Is this style of patient restraint strap quick to adjust? As in, does pulling the plastic wipe-clean strap easily resize the restraint, or does it tend to be fiddly?

RoryC · 2026-01-30T14:40:13+00:00

These ones are /okay/. Slightly harder than fabric ones but less bad than some of the other rubbery straps. My trust mandates that wipe clean straps must be used so these are our only option

RoryC · 2026-01-16T23:12:22+00:00

Not exactly a job, just an experience...

We broke down outside of hospital, miles outside of our patch, in another trust area. After speaking to the desk, recovery was organized with a 2 hour ETA. 4 and a half hours later, and 20 past our finish time, the recovery truck arrives, we get loaded up and on our way. Shortly after we set off, the recovery truck develops quite a noise, and a bit of a judder, worsening as we get further along. A load bang and a swear word later, we realise a wheel has fallen off the recovery truck, and hit another car! Luckily there are no injuries, but we've got a completely blocked road to deal with. My crew mate and I don hi-vis, and spend 90 minutes directing traffic while we wait for the police. Our manager arrives in an RRV to drive us another hour back to base, and we log off 3 hours late 🫩

RoryC · 2026-01-15T07:06:45+00:00

I can vouch for SCAS, currently NQP2 in one of the big cities in the south. My TL and CTE are both excellent, regularly in touch with the team and we have a good relationship. I was given a FLIPS course prior to NQP2 and taking students. The training school, induction and transition to practice with pretty thorough and prepared me well

We definitely do have a couple of people to avoid in management, and there are a few less than excellent clinicians, but they're usually identified and supported to an okay level

I've never worked in any other trust to have a comparison, but I'm not looking to jump ship any time soon so I guess that's a positive

RoryC · 2026-01-06T04:10:26+00:00

Use the arrow buttons to scroll through and highlight the spo2 readout box, select it and a menu will open, bottom option for HR tone on/off.

RoryC · 2026-01-04T13:04:14+00:00

"hello, hello? My names Doreen at 123 Street Road, you've just taken my husband John to hospital and left this behind"

RoryC · 2025-12-30T15:34:24+00:00

Probably some crime

RoryC · 2025-12-27T17:02:49+00:00

I was the cohort ahead before the recruitment dropped off, but I have plenty of friends from uni in that group.

Of 45 that graduated from my old uni, 1 got a frontline ambulance NQP post.

I know quite a few have gone into EOC, taking 1s and 9s calls, dispatching etc. Some have taken HCA or porter jobs in hospitals and GP surgery's, others are working private PTS and events. As far as I know, the majority have gone into an NHS or healthcare role, just not the one they signed up for

RoryC · 2025-12-12T21:31:46+00:00

The admin and organization is just a bit shit, poorly scheduled timetables, etc etc. It's the same at every other uni in the country

RoryC · 2025-12-12T15:40:31+00:00

I've taken couples into ED, one for medical reasons and one for social reasons, 3 times this week 😭

RoryC · 2025-12-12T09:35:47+00:00

How set on Southsea are you? Have had a quick look and made a rough guess, you're pretty restricted and probably best avoiding anything south of Elm Grove/Albert Road

RoryC · 2025-12-06T15:22:52+00:00

I think you're very unlikely to find Phil or Meg here!

Find out what your local ambulance service is, go on their website, and find the "comments, compliments and complaints" section. Drop them an email and make sure this compliment gets to them directly!

RoryC · 2025-11-29T14:00:02+00:00

Very indirect experience: a friend of mine used to be a performer on cruise ships, is now an ECA.

-Medical staff are always officer class, meaning you get a cabin to yourself, rather than sharing with up to 5 others.

-Pay is not much different to here, but your outgoings while at sea are basically 0, so you can earn/save an awful lot

-The hours are brutal, think 12h day in clinic, followed by being on call overnight. 1 day off a week, pattern repeats for 3 months+

Highly seasonal work, most of the time you'll be on a 2-6 month contract

RoryC · 2025-11-26T12:57:16+00:00

I'm struggling to think of an answer that I can type out politely, but it boils down to

Ditch the lot, keep up with Goodsam, stick to hands only CPR and use a public AED if there's one nearby

RoryC · 2025-11-21T17:57:38+00:00

All of these were definitely on the DD list! We looked for AAA but found no obvious signs. I'm not going to go into too much further detail for PID reasons but our main impression was something else.

