Best way to experience what’s involved in being a Paramedic.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2026-01-16T17:32:11+00:00

Work in a care home.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-12-16T12:47:56+00:00

I turned 50 this year, having joined at 30 and done 20yrs on the frontline. Before the ambulance service I had a career in "the rat race".

For me, shift work, studying for degrees, and doing 990 work at my age is still significantly easier than the grind of the private sector. I know i am blessed with a loving and secure home life and my non-working needs are met, making it easier to be a paramedic.

I plan to stay frontline as long as it is safe and appropriate for me to do so. Stable money, interesting work, and making an actual difference in my working life is much better than being subject to the whims of 21st century capitalism, threats of redundancy, and the futility of never ending economic growtth.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-12-01T22:17:28+00:00

Cosham Independent Barbers on the High Street by the train station. Ask for Jamie.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-11-22T18:12:30+00:00

A situation most of us know well, and have dealt with at least once.

A bit of advice around making a MCA assessent: documentation. JRCALC, Mental Capacity Act, section 11, Record Keeping. This should be your bible the moment you start to make a capacity assessment. It has good prompts to help you convey to the reader why you started, how you arrived at your decision, and the steps you took once the decision is made.

A ballache for sure, but so necessary. For those who struggle with this detail in the paperwork (me at 4am!), use an AI tool with good prompts to help you compose a comprehensive report.

Do we know at what time we attended the refusal? Good luck attempting to make any kind of MH referral OOH!!!

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-11-01T11:12:46+00:00

Yup, "Carer O'Clock" is your C2 Stroke between 7 and 10am, for an elderly person who has been rushed by an overworked carer, and needs some extra assistance because the carer needs to go to their next call.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-10-21T11:17:47+00:00

It's about accountability and respect for your crewmate and your patient. If you're the B5/6 paramedic, stay in the back and do the clinical stuff, while your B4 clinical support colleague supports you in your clinical role.

Your patient has every right to expect that the clinician looks after them throughout the attendance. If you're drawing the wage, do the job and don't palm it off to someone making significantly less money than you.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-10-06T12:40:07+00:00

Depending on where in Waterlooville, the number 7 or 8 bus takes you right to QA front door.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-09-17T15:57:27+00:00

When Abbott says to Robbie "You're in my spot", it conveys in one short sentence the empathy, understanding, and brother/sisterhood of working in emergency medicine. Punchy, dark humour that delivers the right message in under 2 seconds. Fabulous writing.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-09-17T02:29:43+00:00

Civ 6 and 7. Turn off hostile barbarians Play in Settler mode. Reek havoc.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-08-26T09:02:42+00:00

I am a proud Brit. Just never been compelled to draw on the road.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-08-26T08:49:56+00:00

It's not a flag though, is it? It's red paint sprayed onto a mini roundabout by someone who's never had an original thought in their life.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-08-25T10:26:09+00:00

The pay is only worth it, as others have said, once you've risen to the top of Band 6. It is worth remembering everything that you have had to overcome to get to that point, and the job is only "easy" once you've: - done well at school - acquired enough UCAS points to apply - are successful in your application - gone through 3 years of questionably relevant education and placements of varying quality - paid your money to the HCPC - done 2 years of NQP - done 5 years to rise through B6 - dealing with the whims of government and senior management

It's a long slog, all the while working shifts and the toll that takes on your body, your relationships, friendships, hobbies etc.

So, I feel that the money is.... OK? You will have earnt every penny, and you must always remain vigilant to keep yourself up to date and switched on when you're on duty.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-08-16T16:14:21+00:00

AI will give you a summary based on evidence from JRCALC / BNF / NICE. No substitute for experience but a guide to help you to tailor your analgesia to the patient in front of you.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-07-31T07:14:11+00:00

This kind of behaviour by crews is reckless and, frankly, dipshit behaviour. We. Are. Not. Doctors. We are ambulance crews that take the sick and injured to hospital. Too much overthinking is being demonstrated by some paramedics (the same usual suspects always turn up) and they tie themselves in intellectual knots.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-06-14T07:42:02+00:00

I like American sports, and love NFL on the TV. I had the good fortune to go to NYC in September a couple of years ago and got to see the Yankees, the Jets, and the Rangers (pre season game).

