The Start of Paramedic School

     The thing everyone forgets to mention about paramedic school is that they aren’t kidding when they say how intense it is.  “A fire hose to the face” is a common way to describe the overflow of information.  I’d more accurately describe it as wearing snow gear inside a sauna while eating spicy cheetos with a dozen strangers who are all trying to pretend that the heat isn’t bothering them, and spoiler alert, it most certainly is, in fact, bothering them.
     I don’t really know the actual physiology of sitting in a sauna, but I know that it gets hot and I start to: sweat, breath deeper, become lethargic, experience blurred vision, and then leave for the preservation of my survival!  Medic school, however, is different because even though every part of my body is telling me to run away as fast as I can, I drizzle some more water on the rocks and open up another bag of cheetos.
     Considering that at this point in the program I am barely starting clinical hours, I think it’s safe to say that, in regards to the metaphor, I’m still outside the sauna putting on my boots and mittens; but nevertheless, I’m hot, tired, and want to go home.  Oh, wait, this is home.
      I’d like to say, however, that even if school is very different than I had expected it to be, I think that it’s been going fairly well: so far at least.  One thing that has become a staple is the fact that our instructors are committed to being there for us whenever we need them which makes learning new things that much more desirable.  For example, one of my peers and I went to campus on one of our off days to work on some med math, and our instructor ended up sitting with us for a good hour and a half while we struggled to successfully start IV lines on each other.
​     Now, check back in a couple months and I’m betting a quarter that my opinion has changed drastically.