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‘It’s natural as a student to have worries and fears about training and qualifying.
‘What I am writing about now, however, is not about the everyday fears of student paramedics.
‘This is about abuse towards staff in the emergency services. I have recently been the victim of yet another physical assault by a patient and now I am scared.
‘I am scared about attending court. I have never stepped foot in a courtroom and as a student this is a worrying concept.
‘There has been a huge step forward with the doubling of sentencing for people who assault emergency workers. Unfortunately, assaults are still happening.
‘I am scared that I could be sent to this person again in future if they need another ambulance. This is a very real possibility as we don’t always know who we are going to, especially if they are at an address that is not their own or in a public place.
‘I am scared that this person will recognise me, and I could see them in the street when I am alone or with my small children.
‘I am scared this incident has made me less trusting of the patients I am going out to and it will make me nervous to be on my own with patients in future.
‘Most patients I have been to are very kind and appreciative of our help so it’s a shame that a few abusive people have caused me to always be on my guard in case I am assaulted again.
‘I am scared this may have made me seriously consider changing my career path.
‘I have put so much time and hard work into training and it’s the job I really want to do but I really can’t see a future in it if this becomes a regular occurrence. It’s not surprising that the average career expectancy of newly qualified paramedics is only 5 years.
‘I am scared this will happen again. This is not the first time I have been assaulted whilst on duty.
‘I have previously been verbally abused, punched, grabbed, slapped, pushed and sexually assaulted.
‘I am only one person and I have only been in this job for 2 years, so just think about the amount of abuse that is experienced by emergency workers over the whole country.
‘Don’t get me wrong, many of my shifts have been incident free but I have personally witnessed many assaults on staff across all emergency services and this is not ok.
‘We are here to help people.
‘This needs to stop!’
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