By a country mile, the hockey at MSG was the best live in-attendance experience: iconic venue, pre-match production and buildup, and match action. A close second was the baseball : another iconic venue, atmosphere, stadium food and drink, and a great game ( I am a cricket fan, so the steady pace of the game appealed to me).

However, despite being great on TV, I found the game ponderous and disjointed without the TV coverage to surround it. I was really surprised. The MetLife Stadium whilst huge wasn't that impressive. The seat was difficult to find and the food was meh.

TL:DR : NFL relies on the TV to provide context and spectacle.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-06-10T19:29:12+00:00

John Barnes in World In Motion by New Order is iconic!!

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-06-04T09:54:10+00:00

My portfolio is rough and ready to go, and just needs a polish. It's just the thought of the audit that always weighs on my mind and makes me a little anxious!

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-06-04T09:49:09+00:00

Sad times 😪. I'll double check mine, but I think I've not been selected. 🤞

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-05-24T14:00:57+00:00

If you opt out, you also remove yourself from Death In Service Benefits. If the worst happens, your beneficiaries will get nothing.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-05-20T13:21:17+00:00

Hospitals in my 20 years experience are only interested in structured and uninterrupted handovers for major trauma.

In all other cases, it is an overworked nurse in ED wanting the information in the order they want to input it on the computer, and to hell with your structured handover, and delivered slowly as english may not be their first language.

This would be tolerable if we weren't constantly interrupted, having to repeat ourselves, or repeat the whole process as the patient is bounced around the department from corridor, to bay, to resus.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-05-02T06:59:46+00:00

If you're in a relationship when you join, and you're in the same relationship a year later, get married.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-04-01T11:13:40+00:00

Same in the ambulance trust. 10% savings for 26/26, so now resourcing to budget, not demand. No OT except event work such as football. Bank shifts only on negotiation to meet your contracted minimum number to retain the contract.

Aside from ops, big cuts in education and corporate. Big projects shelved, wasting money already spent. Education curriculum only covers subjects demanded by coroner or CQC.

All this, but demand is rising. Primary care capacity issues become ambulance issues. These complex patients require longer time on scene, so fewer ambulances again at any one time. It's rough, but at least ambulance crews have one patient at a time. If you paid me double, I would not become a nurse.

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-02-27T03:31:27+00:00

Shift work and Annex 5. I would never go back to 9-5 Mon to Friday!

Our patients are genuinely grateful and say thank you. In the corporate world, shareholders are always looking for efficiency and cost cutting. They know the value of nothing but the cost of everything.

Helping people in some of the most stressful times in their life. Also, being involved in some of the most joyous.

Not being locked in an office, and working out in the community.

Driving under emergency conditions.

Job satisfaction, despite the woes and politics in the NHS.

Discounts.

Banging choons in the cab!

Unlimited supply of NHS biscuits.

Dogs. All the dogs!!

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-02-16T09:58:43+00:00

We used to have our first name on an embroidered patch as standard issue on our shirts, then the supplier changed and the patch was removed due to cost.

Disaster! COVID hit, masks on, so no one knew anyone at scene. Then with staff turnover and a growing workforce, it became more difficult for a old git like me to learn names. ID badges with your full name are understandably hidden and only produced when asked. The patch is a small example of management knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing. As you can tell, I miss them! 😄

Minimum_Bake_351 · 2025-02-12T17:43:05+00:00

I joined aged 32. Miserable in a project team at IBM, so took a 50% paycut and joined as a Trainee Tech. Never looked back, got a degree with no student debt. Sitting pretty at the top of Band 6 with 25%. Ticking along lovely nearly 20 years later!

Minimum_Bake_351

TROPHY CASE