A Couple Questions With: Sam Vulcheff
A couple questions is a new way for people to share their thoughts and stories in a more structured way. Having an open-ended invitation to contribute can be daunting, especially if you don’t know what to write or where to start.
The first contributor in this new format is my friend and coworker, Sam Vulcheff:
· What is your current role?
o Paramedic, Field Training Officer
· Tell me how you got started, where did your interest in EMS come from?
o So interesting story. I left my last job as a chef. Took about 2 weeks off, then I sat at my kitchen table with the Community College catalog, flopped it open to a page, put my finger down and it landed on paramedic. I went the next day and found out that I had to be an EMT-B first and started that class about a month later.
· How do you think your time in emergency medicine has changed your view of the world?
o I have been in the service of others my entire life. From my time in the military, to being a chef for more than a decade, and now hitting my 12th year in EMS, I have a completely different outlook on life. I have become a much more detached person in general, but I truly value the lives of my loved ones so much more. I am much less easily rattled now than before even being a vet. I also had a very rough time toward the end of last year from a mental health stand point which I had never experienced before.
· What do you wish you knew on your first day? What advice would you have for a new provider?
o From a clinical stand point, I always give my trainee's this piece of advice. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and as long as you always have what's best for your patient at heart, know your medicine, and can get from the top of a protocol to the bottom you'll do just fine. I wish I had heard that on my first day rather than "you have to do it this way and that's the only way."
· What advice would you have for someone interested in taking a leadership position?
o Some in an EMS leadership position forget that everything they do, whether it's logistics, admin, training, or maintenance is in support of operations. We're not in the station stocking business. We're not in the uniform policy business. We're in the respond to calls business and everything that all those other departments do should be centered around how to help us and make that easier. I think sometimes that gets forgotten and what’s best for the crews on the ambulance becomes secondary to all the other bullshit.
· Where do you see EMS in 10 years?
o If I'm still in EMS in the next 10 years, I see myself as an APP* and teaching part time either at our in-house program or at one of the colleges
· What is your favorite funny EMS story to tell at parties?
o My favorite funny story would have to be about a call in NY when I was still a basic, working with my brother who was a paramedic. We got called to an overdose call at a gas station. When we arrived, there was a 18 YOM seated in the passenger seat of the car, covered in vomit. I don't mean like I just threw up and got some on my shirt, I mean COVERED. He had thrown up so much there was like an inch thick pool of vomit on floor board.
Come to find out it was the kids’ birthday and his friends had made him a tray of pot brownies, which he ate a large amount of. They then went to the movies and ate and drank. After the movies the munchies really kicked in and then kid consumed a 10 pack of taco bell soft tacos. While driving he then became super dizzy and the throwing up began. So, we have to lift the kid out of the car and get him on stretcher. That's when the smell hit me! It was like a combination of tacos and his smashed ass.
I was ok until we loaded him in the truck and closed the doors. He said he felt sick again so we gave him a vomit bag. Between the slapping sound of the puke hitting the inside of the bag, the hot taco brownie popcorn puke smell or the golf ball sized snot bubble that came out but it was too much. I made for the side door, leaving my brother alone to handle pukey mcpukes a lot, and lost my cookies all over the gas station parking lot. All of which was very hilarious to my brother and the 4 fire fighters standing outside. This story has been told for years at gatherings and my brother used this in his EMT classes when he was teaching.
*An APP, or advanced practice paramedic, is a position within Wake County EMS that focuses on mobile integrated health. They have three primary goals: reduce, respond, and redirect. They attempt to reduce 911 utilization by our familiar faces by aligning them with resources and getting to the root of the problem. They respond to high acuity calls to assist crews and act as a clinical resource. Finally, they redirect patients experiencing a mental health crisis or struggling with substance use disorder to an appropriate mental health or rehabilitation center.
