so
hey guys my name's sam and welcome to prepmedic for those of you that
don't know outside of youtube my full-time job is as a critical care flight paramedic
so for this week's video i thought it would be a cool idea to do a day in the life video where
i bring you guys along for a full 24 hour shift show you everything that's involved with the job
obviously we have to start with the morning routine so it's about 3 30 a.m
i've already had a cup of coffee and we're about to go work out
so my workouts always consist of some strength training and then an endurance
component i've got a bike and a treadmill that i use relatively regularly so these
workouts were programmed for me by tactical human which is a fitness service essentially
that takes into account the demands of being a first responder in the military
anything like that and they've kind of tailored this program for me so i'm not sponsored by
them or anything i've just found that having applicable workouts really makes a difference
instead of going through a program that's you know trying to turn you into a bodybuilder or extreme
endurance athlete i just need things that will allow me to do my job for a long period of time
workout is finally done and thankfully even though i've been filming all morning
i still have time for a coffee and a quick shower before i have to leave for work
Let's hit the road
so today's shift we're going in for a 24-hour shift i work two days a week i
work thursdays and saturdays thursdays i'm on a ground critical care truck and then
on saturdays i'm on a helicopter so i really like that schedule it's not for everyone just because
you know you can be up all night sometimes we don't do anything but more often than not you're
kind of running on lack of sleep it also gives me a lot of free time during the week to watch my kid
get things done produce these videos things like that so you know i really enjoy
lifeline one has you loud and clear today you have eric as your pilot sam is your medic and alyssa as
your nurse all right well good morning guys so today's looking good for flying we can go north
east and south right now mountains to the west are getting snow uh we do have a segment for
turbulence so just plan on it being bumpy once we get a few hundred feet above the ground
so yeah just double check your nvgs make sure they're good to go
make sure nothing's broken on them and things like that i am safe i'm safe i'm safe
so that right there is our helicopter it is an a-star has about 1 000 horsepower
top speeds around 160 miles per hour we use it because one it's cheap to operate and also it is
really good at high altitude so i don't know if you can see it with this lens but the rocky
mountains are right there and we fly up into them all the time so one of our first responsibilities
in the morning is to go through every single bag and compartment on the helicopter test all of the
machinery and equipment there just to make sure it works and it's ready to go for the day
so we are a critical care medical helicopter we fly with a pilot
a medic and a nurse obviously and then we run both 911 calls so we call them scene flights
and IFTs interfacility transfers if somebody has to go from one place to another but has a
lot of advanced things being done to them like they have an impella
a balloon pump they require a lot of drips or they're intubated and need a ventilator
that's generally when we'll take them instead of a advanced life support ground ambulance
now that we have the helicopter checks done the pilots given this daily brief we have to come on
and qa the previous shifts calls so any flights they ran we go through and make sure there are no
clinical errors it's a good learning experience for them and that it helps keep our care
up to par we also have a lot of continuing education we have to
do so we have monthly continuing education quarterly that's done on the computer and
in person so try to knock some of that out in the next couple hours
is there no ems on scene yet? Not yet no they just got dispatched to it
all right so we just got dispatched to a scene call our goal lift time
is under 10 minutes we can usually beat that pretty well
but we'll be flying up into the mountains it's a little bit cloudy but nothing to worry about
at
zero at one
so we were cancelled by first responders before we even got there uh it turned out they didn't need
a helicopter sometimes the dispatch information is a little bit different than what actually is
going on here we can see what kind of educational stuff the nurse is doing oh wait she's just on
tick-tock tick-tock come on man eric what advice do you have to everybody if you want to be a pilot
you still have to do paperwork
don't do it unless you absolutely love aviation
and you absolutely dream of being a pilot otherwise it's going to be painful
roger will be three souls onboard or out to
be off the ground here in about a minute we'll be 18 minutes enroute around
um HOE 5,300, 2 hours of fuel no warning lights gages are good eyes outside let's go sterile
guys got all the things? all the things. all the things.
so tower you can transition the airspace metro altimeter is 3012.
and clear right
all right how big are the snowbanks around this thing uh maybe a foot
tail inside the circle yes tails circle
all right good start check skids come aboard all right let's get clear all around coming
in roughline one last departure return risk receives requested on course metro timber 3013
3013 lifeline one at virus
give me those stickers real quick
huh obviously there's a lot we can't show just because of hipaawa's you know i wish
i could show you a little bit more of the critical care medicine we do because that's
really what the job is the helicopter is cool but ultimately it's just a vehicle
went on the third flight another inner facility relatively close by it's getting a little late
that brings us to two patient flights and one canceled that's pretty typical
of this kind of shift now it's time to get some charts done and go to bed if we can
hopefully we can get a little bit of rest tonight
made it through the night without any more calls let's get to shift change
there you have it guys an entire 24-hour shift with
a flight paramedic i hope it was entertaining or at least a little bit informative
if you have any questions leave them in the comments down below and i will see you next week
yes