{"id":434905,"date":"2022-04-20T18:04:44","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T15:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/"},"modified":"2022-04-20T18:04:44","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T15:04:44","slug":"canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"#Canadian paramedics are in crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a291cc4e53b8\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a291cc4e53b8\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#%E2%80%9CCanadian_paramedics_are_in_crisis%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Canadian paramedics are in crisis&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Dave_Deines\" >Dave Deines<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Vancouver_BC\" >Vancouver, B.C.<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Natalia_Marijke_Bourdages\" >Natalia Marijke Bourdages<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Brampton_Ontario\" >Brampton, Ontario<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Paul_Hills\" >Paul Hills<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Saskatoon_Saskatchewan\" >Saskatoon, Saskatchewan<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Terrilyn_Good\" >Terrilyn Good<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#North_Delta_British_Columbia\" >North Delta, British Columbia<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Patrick_Suthers\" >Patrick Suthers<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Kingston_Ontario\" >Kingston, Ontario<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-12\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Noor_Karfoul\" >Noor Karfoul<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-13\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Charlottetown_Prince_Edward_Island\" >Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-14\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Josh_Fisher\" >Josh Fisher<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-15\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Happy_Valley-Goose_Bay_Newfoundland_and_Labrador\" >Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-16\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Jessica_Frith\" >Jessica Frith<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-17\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Baker_Lake_Nunavut\" >Baker Lake, Nunavut\u00a0<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-18\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Heather_Cook\" >Heather Cook<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-19\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/#Calgary_Alberta\" >Calgary, Alberta\u00a0<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CCanadian_paramedics_are_in_crisis%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Canadian paramedics are in crisis&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n                There are too many patients: too many people with COVID, people who can\u2019t breathe, people who are in psychiatric crises or feel chest pain or have overdosed or fallen or crashed their cars. They want nurses, family doctors, home care, psychiatrists and <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a> workers. They need hospital beds, long-term care homes and affordable mental health programs\u2014all of which are in short supply. But there is 911; there is always 911. The problem is there are not enough paramedics to answer the call.<\/p>\n<p>Emergency medical services across the country are in serious trouble. One COVID surge after another piled even more stress onto a system that was riddled with cracks long before the pandemic began. The number of 911 calls has been rising for at least a decade. At the same time, rampant overcrowding in emergency departments means paramedics get backed up in hospitals, where doctors and nurses are already swamped. During these periods, known as offload delays, they care for patients in hallways and ambulance bays, unable to move on to the next person in need.<\/p>\n<p>A 2017 report commissioned by Defence Research and Development Canada\u2019s Centre for Security <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science<\/a> identified <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roximately 38,000 paramedics across the country. One-third of respondents said they\u2019d taken a medical leave in the two years leading up to the survey; just over 10 per cent said they\u2019d taken one for their mental health.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>MORE:\u00a0The nurse imposter<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The instability in EMS has roots in a system dating back nearly 200 years. In 1832, a cholera outbreak in the town of York\u2014now Toronto\u2014led to the creation of the first known ambulance service in what would become Canada. The town approved a wooden \u201ccholera cart\u201d to tow sick patients away from crowded areas, sometimes straight to funeral homes. These carters, as they were called, did not provide medical care. They simply carried the dead and dying away from the living. Modern paramedics aren\u2019t just ambulance drivers; the scope of their practice has broadened. In a single shift, they might pull someone out of a wrecked car, lift someone else off the floor and find a social worker for an unhoused person.