I was lying on the couch at about 4am this morning. It was peaceful at the branch except for the faint white noise from the air-conditioner. Anyway, I got to thinking about how we get so used to seeing bizarre stuff, so overstimulated, that if someone’s head opened up in the back of an ambulance and the Queen floated out riding a bicycle, we’d probably not bat an eyelid and instead write it down on the case sheet in that matter-of-fact way; “04:02 am: Patient’s head spontaneously opened revealing small Royal figure on 2 wheeled vehicle. Patient displaying no apparent ill effects”.
On the one hand we are desensitised by the job, and not easily surprised - and on the other hand the slightest beep from a mobile phone, an MDT or a SelCall and your heart is racing and you are wide awake (mostly). I was recently standing behind someone in the post office when their pager went off and it had the same physical reaction on me as if I was at work. That constant stimulation of the fight-or-flight reflex just can’t be good for you.
Actually I just remembered about the rather enthusiastic young ambulance student who turned up at the branch with an Ambulance siren as the ringtone on her mobile phone. By lunchtime on her first day I think someone quietly took her aside and made some suggestions, before she was lynched by the crews at branch.
4 comments:
I get the same thing happen to me. Any beeping sound when I'm not paying attention will get me going for a second or two before I realize what it really is.
Ah, glad its not just me then :)
Does anyone else wake up every now and then thinking they can hear the familiar beep of the radio? Or do I just need to get out more?
Nope, it's definately not just you. If I'm standing in a shop and someone makes a call on a speaker phone, the ringing tone of the phone at the other end sounds like our MDTs ringing with a job. Gets me every bloody time! :)
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