Working with a Trainee

In Febuary I became a qualified Ambulance Technician, which involved a year of experience and building a portfolio of evidence that I had done various jobs, a small audit on a chosen area of patient care and an essay on some social aspect of the job.

Now that I am qualified I can be sent out to work with anyone, including trainees (ambulance personnel who have been doing the job for less than a year).

I was working with a trainee on both Sunday and Monday. It really is hard work. And also quite worrying. I feel drained and shattered (even more than I usually do after working four 12 hour shifts in a row).

The problems which I encounter when working with a trainee are numerous. Those that cause me most anxiety and stress are:

- I still feel quite inexperienced at the job, and have not really had any properly nasty jobs like a peadiatric cardiac arrest (child whose heart has stopped). I would find a job like this hard enough to handle/manage working with an experienced member of staff, let alone a new person. Every time a job comes through I fear that it may be serious and hard to deal with.

- The trainee I have been working with this week has been out "on the road" for 6 months but has been working with different people all the time, so has low self confidence and everyone she works with tells her different things, sometimes contradicting. Thus her skills are not very well developed. She also lacks ability to think "outside the box" and is reluctant to take advice on board, making it tough to try and teach her things while not knocking her confidence, and still giving the patient good care and attention. A tough juggling act.

- I have had no training in how to "mentor" ar "train" people, and yet I am expected to devolop the skills of trainees (bearing in mind that I feel my experience is limited).

- When I work with a trainee, I am responsible not just for the actions that I take, but also the actions that they take. In practice, this means that even when I am driving a patient into the hospital and my colleague (trainee) is attending to the patient in the back, I still need to be aware of everything that they are doing and, to some extent, monitoring the patient's condition (from the driving seat!) If the patient is seriously ill, then I would probably take over the patient care and get my colleague to drive, but this way they will learn a lot less. Again, a tough juggling act!

- Some trainees drive appallingly. They get behind the wheel of an ambulance with blue lights and sirens and suddenly think they are Formula 1 drivers. It can be scary (terrifiying) sitting in the passenger seat in such situations. I find it particularly stressful because in that situation you have no control over the fate of the vehicle, it is in someone else's hands. Again, it can be difficult to say anything without feeling that you are having a go at them, or without knocking their confidence.

- There is nobody to turn to if I am unsure about something, or if I want advice. When working with a trainee, I am the most qualified person availiable to that patient, and if I miss something important then their life is in my hands.

However, all that said and done, working with trainees can also be a beneficial experience because you become far more aware of what you do and don't know, which areas you are weak in and need to brush up etc.

Also, some trainees are great, and can teach me a thing or two! Especially if they have had the benefit of working with an experienced crew mate for a while. In this situation they may have advice and tips to give me, and I'm always eager to learn more.

Anyway, I've made it through these shifts, and It's my birthday on Thursday. I'm really looking forward to lunch with my Mum and (hopefully) sister. Then on Friday I'll be off to Barcelona! YAY.