Austin’s Letter
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Austin’s Letter
When walking into shift for the first time I was nervous like any first day at a new job. I got there at 7:40am. Apparently, I was late. No one told me to make sure I got there at 7:30 at the latest. No one told me that we should bring our own lunch and maybe dinner.
The only thing I brought to the station my first day was a department-issued T-shirt, pants, and boots and I also bought some donuts and coffee for everyone on shift. I didn’t even bring bedding or a change of clothes. I showed up basically empty-handed. Granted, I started my career during the COVID pandemic and me and the other rookies were not given an orientation like most of the other new hires.
When walking in, I was overwhelmed by all of the people. People wearing red shirts or people wearing navy shirts or white shirts. I didn’t know the difference until I started shaking hands and introducing myself that the people in red were my lieutenants and people in white were the chiefs. Since I was an explorer throughout high school, I only knew one person on my shift named Josh Roell. Josh remembered me and helped me get to know the people on my shift and how everything works. Josh was a great person to help me get to know my job and what to do. In the morning, he helped me clean, sweep, take out the trash and make coffee. He got me a locker for my gear and upstairs, but for some reason the next shift the locker we picked for me was not mine anymore. My name was off of it and someone else name was there. I took my gear home every day since I didn’t have a place to store it and every day I had a backpack of clothes that I would take every shift.
For me and the other 4 that were hired at that time, we were given a Phase One book and told we needed to read it and know everything in it. There were certain things that needed to be checked off in order for your Phase One book to be completed. For a new hire who is already nervous, this was a lot. After meeting everyone and receiving my Phase One book I was often found inside the ambulance learning and trying to remember where everything was. I was opening every compartment, taking pictures and studying everything inside. It wasn’t until a few weeks later I met Phil Faro.
Phil saw me every shift in the ambulance trying to remember where everything was. He was the only person at the time that asked me if I needed help. He told me his way of remembering things, and how the back of the ambulance broke down from airway, to advance airway, to trauma. Phil also helped me get signed off on the ambulance by running a mock code and testing me on what to do and how to be more efficient and confident.
If it wasn’t for Phil helping me and getting everything signed off, I don’t think I would be as confident of an EMT as I am now. Phil was a great mentor even though he wasn’t my mentor- officially.
I’m not saying Phil was the only one to help me out. There were many on shift that helped me with certain things. Certain people showed me the engine or how to work the cascade system. Many would just brush me off and tell me to ask someone else. No one but Phil and a few others helped me step by step multiple times a week for months. Just Phil and a few others would always ask me if I needed help or if I had any questions that they could help with. If they didn’t know the answer, they would find it for me and get back to me.
I think that this department needs some sort of mentor program. A person or two on each shift that is willing to help the new guy with anything and everything. Someone who the rookie could go to with questions and not get criticized for not knowing something. For example, I felt comfortable coming to Phil and asking him to go over the inside of the ambulance with me, even though he’s gone through it multiple times. The mentor program could help rookies like myself learn how to work the monitor and what’s expected of me each call. Mentors could even go over stuff not yet seen by rookies like an LMA. Before working at the fire station, I had no clue what an LMA was or that I could even put one in as an EMT.
The mentor program would make rookies feel like they have someone they can trust their very first shift on the job. The rookies would have nothing to fear if they had questions. Honestly speaking, I was scared to ask some people questions about how to work certain things or where something was because I was afraid of the response I was going to get from the senior firefighters. Should I be scared to ask if I don’t know something? Probably not. But as a rookie, I was nervous as ever.
I think Apopka would benefit from a program like this for many reasons. One of the most important reasons is that they have someone they can talk to one on one about things as simple as where something might be on a truck, or even if they had a bad call just need someone they can talk to. This program would be beneficial for that. This program would be extremely helpful for the new rookies and new people we hire as a department.
Written by Austin Duran
May 15th, 2021