I want to be a paramedic, but...

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1. It's against my principles to save people who want to die. I want to respect all my patients' wishes. So I'd have a MAJOR problem saving people who had tried to kill themselves unless they told me that now they wanted to live.


2. I would have to treat people for shock and not call them wimps.


3. I would have to go into dangerous neighborhoods and risk getting shot.


I'm still going to study to be a paramedic and become one, but follow my principles about suicide (so what if I end up in jail? I'd have witnesses saying the patient wants to die and the patient has te right to refuse treatment, and I would feel good about myself even if I got a life sentence, because i respected the patient
s wishes.) and not call shock victims wimps even if I think they are, and just be careful in bad places, looking around me and such. What do you think?

what about the loud noises and stress?

I don't mind loud noises, and I want to prove to people that I can handle stress, which is why I want to at least try and become a paramedic. However, driving will be very difficult. (I'm 21, but I still can't drive... never had the chance to learn.)


Maybe I should become a mortician instead. That's another thing I want to do.

If someone was mentally ill, and was going to attack or injure another person, would you think it was your duty to intervene, to treat the mentally ill person and to prevent harm to others?

Well, I think it's a similar thing in terms of many people who try to commit suicide. Lots of people attempt it because they are suffering from psychiatric conditions such as depression. Surely, the mentally ill person needs to be treated to protect and save the 'other' person (even if the 'other' is in fact within the same body, is another facet of that person's personality/character kind of thing).

It's arguable that most people who try to commit suicide are not of sound mind and not in any fit state to make such a decision. (I'm not talking here about terminally ill people and euthanasia/assisted suicide in those specific circumstances).

That's a good point about the suicidality; I've felt that way myself, where a small part of me anted to die and the bigger part of me didn't want to die but the smaller part was the part that had access to the controls.


I've finally settled on a career I want: MRI technician, then when I get more confident with people, nursing assistant and then nurse. Unlike with a paramedic, you don't have to learn to drive and you don't have to memorize the entire city so you can know your way around.

Memorizing the entire city would be my favorite part of the paramedic training.

My AS is what made me decide not to enter any medical fields. The staff/patient relationship is the hardest part for me. Especially for something like nurse. A good nurse is empathetic to the patient.

One horrible scenerio would be an aspie philebotomist (sp?) with an aspie patient. Often when I get my blood drawn, I pass out. When I regain consciousness, I'm disoriented, and angry about it. They tell me that most of the people who pass out during this are males so, I'm thinking that AS could have something to do with it. The most personable female blood-drawers are the ones that I've felt most comfortable getting the procedure from.

You don't have to drive! You can be a passenger. You will start out as a EMT however. You really don't get a lot of attempted deaths more grandma fell etc. Be prepared for the occasional death however. Grant it it is going to be hard but you can do it.

Lyssa
Daughter a Fire Chief and Paramedic