what it means to be a paramedic: ‘you’re given that opportunity’ to have a positive impact on someone’s life
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sean teed has been in paramedicine for three decades, and currently uses his expertise to help advance teaching for the next generation of paramedics.
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when you think of a paramedic, your mind probably shifts toward those you see on television—high-stakes accidents and injuries, blasting through the streets with the sirens on, and losing patients in the back before they arrive at the hospital. while such scenarios do exist for real-life first responders, paramedics are so much more than what hollywood portrays.
“we have paramedics that are practicing professionally in so many different contexts,” said sean teed, a licensed critical care paramedic with an interest in education based out of nova scotia. “we have paramedic scientists who are scientists. they look through the evidence and publish what the science is saying. they’re paramedics. they may not often see traumas or acutely ill patients, but they’re working daily to produce the evidence that we use to support practise and care.”
teed also works as a casual instructor at dalhousie university for the faculty of medicine, teaching medical students and residents, and as an interprofessional educator, and co-edited a book on paramedicine titled “decision making in paramedic practice.”
there are also paramedics who work as professional policymakers “entrenched in legislation,” and paramedics in education who shape the field, whether it’s from primary care to offshore or industry levels.
teed, who’s been working in paramedicine for three decades, has had his share of diversity when it comes to job roles. he started out working in a ground ambulance before advancing through the flight paramedic academy to prepare to work in an air ambulance, a role he held “for quite some time.”
today, his interests lie in education.
“i’m very much interested in how our curriculum that we develop and deliver to paramedics or future paramedics kind of shapes and forms those individuals that will become professionals,” he said. “i work with the fire department right now here in the capital of nova scotia … as a medical specialist.”
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from onlooker to career professional
when teed was in university, he had no intention of becoming a paramedic. he and his four roommates lived across the street from an old emergency department and couldn’t ignore the ambulances constantly going in and out.
“i just got to thinking,” he said, “i bet that’s a really cool gig, and so i decided to actually volunteer at the hospital with no real intention of turning it into anything.”
at the time, he was studying business, a far cry from paramedicine, and he had only an interest in the health-care sector because his location was so close to the hospital. after spending some time volunteering, he began shifting his higher-education goals, wondering whether becoming an emergency medical technician (emt) would be better suited to his life path. before making the final decision to go to holland college to study being an emt, he went on a ride-along in an ambulance with a private ambulance operator, and it “just kind of did something” to him.
“it felt cool. it felt good. it felt interesting,” he said. “i dropped out of university and then went to college to be an emt.”
volunteering, a ride-along and a college education all prepared teed for his career in paramedicine, but even after all that, he was still “oblivious to what i was getting into.”
“the first week that i was on the job, i ended up performing cpr on someone that i knew in the community, and i was, for some reason, just didn’t expect that,” he said. “it was a little bit of an ‘oh, did i make the right decision?’”
he got over that feeling pretty quickly and, since then, hasn’t looked back. he, to this day, is grateful that he chose the career path he did.
watching paramedics change in real time
when teed first started out, the work paramedics were tasked with didn’t have as much of an impact on patient outcomes as one might think. but as his career progressed, along with technology, that changed drastically.
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“i started back in the days when it was very much a technician job. i went to scenes. i drove fast. i put patients on the stretcher as fast as i could and drove to the hospital as fast as i could,” he said.
access to data and data collection wasn’t really on the table back then, leaving paramedics with very little access to tools that could be used to really start care while on the way to the hospital. but today it’s all at their fingertips, allowing them to do point-of-care work much more readily with people who are ill or in need of care, regardless of how serious it may be.
as teed’s career progressed, so did the evolution of paramedicine, giving him a unique look into how advancement can really change things for the better.
“we recognize now that we have a role to play within the health-care system to help optimize and probably bring people through a care stream that makes sense and not just a blanket sort of treatment for everybody,” he said, later continuing, “i’ve got to see the evolution through to some of these crazy things that paramedics are able to do these days within the health-care system.”
teed says that he’s disappointed he is creeping up toward retirement because he’s “probably not going to get to see where that goes because it’s going to continue to evolve.”
