book is one i feel more people would do good to read, Not just medical practitioners, but people in general, For a professional attitude during a job where you frequently see people at their most scared or weakest requires compassion and that is something that i feel is often bleeding away in today's society.
I have had doctors that ask me for movie recommendations when i visit asking for help, Be it about migraines, severe insomnia, anxiety that left me struggling to breathe, tinnitus so bad i struggled to hear people talking to me or even with severe dizziness.
And the doctors can barely be bothered to do the minimum of their job,
This book let me fantasize about good medical staff, It helped restore faith in humanity to a degree, Sounds a bit dramatic for a book about someone training to be a paramedic, but Paramedics are those first on site during an emergency.
They go into dangerous situations carrying a medical bag, Heroes that do what so few dare to do, To risk themselves to help others, And that to me was inspiring and heart warming to read about,
If you are aiming to work in a medical profession of any sort, i feel this book could be useful to get a glance at the spirit of the job.
This book had me on the edge of my seat, Grange's educational background in creative writing really stands out in his memoir, and as an EMT I found his description of his curriculum and patient assessments spot on.
That being said, I felt some scenes have been dramatized and the career itself of an EMS responder appeared romanticized, That being said, this read was thoroughly enjoyable and I'm already thinking about ordering his new book that came out this April : While I enjoyed the stories of the calls, I couldn't bear the rest.
Only because this is like reading my own autobiography, My paramedic schooling was nearly identical, onlymonths long, This book is a great read, IF you're not already a paramedic, I would have loved to read this before I went to school, Mystar is not a fair representation of the book, but I only rate books aif I don't finish it, If you're not a medic, read this book, If you are a medic, it's like reliving school, a hectic time most of us would love to forget, For me, I know I've read a good book when I become engaged in a subject I had no previous desire to learn about.
Once I read an entire nonfiction book on the history and usage of longitudinal measurement, and I learned that I wanted to know everything there was to know about longitudinal measurement.
Likewise, reading this book, I learned that I wanted to know everything there was to know about paramedic school, even though I have exactly zero desire to entire the medical field in any capacity.
Good book. This book really captured my attention because it tells the story of a profession many people including myself take for granted, I couldn't put this book down once I started reading, I was completely engrossed in the authors journey to become a paramedic because I am also on a constant journey to reach a new goal or find a new job.
I could relate to his trials and tribulations, I admire that he didn't give up and was patient with himself, I enjoyed learning about the life of a paramedic, I couldn't believe that some many people put themselves through the struggles of this profession to provide service to people they don't even know.
I have a greater respect for paramedics and see them as selfless human beings, The parallels between paramedic school and nursing school made me laugh, For instance, "I made a fresh pot of coffee, tore open a thick stack of white flash cards, and immediately began writing, Four hours later, when I'd made only a modest dent in the material, it dawned on me that I was spending all my time creating flash cards and none of my time studying them.
" I know that feeling.
In general, this book made me thankful for the hard work that paramedics put in everyday, We nurses and doctors work in a controlled environment, Paramedics are out in the elements, in sometimes dangerous, hostile environments, Fascinating look into the training that goes into becoming a paramedic, I had a hard time putting this down it was so interesting, It isnt really the authors fault that I didnt love this book, I was expecting to read harrowing and exciting stories from the experiences of a paramedic, as the title would suggest instead this book is solely based on the training involved from enrolment to qualifying and beyond.
It just became a bit textbooky for me and I got bored with it,
Its less “Lights and Sirens” and more “Learning and studying” I have been so excited to read this since I got it.
Im glad I was finally able to get to it, Since starting to work in law enforcement a couple of years ago, I have become obsessed with ridealongs in all the different areas of first responders.
I thought thats what this book would be like and it definitely was not, It was a lot more about, well, the education of a paramedic shocker given the title, right and less about the individual calls he went on.
I should have expected it given the title, but I wasnt expecting this book to be so academic, I would have thought it would be more exciting and I was expecting to spend more time out in the field on the ambulance.
I still enjoyed this book, because I love memoirs and I got really invested in Kevins journey, And years of watching medical dramas on tv have left me with somewhat of an interest in medicine so I enjoyed learning about that as well.
I just dont think this is a book that I could recommend to everyone, I feel like I learned a lot from this book and am definitely more interested in emergency field medicine than I was before, Weirdly, I credit my years of medical dramas for the fact that I was able to learn so much, Im not saying watching Greys Anatomy has qualified me to perform surgery or anything, but it played a large part in first exposing me to all of that medical vocabulary, so that I had a vague idea of what a lot of those big words had to do with before I started this book and got better definitions.
If I went into this book a little bit more blind, I think I would have been overwhelmed by all of the medical terminology and I wouldnt have been able to enjoy the book as much.
It was also extremely interesting seeing how the medicine in this book differed or was similar to the medicine in fictional situations, One show in particular I was able to draw parallels with was, I started this book earlier this year and then picked it back up in December so that I could finish it before the year was over.
During the time that I had put this book down, I watched almost three seasons ofand its crazy to me how similar that show was to this book.
It makes sense, because the writers of that show did ridealongs with LAFD for a year while working on the show to try to make it as accurate as possible.
I would have enjoyed the book anyway, but that extra connection definitely increased my enjoyment, I was so excited to jump right into this that I never really stopped to think about what kind of things we might encounter during his schooling.
Im fairly squeamish and very emotional and afraid of death and bad things happening in general, I started to get afraid a little ways into this that I wasnt going to be able to make it through the whole thing.
There were definitely parts of this that were a little gross that I just tried to get through as quickly as possible and parts that were very sad, but overall that aspect didnt end up being as bad as I had started to fear.
Even though it wasnt what I expected, my favorite part of this book was still the field internship section, I would not be able to handle my preceptors being so hard on me, I know theyre only doing it because they want him to be the best he can be and because there are lives at stake, but I buckle under that kind of thing.
Im glad that paramedic school is so exacting, because if I ever need that sort of intervention, I would hope that the paramedics who show up know what theyre doing.
But it was tough to read about him going through all of that stress, After going on this journey with him, Im glad he successfully made it through to become a paramedic, I feel like I was able to celebrate that victory with him, Im really glad he included the section at the end about where hes been working since graduating paramedic school, because I would have been dying of curiosity.
I feel like I wanna keep tabs on him now to see what he does with his career, I also really wanna go on a fire department ridealong now, so Im going to make sure that happens, I wish that he had included a little bit more
information about the other graduates of Class, I wanted to know who else made it through and who didnt, At the very least, I just wanted a total number of people who graduated and people who failed out, This was such an emotional ride, I did end up enjoying this even though it wasnt what I was expecting, but I dont think its for everybody, .