Setting the scene

To give you some perspective on where I am with my training, I thought that a short pressie of where I am in the grand scheme of things would be in order.

Have finished the 8 weeks of clinical training and passed the multitude (actually only 3) of exams that we have to do. So in theory a trained 'trainee' medical technician.

The Tech training program consists of 3 modules D, E & F. This is the Ambulance service, so no need to start looking for logical explanations as to why the modules are in this order. Still not sure whether I should know Modules A, B & C or even if they exist.

Mod D is all about respiratory system, coming from a background as a scuba instructor (huge street cred, absolutely no money in that game - hence this job is a considerable pay hike!!) this did not pose too much of a problem.

Mod E is all about the Skeletal system, this proved a little more tricky, as the extent of my knowledge consisted of knowing I have a skeleton, and whilst still standing upright, knowing it still worked. This module took a little more work.

Mod F is pretty much everything else they have left to cover. When you think about what could go wrong with you and what may make you call an Ambulance, this covered quite a large area, some examples would be;

• Maternity - not a small subject but we covered it in 3 hours! Really not looking forward to my first mobile birth. Various episodes of ER have prepared me better for that experience.
• Digestive system - again this area not only encompasses a fairly large proportion of your body but is also one of the systems I use on a regular basis. I was quite keen to get to know it in a lot more detail.
• Major Incidents - where there may be multiple casualties
• Child Illnesses
• Epilepsy
• plus a host of others, too numerous to mention.

This means Mod F can be a real bitch as you have the shortest time frame before the exam and the largest range of subjects to learn. This is why this one was my lowest scored result, passed though, Phew!!

Now onto the driving course!!

If you call an Ambulance and you are really ill, then we have to get to you in 8 minutes from the time the call is answered.

Obviously this may involve turning the lights on in the big blue box on the roof. This tends to make the general public panic and do all sorts of strange things. In addition to this Ambulances weight around 4.5 tons so 0 - 60 time is not great, so once the thing is moving the idea is to keep it moving to make 'Progress' - this is the main focus of the driving course.

1 week of normal learning to drive properly in unmarked vehicles, then a final week on blue lights in an actual Ambulance.