“i think that’s one of the cool things about paramedicine is that paramedics embrace change, and they will move it forward,” he said.
using teaching as a way to leave a mark on the next generation
teed’s interest in teaching stems from his passion for the evolution of paramedicine. he wants to ensure that adaptability and an embrace of change aren’t lost as education for paramedics across the country continues to develop. it all comes down to how quickly things are changing, and can change, as technology progresses.
“some of the expertise that i’ve developed over the years is because i’ve had an opportunity to develop it over a long period of time. the health-care system is not going to wait for another 10 to 20 years for professionals to develop that level of expertise,” he said. “so, we need to do that from an education perspective so that ability to roll with the changes, to be adaptable, to be those quick thinkers, we’re really going to have to support that.”
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he notes that helping the paramedics of tomorrow “hit the ground running” involves providing educational support so that people don’t just graduate from their programs with zero experience when they get on the job, because it’s too important a job not to already be able to make life-altering decisions quickly.
“i’m not sure that a lot of people or professionals maybe even understand or value that [problem solving ability], how well paramedics can do that, how well you can put them in a situation and they can prioritize things, they can make decision, they can have a plan to follow through with that has a very holistic and caring outcome,” he said.
he hopes that with his teaching, and for others in the profession, that evolution of the job continues to move toward something bigger. because as it stands, it already has.
“paramedics these days are poised to step into roles that we thought we couldn’t step into before. we are at a stage in this evolution where we should be sitting at tables that we didn’t think we had a right to sit at before,” he said. “we have things to say that are rooted in science and evidence, and we should be speaking up.”
he also mentions that some things done on the job should be learned well before anyone has made up their mind about which profession they want to pursue, paramedic or not. things such as cpr and teaching children how to use an automated external defibrillator (aed) are just a couple of examples of what it means to prime people early to learn about wellness and to understand that anyone can have an impact.
it’s also important to have conversations surrounding equity, education and, more importantly, to push for policymakers and leaders within the system to support paramedic schools with the same value that they’re worth.
“we can’t just keep delivering these technical or technician-level courses or programs if we truly are going to have the impact on the system that i feel like i’ve witnessed and been a part of over the years,” he said.
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he continued, “we need to support these folks that are becoming interested in becoming paramedics … we owe that to these folks who are finding it interesting, and that might be intrigued by the lights and the sirens of the tv shows, but maybe that’s the way we get them in and once we see that they are caring individuals, that we support them through the right type of education.”
fiction is sensational, but it forgets to add one major reality of paramedicine
there are many things that tv or movies may get right when it comes to paramedicine, such as the traumatic events these professionals deal with on a day-to-day basis.
“when we worked air ambulance, you got called all the time to people’s worst day,” said teed. “it was all the time seeing that stuff.”
but oftentimes it misses out on the more emotional side of it all—the caring that goes into putting on a uniform and answering those potentially deadly calls day after day.
“television or movies really do sensationalize a lot of what paramedicine is about. really, what it comes down to for me and what it’s come down to for me over the past 30 years is that paramedicine is about caring. it’s just a way that we can care about people that’s slightly different from any other profession.”
teed is appreciative of the shows that do offer a more dramatic look into the lives of paramedics but notes that they “just don’t capture how empathetic paramedics can be and how connected they try to be with the folks that call upon them.”
he recalls some of his best memories as a paramedic doing just that—connecting and dancing with older ladies in nursing homes after a call came through and being able to really care about the patient’s outcome.
“not to sound cliché or corny, but it really is just caring. quite simply, it’s just, you’re given that opportunity to have an impact on someone’s life, and hopefully a positive impact.”
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for others looking to jump into the world of paramedicine, teed has some advice as a 30-year veteran of the profession. he notes the best kind of people, or the people who will do well on the job, are those who can listen, know they don’t always have to have the answers, and know when to take charge in a situation.
also, “somebody that can be empathetic,” he said. “that’s a really delicate balance, and it might sound contradictory, but i think all those things matter.”
he continued, “listen, and follow your heart.”
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