<\/p>\n<p>Lindsey Boechler, a former advanced care paramedic and a researcher at the Centre for Health Research, Improvement and Scholarship at Saskatchewan Polytechnic, studied paramedics across Canada in the early months of the pandemic. She hadn\u2019t planned on doing a mental health study, but that\u2019s what her research became. Paramedics told her that they anguished over how to care for patients in uncertain times. The rules changed from shift to shift, they said. One participant described a chaotic scene: \u201cFour paramedics showed up and everybody had a different care plan. That\u2019s how many times policies have changed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many EMS services told their paramedics to stop intubating patients or using airway tools during COVID\u2019s first wave, when PPE supplies were in question and the virus was poorly understood. To some, this seemed like a violation of their obligation to patients. \u201cThey believed they were inflicting harm and holding that burden on themselves,\u201d says Boechler. EMS workers told her that they turned to alcohol. They missed going to the gym to blow off steam. Some separated themselves from their kids for months, uncertain of what they might bring home. One paramedic said she cried in her truck, undone because she couldn\u2019t find a place to pee. All the public bathrooms were closed.<\/p>\n<p>In the past 12 months, cities all over Canada have reported code reds, meaning there are no ambulances or paramedics available to help\u2014no matter how critical the emergency. Toronto called one in January, and Waterloo, Ontario, called 11 in December alone. Between August 1 and December 6, 2021, Calgary and Edmonton were issuing red alerts every 90 minutes. Out east, Nova Scotia\u2019s Standing Committee on Health heard the same story. The business manager of the local paramedics\u2019 union said, \u201cToday, the system is nearing the point of failure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Occupational Projection System has estimated the need for another 4,000 paramedics by 2028. In addition to more personnel, experts and workers on the ground have proposed intuitive solutions to the EMS crisis: more trucks; more hospital beds; more of everything. Other ideas, like investments in community paramedics\u2014those who provide care on a regular, non-emergency basis\u2014are gaining traction. Mostly, paramedics seem to want recognition that they are skilled health care professionals, not carters, and that their work is a matter of life and death.<\/p>\n<p>In January, a 95-year-old Vancouver man spent six hours on the floor of his apartment and survived. The next month, an elderly Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois man died in an ambulance in a hospital garage as he waited to be tended to by staff. Each paramedic has a life, too, full of stories of resilience, coping and, sometimes, barely that. Here, they share their own.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<div id=\"attachment_1236039\" style=\"width: 4490px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"wp-image-1236039 size-full lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/macleans-paramedic-final-9361_GradyMitchell.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4480\" height=\"6720\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photograph by Grady Mitchell)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Dave_Deines\"><\/span>Dave Deines<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Vancouver_BC\"><\/span>Vancouver, B.C.<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>I always knew I wanted to be a paramedic. I loved watching old episodes of <em>Emergency! <\/em>on TV when I was growing up. I joined the Canadian Forces as a medic in 1990. I was never deployed overseas with the military, but I\u2019ve been deployed five times as a volunteer with the NGO Canadian Medical Assistance Teams. I went to Indonesia after the tsunami, then Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. I also went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit.<\/p>\n<p>When I started working in Victoria in 1995, if I did more than eight calls in a 12-hour shift, that would be extremely busy. Now, in Vancouver, crews regularly do 10, 12 or 14 calls every shift. The skills we have today are light years ahead of what we did when I was starting out. In some cases, we\u2019re doing procedures that were historically reserved for physicians\u2014like intubating a patient, or putting a needle into someone\u2019s chest to relieve pressure in their lungs.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m the president of the Paramedic Association of Canada, and the provincial vice-president of the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. I still get out and ride with crews, and I\u2019m part of the urban search-and-rescue team here in Vancouver\u2014that\u2019s when I can just be a paramedic. My stress is different now than it was when I didn\u2019t have these leadership roles. Back then, it was focused on individual patients or catastrophic calls. Now, my stress is more about trying to advance the entire profession.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve seen a dramatic increase in the volume and complexity of the calls. That drives the frustration that front-line paramedics feel on a daily basis. For instance, we\u2019ve been dealing with overdoses forever. What\u2019s new is the substances we\u2019re encountering. We see more potent drugs on the street. Toxic opioids are going around. Drug dealers don\u2019t subscribe to quality control. In B.C., we\u2019re seeing a trend in poly-overdoses, which involve opioids mixed with illicit drugs or other substances. Those patients are difficult to treat, because the respiratory depression can be more profound.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>RELATED:\u00a0Chronic exhaustion, derailed lives and no way out. This is long COVID.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>What makes the current moment unique is a combination of the last three years: not just the opioid crisis, not just COVID, but climate disasters, too. We had the heat dome at the end of June. More than 800 people died, putting a huge strain on the paramedic service. In November, we had flooding and rainstorms. Any external factor that increases call volume puts additional demands on a service that\u2019s operating at close to 100 per cent most of the time.