It might not be unique but I've gained a ton from my time working as an EMT and it's definitely going to be a big part of my application. Today I transported a 40yo pt who was just diagnosed with cancer and given a few months to live. The job really puts things in perspective and makes you appreciate what a privilege life is. Looking out the back window of the ambulance as we sat in traffic, watching lemmings talking on their cell phones and mindlessly living out their lives, meanwhile this guy sitting next to me is in the double digits of days left to experience Earth, and he's likely going to spend a big chunk of that time sitting in a hospital bed. It made me think, I need to stay in the medical field because if I do anything else I'll lose that acute appreciation for how amazing it is to be alive.
In my experience it's not even so much the "neat things we do" that are worthwhile. The clinical side of being an EMT tends to be anticlimactic. They aren't breathing? Push some narcan. Cool! Now they're awake and pissed off at you for ruining their high. Shrug. Whenever you successfully use an intervention of some sort, it kind of feels like "meh, I was just doing my job".
The most memorable experiences for me center more around interacting with patients, and making them feel like they're still part of the human race and not defined by their disease. Maybe I'm weird, but I really enjoy talking to the family before we transport a cardiac arrest and just letting them know what's going on, what we've been doing, what the prognosis is, what hospital we're going to, etc. It feels good to be a positive force for people going through difficult times.
