Thoughts From My First Day

proudly hanging in my closet

Well, yesterday was my first day and it was pretty great. We have a full gym in the ambulance bay which is just fantastic. Although it sounds like we post (park the ambulance in a specific location and wait for a call) the entire shift, so I guess people just use it before and after their shifts? Also, everyone at the company seems genuinely nice and it does seem to have a very “family” vibe.

There was one other new-hire and myself, which apparently there were 75 applicants for 2 positions, and we were the chosen two. Wow.   Just shows what the economy is like these days.  The thing that freaked me out yesterday was that the very first thing we did was have to take freaking 200 question exam!! Agh!! I was killing myself, I wish I would have anticipated that there was going to be a test, and studied. It was on DNRs and legality questions, and then a section on how to read the Thomas Guide. Also a bunch of skills questions and we also had skills testing.

So I passed the test, but am getting pretty nervous for the next couple weeks of training. Basically we have 3-10 shifts with our FTO which we can either pass or fail. And if you fail, then you don’t get an offer of employment, and you are SOL. So our boss tells us that 50% OF ALL TRAINEES FAIL THE TRAINING! Agggggh. No pressure there. He tells us that things we can do other than really nailing our skills are to be early every shift, look neat in our uniforms, study the (300 page each) different protocols for the four different counties our firm operates in, volunteer to wash the rigs and do dishes, stay late, and be a good team member. 50% failure rate!

I called my FTO this morning to schedule my training and she sounds really nice. Although she works 24 hour shifts! So next week I am doing three 24 hour shifts with her starting Monday at 7:00am. I asked if I should bring pajamas, and she said “Well, if we get a call we have to be on the rig driving out in under 3 minutes, so I normally don’t change, but if you think you’ll have time to doso go for it.” Fack.

I haven’t stayed up 24 hours straight in a very long while. This is going to be interesting. Nothing like throwing myself headfirst into the fire.

Also a kind of fun detail is they are sending us to an 8-hour EVOC course (emergency vehicle operators) which takes place on a TRACK. Heh. Cool. But still… lots of pressure to pass the training.

On my to do list for the weekend is going to the uniform shop in San Jose to get sized and fitted for issued pants and also pick up some boots. I’m dragging Earl, and we’ll most likely take Linus and go to the beach afterward. We’ve got quite a bit to celebrate, so might as well make it a fun day

Here is some EVOC course footage I found online… can’t wait for this class:
EVOC Driving Coarse