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s exhausting to continually operate at those levels. Five years ago, you\u2019d have time after a call to sit down and talk with your partner. We refer to them as \u201cbumper chats,\u201d conversations that allow you to physically, emotionally, psychologically place that call behind you and get ready for the next one. Now, those aren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n<p>Paramedics are resilient. We\u2019re used to working in stressful situations. But from a national perspective, we need more boots on the ground. If you were to ask paramedics, \u201cWhat\u2019s the number-one thing that can be done?\u201d it would be to recognize what we do, and provide support to help them do their job. It doesn\u2019t matter where you go in Canada. The issues are <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>ly the same. There are too many calls and not enough ambulances.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<div id=\"attachment_1236031\" style=\"width: 3337px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1236031 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Z064337_ErinLeydon.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3327\" height=\"5000\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photograph by Erin Leydon)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Natalia_Marijke_Bourdages\"><\/span>Natalia Marijke Bourdages<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Brampton_Ontario\"><\/span>Brampton, Ontario<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>I was born and raised outside of Tkar<em>\u014d<\/em>n:to, and I did my undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph in biological sciences. I was thinking about medical school when I noticed an application deadline for a paramedic program at Humber College. I got in and instantly loved it. The job is fast-paced and unpredictable. I now work for Peel Regional Paramedic Services, covering the area where I grew up. Sometimes I even see someone I know during a shift.<\/p>\n<p>For me, the most rewarding calls are the ones where I can get somebody access to the help they need. Before the pandemic, I went to a call for a trans woman who was having a mental health crisis and couldn\u2019t reach her usual support people. She didn\u2019t know what to do but knew she didn\u2019t want to go to the hospital. I sat with her and listened. I opened up about also being a member of the queer community. I asked what helped with her anxiety and she said music, so we found some songs on her phone.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the kind of call where someone is lost in the system. Those calls also put the paramedic in a weird place, because bringing someone to the hospital is what we are trained to do\u2014but maybe that\u2019s not always the best thing. It is an extreme balancing act to sit and listen to a patient when there are so many calls coming in. Of course, that\u2019s not how paramedicine is taught: you learn what medications to administer and how to perform CPR, but the reality is more like community care. And you\u2019re still needed out on the road. There\u2019s no easy answer.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>READ:\u00a0The pandemic is breaking parents<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>When the pandemic began, I jumped at the opportunity to go into nursing homes to do testing. At the same time, as an Afro-Caribbean person, I was dealing with the anti-Black racism that became more visible after the murder of George Floyd. It was an extremely hard time to be a racialized person on the front lines. I had to take a mental health leave from work and was later diagnosed with PTSD.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m married, and my partner is an Indigenous birth worker. It was scary, trying not to bring the virus home. We\u2019re lucky in that we have similar realms of work and a similar likelihood of exposure during the pandemic. We have been able to lean on each other during the difficult times.<\/p>\n<p>After returning from my leave, I had the opportunity to do some shifts in the vaccine clinics. We were in the middle of the Delta surge, when Peel was hit hard. We were getting calls for people who had oxygen saturations lower than anything I\u2019d ever seen before. Young people were dying. By the time Omicron arrived, all the paramedics were catching COVID. Many of us were already feeling extremely burnt out, and then we started losing our people. It\u2019s a tough time, but I don\u2019t want to make it sound like we\u2019re not here. We are here. You can call 911 and we will be there to help.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<div id=\"attachment_1236042\" style=\"width: 2858px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"wp-image-1236042 size-full lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ZLz1ig_dm_r2_GradyMitchell.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2848\" height=\"4256\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photograph by Dustin Veitch)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Paul_Hills\"><\/span>Paul Hills<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Saskatoon_Saskatchewan\"><\/span>Saskatoon, Saskatchewan<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>I\u2019ve been doing this work for about 22 years now. When I started, I didn\u2019t fully understand the gravity of what it would be like to deal with people in their most difficult hours. The idea was: <em>This is a tough job, but you suck it up and do it<\/em>. We didn\u2019t talk about PTSD back then. It was just like, \u201cOh, he\u2019s stressed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I joined the union leadership 15 years ago and became president about eight years ago. I began advocating for mental health awareness and provisions for our workers. We knew paramedics were struggling with stress, but I didn\u2019t realize the stress going on inside me until it hit a crisis point. In 2016, I was called to the scene of a serious accident. After that, I started having short-term memory problems: I couldn\u2019t even remember the name of my son\u2019s school. My wife is a counsellor, and she\u2019s been an amazing advocate for me, but I felt like I couldn\u2019t even tell her. I was making plans for how to kill myself. I knew who I was going to text so they could come find me, instead of my family. I realized I needed help. I reached out to my family doctor for treatment. Four years later, I found myself in that position <em>again<\/em>, and got back into treatment. My faith helped me get through it all, too.