Liar Liar Pants On Fire!

Okay, so his pants weren't on fire but I sure did a number on them when my trauma shears came out to play. But that isn't the point of this post, I just had to have something to go with the phrase that popped into my head and became the title. What I really have to say isn't very nice at all and doesn't apply to everyone, but dang if I didn't want to slap a (insert derogatory term of choice here).

Pedestrian vs car. I'm sure you can figure out who lost. I get on scene and what do you know, someone is crouched over the patient holding c-spine. Sweet is what I thought. Sweet it was not.

We have all had times (particularly if you are a first responder of some sort) where you hear the words I'm a (insert medical profession here) and we breathe a sigh of relief knowing you have a person willing to help who has hopefully at least been exposed to some sort of medical training. Now, don't get me wrong. I have had many lay-people who's only medical experience was being birthed by their mamas that have been rockstars, but this post isn't about them. This post is about those people that strut around and with a tape measure attached to their belts to ensure doorway clearance. Those people may think they are helping, but they are in fact not.

Generally my rule for family members on scenes are that if they are calm and are providing some assistance by way of reassurance for the patient or elsewise, by all means stick around. On the other hand, if you are earning/yearning for a slap to the face to get you back to the realm of controlled emotions, please take a seat in the next room.

So what does this giant digression have to do with what I have to say? Well, it has everything to do with it.

Person in the road just got hit by a car. Person is scared. Ms Immanurseiknowwhatimdoing keeps finding the exact time I open my mouth to ask a question the appropriate time to console/question the patient. Ugh. Since I was the only person there at this time, I could hear the ambulance sirens coming and the kid was talking/breathing/had a pulse, I didn't think much of it. She was keeping him calm, well for the most part, so that was good enough for me.

The problem was when the calvary showed up and this person refused to relinquish control. They continually talked over all of us, answered questions for the patient and generally got in the way. Add that to the chaos of multiple agencies trying to work together it was a cluster. Being the awesome rockstars we are, we got the patient loaded and on the way to the hospital despite the few speed bumps along the way but it doesn't irritate me any less. (Insert inappropriate joke about patients and speedbumps here.)

How do you handle people like this? When in a home/room it is a little easier asking them to step out of the room, but when you request they step back the question is, how big of a step? At what point do you request someone else to step in and play referee/bouncer/bad guy? I can have quite the silver tongue when need be, but sometimes - okay most times, I am blunt and to the point which of course is quite offensive to most despite the lack of ill intent behind the words.




So how do you do it? Please enlighten me because frankly, I just don't know if I'm making the proper decisions anymore. I second guess myself enough, but when the eyes of those around you are also second guessing you, it just makes me sweat. And ladies shouldn't sweat, we should glisten. So help a sistah out. What say you?