Corpsman With Wisdom

[citrus]

Hey Corpsman just put up this thread so that I can get some info on what all the different duties a Corpsman does. From Sea Duty, Hospital/Clinic Duty, and whatever else there is in the states and overseas.

Share your wisdom with me plus your past and present job responsibilities. Sounds like I might not go FMTB right away so I want to see if the grass is GREENER on the BLUE SIDE!

[citrus]

Common BLUE SIDE tell me the details!

[puckmedic]

OK Lemme work on this

You got A school then C school (maybe) Let's say you dont do C school. General Duty (quad zero's) get assigned where ever they are needed. In a clinic, that's any where from acute care clinic to records. Lab and xray are all techs. You could work Prev med, Aviation Med, sick call, Facilities (not even close to being medical but needed).

On ship, same thing, but at least you can get qualified to work in xray, flight deck or where ever. You can do anything you want all yuo have to do is ask.

If you want to stay busy and be a real HM, stay operational side and forget about hospitals and clinics. I did nearly 20 yrs operational.

Last tour was Guam Naval Hospital- I was the Operational Forces Medical Liasion. I had a 98% completion of all tasks and services requested. If it could be done at Guam, I got it for the ships. I worked wierd hours, got calls all the day and night but my job satisfaction was sky high. As long as I took care of folks I was pleased. I got right nasty when blocked. One doctor told me he had no openings, I told him tell the XO that as I dialed her phone (cell) and handed him the phone. Gues what? Appointments came real quick!

Ya got to find waht you like, I was an Aviation Med Tech and I would never want to be anything else. I never wanted to leave the squadrons!! Guam started out rough, but I grew a back bone and demanded the job from the CMC. I didn't ask, I told him I was going to replace the HM1 when he left the job open or hurt the one I had to work with in Physicals. I got the CO's approval with in the hour.

Loved it all but that last tour will always be the best one I ever had!

[DOC_Newt]

Here is a bit of advise, no matter where you are stationed to start and no matter what you are doing to start out try to be the best at what ever it is. My first duty station was NNMC Bethesda, MD and they stuck me on the ward I thought I was going to hate it but it was a good learning experiance and I grew as a Corpsman, and that is what the first couple of years in the Navy are all about fine tuning your skills and learning the job. If you do go to a Hospital or Clinic and you are interested in taking a "C" school then request to do some On the Job Training so you can see if that is what you want to do for the rest of your career in the Navy. Also request all the training and classes that you can they will pay off in the long run.

[puckmedic]

That's in house and civilian schools and training. I did some time in a trauma unit in Jacksonville Florida. I went to work there every day for 2 months, never saw the Navy. I worked with the worst cases the city could toss at us. By the time I left there, the Doctors and Nurses had a better idea of what a Navy HM can and will do, with or with out a DR present.

They were impressed by us, I think there were two others, one I know for sure. I went back to my parent command and was a better care provider.

Before that I did 2 weeks at rescue 9 with Jax Fire Rescue- plenty of street level first response stuff from a cat stuck in a car fanbelt to Valium overdoses. Saw my fair share of crazy people, and had to literally fight a guy one night because he thought we were aliens. No kidding had to kick box him into submission, the paramedics stood there laughing!!


About a week later I was second truck on a scene right out of my trauma center days. I had just come back to the Navy daily grind, and was on my first duty after all my outside education. Call from front gate security about an MVA right out the gate. We had a mutual aid agreement with the county so we responded our primary. I was second slot that night.

Motorcycle vs moving van style truck. Rider died, passenger lived (amputee below the knee and lost part of her jaw.) Driver of truck tremendously emotional, had to be talked out of suicidal gesture.

If I hadn't the training, I wouldn't have been effective and calm.

First Navy EMT on scene was so shaken by it, he applied for the Navy Paramedic program to "be able to do more". He's now a trauma room MD in a major city and last I heard he flies to the scene!

Some good comes from everything, sometimes we just don't see it. Remember that when you ask (and you will- we all did), "what the hell am I doing here?" Some where the training will be needed.

I often wonder what I got from the wards and the answer is so simple- compassion and I learned how to talk to people and find out how I can help them. Sometimes just listening is all it takes. This job you got to have ears and the ability to feel compassion even for the enemy or the angry old guy in room 23( the one who a week later dies? Yeah ) . The guy's angry because he's got terminal cancer- inside he's crushed that he can't seem to be nicer, he always was such a nice person his family will say.

So when you meet the angry patient- be compassionate not a combatant. It will be a comfort to them.

[puckmedic]

by the way- I wasn't always compassionate to some of the folks on the ward. It is the one thing and the only thing I wish I could go back and change in my life.

Don't make the same mistake

[DeeDee]

sound advice puckmedic
thanks for sharing
DeeDee