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, paramedics aren\u2019t getting breaks. The added pressure of COVID is exposing cracks\u2014lack of staff, lack of trucks, lack of adequate mental health treatment within a helpful timeline. It also added time on calls for PPE and decontamination.<\/p>\n<p>Anytime the phone rings, it\u2019s an emergency. And that person\u2019s emergency might trump the ability of the paramedic to do something as basic as eat a meal. It affects our sleep. It affects our home lives. I see ephedrine abuse. I see caffeine pill abuse. If I\u2019d invested in energy drinks 15 years ago, I would be retired by now; first responders drink those like water. These are things that people are using to cope.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s common for my dispatchers to call patients every 20 minutes when they\u2019re waiting for an ambulance to say, \u201cHow are you doing? We\u2019re really sorry. We\u2019ll get you an ambulance as soon as we can.\u201d Before COVID, we received about 30,000 calls annually. As of late 2021, we were at 38,000.<\/p>\n<p>Some paramedics are working in the back hallways of hospitals, which is a band-aid on a system that\u2019s broken. If we are backed up like that, the emergency department is flooded. If that\u2019s happening, it\u2019s because the hospital wards are full. It was going on before the pandemic, but COVID exacerbated all the existing problems. Hallway medicine is the canary in the coal mine.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<div id=\"attachment_1236040\" style=\"width: 4352px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"wp-image-1236040 size-full lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/macleans-paramedic-final-9717_GradyMitchell.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4342\" height=\"6513\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photograph by Grady Mitchell)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Terrilyn_Good\"><\/span>Terrilyn Good<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"North_Delta_British_Columbia\"><\/span>North Delta, British Columbia<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>When I was little, my dream was to be a doctor. Things panned out differently. I did a course in emergency childcare first aid in 2013, after my baby son had a seizure. After that, I worked as a youth-program coordinator in my home community of Gitanyow, a First Nations reserve along the Skeena River in northwestern British Columbia. I pushed for my employer to get me more first aid training because I spent so much time with kids. I kept thinking, \u201c<em>What if something happens?\u201d<\/em> My community is a long distance from help.<\/p>\n<p>One evening, I was eating dinner with my kids and I got a call that someone had fainted. I did everything I could with my basic training, and stayed for 45 minutes until the ambulance came. The patient lived, and as the truck drove away, I realized that\u2019s what I wanted to do. I started working with BC Ambulance in Kitwanga in December of 2016, and now I live and work in Delta.<\/p>\n<p>I love not having a set script when I go to work. I see something different every day. It could be an elderly person who needs a lift off the floor or somebody in a life-or-death situation. Most of the time, people really appreciate what we\u2019ve done, and they understand how challenging the job can be. I can see their relief when I walk in the door. Thank you. You\u2019re here.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to even remember what work was like before COVID\u2014half of my career has taken place during the pandemic. When it started, I was just a baby medic trying to find my legs. Since then, I\u2019ve visited hundreds of patients with COVID or COVID-like symptoms. Often, they\u2019re very scared of the virus. Sometimes they don\u2019t even want to go to the hospital. They just want reassurance, and someone to check that their vital signs are normal.<\/p>\n<p>One of the first questions we ask now is, \u201cAre you vaccinated?\u201d Most people are, but people who aren\u2019t can get very defensive. I\u2019m not there to question somebody\u2019s reasons for being unvaccinated; I\u2019m there to help. We\u2019re just required to ask so we can protect ourselves with proper PPE.<\/p>\n<p>Everybody I work with seems like they\u2019re one step away from taking leave. It\u2019s not really an option for me because I\u2019m a single mom. I\u2019m proud to be a role model for First Nations women. I\u2019m good at what I do, and I have some seniority in my job, even if it\u2019s organized chaos. I want to do advanced life support training, but I\u2019ll do that once my kids are older.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<div id=\"attachment_1236036\" style=\"width: 3850px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"wp-image-1236036 size-full lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Maclean-Paramedic-EbtiNabag1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3840\" height=\"5760\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photograph by Ebti Nabag)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Patrick_Suthers\"><\/span>Patrick Suthers<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Kingston_Ontario\"><\/span>Kingston, Ontario<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>I watched members of my family deal with cancer and chronic disease growing up, so I always wanted to work in health care. I stumbled across EMS through a friend who worked as a critical care paramedic. Five years ago, I decided to take the course at CTS Canadian Career College in Barrie, Ontario. I fell in love instantly. There aren\u2019t many jobs where people willingly invite you into their houses, at any time of day. You meet them at their most vulnerable. It\u2019s a huge privilege to do that.