One of my favorite bloggers, Seth Godin, recently introduced me to the work of Scott McCloud, an author who’s written several classic books
on 
understanding comic books. Scott dissects the comic medium and explains the ongoing allure of the comic book to the uninitiated.
One of Scott’s observations is that comic books require imagination on the part of the reader because, in all great comic books, the action occurs between the frames. The artist only shows you snapshots of action and dialogue. Most of the story takes place in our heads. The real story is the stuff that we invent that happened in-between the frames.
Medicine works in much the same way. We assess, we ask our questions, we do our head-to-toe and we make a guess (educated) about what’s going on. Then we make a change, and the medicine begins, after we make the change, not before.
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…. Answered
I asked for the questions and I got them, in spades. I put the challenge out there; What’s the hardest 
question you’re willing to ask about the life and job of an EMT? As usual, I started out with high expectations and then was blown away by the awesome response.
In fact I got so many great questions I needed to divide this post into two parts. So here are my answers to some tough reader questions about the life and work of an EMT. Thanks for asking them.
I’ll post the second installment next time.
1. How do you deal with smells, blood, guts, disfigurement and dead bodies?@BrownCoatEMT via Twitter
I’ve never been real great with smells. I’ve come close to puking but never full-on hurled on a call. some people go so far as to carry Vick’s vapo-rub to put on their lip. They say it helps. Me, I just decide to bear it. Though there have been moments that if I’d had the Vick’s jar, I’d have used it.
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Still struggling with the good EMT thing. I’m glad to be at your service. Grab a pen and answer these
questions for yourself.
- What’s your internal bias toward dealing with patients and their challenges? When patients have needs that don’t meet with your expectations how do you tend to react? Could you do that better? How?
- What’s it like to be your partner? How do people feel about you after they’ve run calls with you? Is that by your design?
- How do you handle it when you fail? When you have a bad call or things don’t go right? Are you willing to be fallible before your peers and own your mistakes? If you really felt that you were good at what you do, what would be the ideal way to address these inevitable errors?
- What is your tolerance for learning. Are you still in an active learning process or have you stagnated in your growth since you entered the field. What did you learn today?
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I was searching around on Twitter today for tweets using the acronym “EMT”. I was struck by how many EMT students were discussing their current trials and tribulations with EMT class on twitter. EMT students talk with each other about EMT class differently than they talk to me about it. Perhaps because I’m the instructor they downplay how difficult the curriculum can be.
Maybe they don’t want to be honest and show vulnerability to me since I also evaluate them on test days. Or perhaps they don’t want to seem like the class is to much for them. I talk with students about my views on the current EMT curriculum. If it were up to me the class would be longer and more in depth. This could make them reluctant to admit when they are overwhelmed.
I know EMT class is hard. I watch my students struggle through it. I remember. Most EMT students have never been asked to absorb that volume of information in such a short time frame. Since I do quite a bit of tutoring for the class, I also get a lot of one-on-one time with the students who need extra help. Some will eventually pass. Some will fail and I’ll have to have a hard conversation with them about the future.
I’ve come to some conclusions about which students are more likely to pass and which will likely fail. Failure is predictable. Sometimes I’m wrong, but not often. When a student sits across the table from me and hears the hard news that they will not meet the standard to pass the class, I can usually point to one of four key areas where they failed.
If you are contemplating EMT class or if you are already going through an EMT program, here are four questions to ask yourself to help you predict you probability of success.
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