Why.

A lot of discussion and thought has gone into the reasons why we in medicine do what we do.  A lot.  Doctors, nurses, PAs, EMTs, paramedics, respiratory therapists, and especially CNAs have thought about it.  I thought about it a lot as a CNA - why am I here, doing what I'm doing, as horrible as it is to endure?

I recently read a book entitled, "My Ambulance Education," by Dr. Joseph Clark, PhD.  It's the story about how he started working as an EMT at the age of 18 to pay his way through college.  He started taking care of people because it was a skillset he possessed that allowed him to do what others cannot.  He paid his way through undergraduate school, got a master's and eventually a PhD in physiology in order to help people on a grander scale.  He now does research into the causes and prevention of stroke.  He states in his book that he began to feel that helping one person at a time on the ambulance was not enough - that he was capable of more.  And now he strives to help thousands - probably millions - of people annually by figuring out a way to prevent strokes.  I like his approach.  Hard work pays off.

I have been asked why I do what I do.  Not so much on the PA side of my career, but on the EMT side of things.  I'm a volunteer as are we all in our department.  So the question - why do you do what you do and furthermore, why do you volunteer for it?  I've been mulling this one over a lot lately.  And the answers I keep coming up with are the same.  People need help and I want to help them for it is rewarding.  There is need out there and I want to take care of it.  I want to fix things for people.  This is the best I can do to answer the question. 

There may be another aspect to the answer; something that keeps recurring in my mind is that someone needs to answer the calls for help.  In a fallen world there will always be someone sick or injured and that person may well die without a neighbor stepping up and helping.  Someone needs to be there for those who can't help themselves.  And I guess that someone is me...  sometimes. 

If I come up with anything more profound, I'll be sure to let you know.