<\/p>\n<p>I was primed to deal with high-acuity 911 calls, like car crashes, but it\u2019s been much more of a social work job. We often deal with people who have fallen through the cracks, so to speak\u2014people who regularly interact with the health care system, like the elderly and the marginalized. A small segment of the population makes up 90 per cent of our calls.<\/p>\n<p>I was interested in why that was happening, so, about a year into my job, I decided to pursue an undergraduate degree in health sciences at Queen\u2019s University. Currently, I\u2019m doing a research project on community paramedicine. Plus, I work as a paramedic on the weekends.<\/p>\n<p>At the beginning of the pandemic, there were so many unknowns, like, \u201c<em>Am I supposed to treat everyone as if they have COVID?\u201d<\/em> I understood the need for masks, but they made my work more difficult. I\u2019m hearing-impaired and masks hamper my ability to communicate with patients and colleagues. I found that morally distressing. Early on, some services worried about PPE shortages and opted to use P100s, which look like construction masks. I worked on a resuscitation and I couldn\u2019t hear a thing my partner was saying to me. It wasn\u2019t the time to ask, \u201cCan you repeat that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s not enough staff, not enough trucks, staff burnout and backlogs. The hardest calls now are probably the \u201cVSAs,\u201d which stands for vital signs absent. We tend to spend time with families in the aftermath, getting them a cup of coffee and easing them into the grieving process. Masks make it so much harder for us to be there for them in a non-clinical capacity\u2014as people. We wonder whether we\u2019d be putting people at risk by spending that time with them.<\/p>\n<p>A big issue is that the public perceives us to be a scoop-and-go service, which our education prepares us for. Most calls are lower acuity\u2014falls, mental health crises or the decline of the elderly. Some people are living in terrible conditions: I visited a man in his 80s who was waitlisted for long-term care. He called 911 because he fell off his couch, and it looked like he\u2019d been sleeping there. Food was everywhere. School doesn\u2019t prepare us for those challenges\u2014and I\u2019ve seen more of them as COVID has progressed.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<div id=\"attachment_1236035\" style=\"width: 4490px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"wp-image-1236035 size-full lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/5844_StephenHarris.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4480\" height=\"6720\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photograph by Stephen Harris)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Noor_Karfoul\"><\/span>Noor Karfoul<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Charlottetown_Prince_Edward_Island\"><\/span>Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>I moved from Damascus, Syria, to Charlottetown in 2011 with my parents and younger brother. I was 15. My parents brought us here for more opportunity and a better education.<\/p>\n<p>When I was in high school, my grandfather needed an emergency medical rescue back in Syria. He lived in the rural mountainside and got caught in an orchard fire. Military medics were able to stabilize him and get him to hospital. That opened my eyes to the value of EMS. My grandfather needed those medics to stay alive. He made it, but he has long-term health effects from smoke inhalation.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to go into EMS right after high school, but first I needed money. I worked as a culinary apprentice for a few years, and then went to Holland College to become a paramedic.<\/p>\n<p>COVID started during the last months of my schooling. The day it was declared a pandemic, I was on a truck doing on-the-job training in Nova Scotia. There was so much uncertainty. The school had to reassess the liability of having students on the truck. There were initial concerns about a shortage of PPE and the likelihood of exposures. In the end, we came back to P.E.I. to do schooling online for the last month. I graduated in May of 2020.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>MORE:\u00a0The team of scientists guarding Canada against COVID variants\u2014\u2019the known unknown\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In school, we heard stories about how there was the occasional hard-earned slow day. I missed out on that. Our generation never had those. We work in pairs, mostly doing 12-hour shifts. If you\u2019re lucky, you get to go home after that; most of the time, you stick around a bit longer to help out.<\/p>\n<p>P.E.I. is an interesting situation for paramedics because we send patients to neighbouring provinces for specialized services, like neurosurgery or cardiology. We handle a lot of care for the aging population on the island. For me, the most rewarding aspect is our palliative patient program. We help with symptom management\u2014pain, lightheadedness, nausea. You can\u2019t rush those calls. It\u2019s about bedside manner and patience. Sometimes you find yourself supporting the family, too, because there is a lot of stress involved in caring for a loved one at home.<\/p>\n<p>The nature of the work makes it easy to get drawn in and not see how much it\u2019s drawing out of you. My friends and family are there to say, \u201cYou need to take a step back. Take a breath.\u201d I think about my grandfathers a lot lately. One passed away a few months ago; I really wanted to see him before he died. The other, who survived the fire, is sick again, too. I hope I get to see him soon, but I don\u2019t know how to make that happen.