While You're Taking Care of Others, Who's Taking Care of You?

It’s late Monday afternoon, you’ve been running back-to-back calls, you missed breakfast and lunch was a fleeting thought. Now, finally, a break! You’re starving and the monster in your stomach insists on grabbing the first thing it can find.
That’s when you see the famous golden arches. Fifteen minutes later you’ve easily consumed 1,000 calories. Worse yet, you’re now irritable and still hungry.
Sound familiar? Unfortunately, this is the norm for EMS providers.
After all those carbs and fat, you’re tired, sluggish and regret begins to step in. How do we get back to feeling better?
Get up and move! A short brisk walk while working is an instant energy booster. It improves your concentration when a pile of charts is waiting to be completed.
Studies show an easy way to beat brain fog and increase and maintain energy is to drink cold water and drink often.
The recommendation is to drink at least 64 ounces of water daily; that's just four cups – easy to do. It’s a good idea to plan ahead and bring healthy snacks to work which will prevent you from making poor choices when you get the chance to eat.
Good snack ideas include:

1 ounce of nuts with a piece of fruit;
1 ounce of string or low-fat cheese with an apple;
an apple with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter; and
a healthy trail mix made with dried fruit, nuts, whole grain cereal and a small amount of chocolate chips or M&M’s

We as EMS providers should be setting the example for healthy living to the people...

Source: JEMS Operations - January 23, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Sandy Roth, EMT-P Tags: Operations Source Type: news