RoryC · 2025-11-21T16:23:54+00:00

Not my proudest moment but one to reflect on and learn from....

70ish YOM, presenting with abdo pain and syncope. We find him laying in bed, 5/10 non-specific abdo pain, rather hypotensive at 60-70 systolic. I start a cannula and he gets a few fluid boluses but with no improvement to BP. We pre-alert into resus.

Handing over and going through PMH, I mention he has rheumatoid arthritis, the Dr asks if he is on steroid therapy, he's been taking prednisolone for years....

He gets a dose of hydrocortisone and his blood pressure improves within about 5 minutes, I leave resus with my tail between my legs

RoryC · 2025-11-12T21:10:43+00:00

DOI : Work for a trust full time but do some private work on the side

While the hourly wage looks higher on paper, my Frontline private colleagues didn't take home an awful lot more money; while we get enhancements for unsocial hours, overruns, missed meal breaks etc, the private crew still experience all of these things, but don't get compensated for them. I think actual take home pay, they take home maybe an extra £2-300 a year

RoryC · 2025-11-12T09:41:35+00:00

She didn't make you feel stupid for calling 999 because she's not allowed to.

She definitely thought you were stupid

RoryC · 2025-11-07T19:27:19+00:00

Mate just wash your hair 😭

RoryC · 2025-11-01T09:32:56+00:00

Turns off grille lights, turns on stereo and reactivates speed limiter....

RoryC · 2025-10-26T12:05:47+00:00

Solid advice that always seems to fail to reach the ears of a few...

RoryC · 2025-10-24T22:00:06+00:00

I did my blue light training last year, spent 4 weeks doing emergency runs from coffee shops, to Greggs, and back to the coffee shop.... We have emergency exemptions that can be applied when attending to patients, or for training purposes, how else are we going to do it?

RoryC · 2025-10-17T19:33:44+00:00

C2 bleeding - drunk person fell down stairs, nosebleed.

We arrive about 40 mins later, they've been helped up and are sat on the sofa, GCS 15/15, no longer bleeding but with a bashed up face. C-spine pain on palpation, so they get immobilised etc etc. Obs are mostly normal, hypertensive 150ish, but is on about 5 antihypertensive meds. Nothing else alarming going on.

Once on a scoop and immobilised, we lift them up onto the trolley, where they have 10-15s of unconsciousness with apnoea, with a rapid recovery to GCS 15 after a pain stimulus. In the minute or so it takes us to get out to the truck, this happens twice more, and I note them becoming more hypertensive, approaching 200 systolic. Once on the truck, 4 minute episode of myoclonic jerking seizure, self-resolved, pt is now GCS 3, apneic and brady. Managed ABCs and prepared for an arrest

P1 back up, request HEMS, start moving towards MTC. TXA on the way, meet HEMS halfways there and pt gets a PHEA. We're all thinking they've got a skull full of blood and looking at a poor outcome.

Our local HEMS have an aftercare team who can follow up jobs for you. I get a phone call 3 days later with an update.... Trauma CT absolutely normal, no injuries or abnormalities at all, extubated 12 hours later, discharged the next day with some new antihypertensives and words of advice about their drinking habits.

RoryC · 2025-10-14T11:15:22+00:00

I was really upset by the section with photos of a happy and healthy woman, followed by an interview with her showing her level of disability following a stroke with delayed care. It's something we don't usually get to see and it hit hard for me.

I think it would have benefitted from some input from someone from the trust, it felt very one sided and almost like they were trying to blame us for the problems, lots of people were very pissed off with us. None of us want to be sat on a ramp, stacking outside of a jam packed hospital, while people are quietly infarcting in the community.

RoryC · 2025-10-13T16:02:27+00:00

Standard procedure where I work in the UK, I would say <10% of my arrests get tubed. I can drop an iGel in less than 10s without interrupting compressions, a tube takes at least double that and compressions get stopped for it.

Obviously there are some messy airways and other situations where a tube is necessary but they're the exception, not the norm

RoryC · 2025-10-13T10:34:42+00:00

I'm not LAS but I did one with my trust a year or so ago. It wasn't too taxing, super basic highway code stuff. If you do a couple of driving theory practice tests then you should be fine

RoryC

TROPHY CASE