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<div id=\"attachment_1236064\" style=\"width: 3052px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1236064 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/macleans-1-2_Lindsay-J-Ralph.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3042\" height=\"4563\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photograph by Lindsay J Ralph)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Josh_Fisher\"><\/span><b>Josh Fisher<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Happy_Valley-Goose_Bay_Newfoundland_and_Labrador\"><\/span><b>Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I grew up in the United States. I did my paramedic training at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. After I graduated, I went to work in the middle of the state, which is basically the middle of nowhere.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I later ended up moving to Florida for work, where I met Jessica, a woman from Newfoundland who was visiting for holidays. That was that. We knew we wanted to get married, so I decided to move to Canada. I can work 40 hours here and make the same money as I made working 90 to 120 hours in the U.S.\u00a0 I arrived in Newfoundland in September 2010, the same night that Hurricane Igor landed here. It\u2019s fitting: I\u2019ve been working around the weather ever since<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I now work for the air ambulance program based out of Happy Valley-Goose Bay. My job is to serve the north coast and south coast of Labrador and get patients to hospitals\u2014either Labrador Health Centre, which is in Goose Bay, or hospitals out of province. One of the quirks of Newfoundland is that, in the rural areas, they\u2019re just starting to get around to naming streets. In some remote communities, homes have no address. It\u2019s more like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go to the white house and turn left and go three more houses and turn right and somebody will wave you down in the street.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most hospitals in Newfoundland and Labrador don\u2019t have intensive care units, and they\u2019re not staffed to handle critical patients. For most of the pandemic, Newfoundland had a low COVID caseload, but the vrisu still affected us. Because there are so few facilities, the backlog and wait lists of patients built up quickly. We noticed our patients becoming sicker\u2014much sicker than what we\u2019re used to. The patients <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">themselves<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> didn\u2019t think their complaints were severe enough to inundate the health system.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I hate having to say no to patients\u2019 family members who want to <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">travel<\/a> with us. We move people over long distances, heading to hospitals that might be a full-day\u2019s drive on remote roads, plus a ferry ride. We try to tell families that their loved one is in good hands. We call these separations \u201csee ya laters\u201d rather than \u201cgoodbyes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paramedicine is kind of an offshoot of the healthcare system, yet never considered an integral part. So our workload has dramatically increased, but our resources have not. The stress is palpable. The quality of life isn\u2019t great. We can\u2019t keep staff. The turnover in the last two to three years is unprecedented. Schools are churning out paramedics as fast as they can but it\u2019s not enough. You would think that as the pandemic winds down, things would ease up. In reality, it has gotten worse.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<div id=\"attachment_1236063\" style=\"width: 4390px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"wp-image-1236063 size-full lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Macleans_Paramedics_Jessica_6676_ColinWay.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4380\" height=\"6570\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photograph by Colin Way)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Jessica_Frith\"><\/span><b>Jessica Frith<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Baker_Lake_Nunavut\"><\/span><b>Baker Lake, Nunavut\u00a0<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have been in EMS for almost 10 years and I\u2019m not even 30 yet. I started working in<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">very rural areas in Alberta and Northwest Saskatchewan, and then moved to the city for my Advanced Care Paramedic training in 2018<\/span><b>. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I ended up liking city life, even though I\u2019m from a Saskatchewan town of 1200 people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The shortage of resources has become very noticeable in the last five years. Calgary and Edmonton make a lot of noise about red alerts\u2014that\u2019s when there are no ambulances<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">available to respond to emergency calls\u2014but other places are experiencing the same thing. They just don\u2019t get as much attention. Offload delays are happening everywhere\u2014not just Alberta, but across Canada and internationally, in the U.K. and Australia. It\u2019s been like that for a long time, but it\u2019s only been talked about by the public in the last six to nine months.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For paramedics [in general], there\u2019s the obvious physical exhaustion, but I know so many personally who are off on mental-health leaves or are leaving ground ambulance altogether.