Also as a new parent I often had the urge to make sure the kids were sleeping. On hundreds of occasions I have gently rested my hand on their backs to feel for rhythmic and gentle breathing. I don’t know if there is anything more reassuring.

I too would love to see some (no all) staff be able to stand in front of their peers and critically review some of the jobs they have attended on. It would be such a great learning opportunity, if handled properly and supportively. However, I think most of the paramedics I know would be mortified about having to discuss their rationale for any actions that they did or didnt do on scene at a job.. Its not part of the UK ambulance culture, even though it should be!

“Wow, what a crappy memo. I can’t believe we’re going to do that. Hey let’s go play outside!”

Wouldnt that just be fab too!!

Actually,the more I think about it the more I realise that the main reason that we dont do any of the things you mentioned in the 5 points above is that they arent ‘cool’ to do. Who wants to be ‘that’ guy who goes out of his way to seek out learning opportunities, who actively seeks constructive criticism on the way they do thier job, who would love to set up a journal club so that more than just him learns from articles and research that he has read and who sometimes steps outside of his guidelines when treating a patient, but with sound clinical rationale for doing so and follows up with reporting himself to the clinical department for doing so……

Oh wait, that would be me then!!

I may not be the coolest paramedic on the block and not with the ‘in crowd’ at work, but I know that I am good at my job!