Equipping paramedics to look after their mental health and wellbeing

It's 0600 and the tones go off an hour from the end of your night shift. The noise makes your heart jump like every other time; being woken up in this way is something no one ever gets used to. While you try to catch your breath, and convince your body that it doesn't need to use the washroom, you make your way to the ambulance and prepare for…well, anything. While you pray that it's a false alarm because every cell in your body is desperate to sleep, you hear the dispatcher say, ‘You are going to a motor vehicle collision on the highway, transport truck versus a motorcycle.’ As you pull out of the garage, you ask for air ambulance's availability, and conceit to the fact that you won't be using the washroom any time soon. The dispatcher continues with, ‘Patient is trapped under the transport truck, but speaking.’ and then you hear the statement that makes every medic cringe, ‘We are getting multiple calls on this one.’ You know it's going to be bad.