at you, tell you everything you are doing is wrong, tell you how useless or incompetent you are. This is expected in the military, but should it be like this when joining a new ambulance company or department?
When I was a new EMT and paramedic, naturally I thought I knew more than I really did, so the FTO phase was beneficial to me, to actually show me how much I still needed to learn. I have learned so many things, from so many people, that knowledge is invaluable. I have now been a paramedic for a long time, I have worked for many companies, in many different countries. I have had good training officers and horrible ones. I know that I am a good paramedic, but there is always more to learn, and always room for improvement. I also know that there are different ways of doing something, and still achieving the same result.
So, if I have a not-so-good training officer non-productively criticizing me, wanting to break me, this is going to make me not want to work for that company. If I do something wrong, educate me, don’t berate me. If I have a question, try to help me or try to point me to someone who can help me, don’t tell me to figure it out myself or make me feel stupid for asking. If I do something in a different manner than you would, that doesn’t mean that one of us is wrong, but let’s talk about it. Everyone knows something that you don’t, and it’s great to be able to learn from others.
Starting a new job will always be stressful, sometimes good stress and sometimes bad. If you have to participate in the training process, as a new employee or as a training officer, try to recognize that this stress is normal. As a new employee, try your best to learn the protocols and standard operating procedures. It is your responsibility to ask for help when you need it. As a training officer, try to remember what you went through as a new employee. How do you learn best? By being yelled at or belittled? Or by someone showing you how to do something or explaining why we need to do something. The whole purpose of the field training process is to help the new employee grow and be successful, so that they can help their patients. That isn’t going to happen if you are not willing to put in the effort to learn, of if the training officer isn’t willing to provide guidance.
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