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the straws that broke the camel\u2019s back for me was hearing about a crew having to respond to a call in the very opposite end of Calgary\u2014 and it was for a cardiac arrest. There was desperation in their voices when asking dispatch if they were really the closest. A lot of people don\u2019t move over, even when you\u2019re coming with lights and sirens.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019d work overtime almost daily. I could be done work at 6:00 p.m., and if a call came in at 5:58 p.m. that was 45 minutes away, I would still do it. I\u2019d often get into my vehicle at the end of a shift and, the next thing I knew, it had been 10 minutes and I\u2019d still be sitting there, too dazed and tired to drive home. I\u2019m incredibly fortunate that I don\u2019t have a family at home waiting for me to pay them attention because at the end of a shift, I\u2019m a zombie. I dissociate by watching reality TV.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the pandemic, I responded to a fellow first responder\u2019s suicide. That made me start thinking about my job and my mortality\u2014like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is this all worth it?<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It amplified everything that I had already been suppressing. I never had nightmares, but when I was awake, I would think about it a lot. Even now that I\u2019m talking about it, my head is going through the entire scene walking through the building.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I took mental-health leave and worked hard to be able to go back to work. I saw an occupational therapist and psychologist\u2014three appointments every week for about 12 weeks. I have a different job now. I needed a change of pace. I work in a health center in Nunavut. Last night, the entire sky was full of the northern lights. It\u2019s been one of the greatest changes I\u2019ve made.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<div id=\"attachment_1236062\" style=\"width: 4390px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1236062 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Macleans_Paramedics_Heather_0031_ColinWay.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4380\" height=\"6570\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photograph by Colin Way)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Heather_Cook\"><\/span><b>Heather Cook<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Calgary_Alberta\"><\/span><b>Calgary, Alberta\u00a0<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I was a kid, my mom and her then-boyfriend started a private EMS service called Aeromedical. It\u2019s still operating in northern Alberta. We would attend the rodeo and watch it sitting on top of the ambulance. When I got older, I did my own thing for a while: I trained horses. I lived in Europe. I had my kids. But I wanted a job with meaning. At 34, I trained as a primary care paramedic, while working full-time in an office as supervisor of a sales team. I later upgraded to advanced care paramedic in 2018, while working full-time as a paramedic. I took a short mental-health leave in late 2019. I\u2019d been working non-stop. I think the skills I learned helped prepare me for the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I don\u2019t know how much more \u2018frontline\u2019 you can get than being in someone\u2019s home during COVID. The hardest experience for me was at long-term care facilities. Pre-pandemic, you\u2019d walk in and some resident would be playing a piano, and people would be watching TV together or walking the halls. They were small communities. Early on, I visited a home that experienced one of the first big outbreaks of the virus in Alberta. When I walked down the hall, I saw patients lying in their beds or sitting in wheelchairs. They couldn\u2019t see their neighbours. It felt like they were just waiting to be ghosts. When I got to the hospital, I took off my PPE and sat down. A hospital pharmacist walked by and asked if I was okay. I shook my head and started to cry. I think that, as a society but also as a profession, we\u2019re grieving our past lives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I will never forget my first COVID patient who died. He and his wife had COVID very early on, before there was any lockdown. They were married for more than 60 years. As we were getting him onto the stretcher, he said to his wife, \u201cDon\u2019t think you\u2019re going to get rid of me this easy!\u201d I already knew he was going to be intubated. I was literally fogging up my glasses with tears. He kissed his wife, and that turned out to be the last time they interacted. Visitors weren\u2019t allowed in hospitals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even though we\u2019re essentially a small emergency department that comes to your house, paramedics weren\u2019t included in the first wave of vaccines in Alberta; I don\u2019t know why. Maybe it\u2019s because we are in an area of healthcare that isn\u2019t thought about until we\u2019re needed.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><em>This article appears in print in the May 2022 issue of<\/em> Maclean\u2019s <em>magazine with the headline, \u201cDistress call.\u201d Subscribe to the monthly print magazine <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/secure.macleans.ca\/loc\/MME\/head_subscribe\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/longforms\/canadian-paramedics-are-in-crisis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Canadian paramedics are in crisis&#8221; There are too many patients: too many people with COVID, people who can\u2019t breathe, people who are in psychiatric crises or feel chest pain or have overdosed or fallen or crashed their cars. They want nurses, family doctors, home care, psychiatrists and social workers. They need hospital beds, long-term care&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":434906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/macleans-paramedic-final-9361_GradyMitchell-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-434905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}