Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to everyone. Med phase is officially done with all 16 of us successfully finishing our practical ambulance time without killing anyone (always a good thing). Working on the ambulance was a great experience that allowed us to actually apply the months of knowledge and to use the improvisation that SAR Techs are reknowned for. It was kind of crazy actually since we only learn to deal with a certain amount of injuries/illnesses when in reality there is sooo much more you have to be prepared to deal with. Common sense plays a huge role. I haven't talked to all of the guys but the general consensus from the paramedic preceptors that I had were that, they absolutely love getting the SAR students. A lot of them won't even precept the regular civilian paramedic students and only precept SAR Techs. My only complaint about the med phase as a whole was that we didn't get enough practical time. I'm sure the rest of the course would agree that they would like the time to become a better paramedic.

A lot of people have been asking me if the course is over now. Noooo way. We've just finished the medical portion. The medical aspect of it is by far the most important part of being a SAR Tech. Everything else is just a vehicle to get guys to a rescue scene and administer medical aid. That being said I don't know a single guy who has done this to be a paramedic. We do it to jump out of planes, climb mountains, and dive. And that's all the stuff we have coming for the rest of the year up until June. First up is Winter Ops and I honestly don't have a clue as to what I'm going to learn during that phase. After that is Arctic Ops. I look on that phase as a mixed bag. I'm super excited to just be going to the Arctic and learning survival up there but -50 celcius is bloody cold when you don't go inside at all and sleep in snow caves. Hahahha we'll see how it goes!