Getting Comfortable

Growing up as a kid and learning to ride a bike your often told that once you fall off, you've just gotta get right back on and do it again, eventually it will come natural, and years later you can just get right back on after years of being off and still do it, a little shaky at first but you'll succeed. This idea rang into my head as i drove away from work Sunday morning after a busy Saturday night in the city. I realized that I had fallen off from precepting for a while, I had lost interest, I had doubted my career tract and the direction my life was going in. However I was determined to give it a go, I mean after all I just put myself through a year of medic school hell I can't give up that easily. I realized that now after a few shifts back on the road, I'm getting back into the game, I feel my head is in the right place again and its back to business.

Things are starting to come together and its starting to feel more and more natural to me, now I'm not going to sit here and say I'm no longer nervous that would be a lie, but its starting to feel more comfortable. I'm finding myself getting more comfortable with the "Routine ALS" calls and nervously waiting and anticipating the more mind numbing challenges of the aggressive ALS calls. My skills are improving, during my clinical time in the ED I was fairly successful with my IV's, I didn't have too hard of a time, this has not been the case so far in the back of the ambulance. My success rate has been poor and everyone trys to cheer me up except my preceptor naturally. Everyone talks about bad streaks of success rates and that everyones misses, sure its true but during precepting this should be my time to be successful and prove myself so its been a burden I've carried. I've sat in the back of the truck and tried to figure out exactly why I've been doing wrong with our catheters, these are a style I've never used before and I feel its all in my grip. So Saturday night I adjusted my grip, while it feels a little akward I pulled off 100% of my IV's, sure I may have caused a blood bath inside an Apt because of a poor tamponade technique but hey I got the IV and pushed the meds I needed to, now I just need to work on doing it cleaner haha!

So all and all things are on a much better track, In a sense of the analogy I have gotten back on my bike and I am peddling away, it feels natural, its getting comfortable, and I look forward to the challenges ahead, I look forward to finally becoming a good medic.