How to Answer: Talk about a time you had to deal with a difficult person as a paramedic. What made the situation difficult, and how did you handle it?
Advice and answer examples written specifically for a Paramedic job interview.
24. Talk about a time you had to deal with a difficult person as a paramedic. What made the situation difficult, and how did you handle it?
How to Answer
Adding to the day-to-day stress of being a paramedic are the difficult people that need to be dealt with from time to time. These people can come in the form of patients, witnesses at an accident scene, or family members of patients that you are treating. The job as a paramedic can also put you in dangerous situations with harmful people. Your interviewer expects you to show that you can handle difficult people in a professional and empathetic manner while remaining focused on your task at hand. Think of a situation like this for your answer, and be specific.
Written by Krista Wenz on November 11th, 2022
Entry Level Example
"Last week, I was on scene with a young boy who had fallen while skateboarding in front of an office building. My patient had a fractured ankle, and my partner and I were splinting his injury when an intoxicated man started yelling at us and threatened to throw a beer bottle at my head. My partner called for law enforcement while I tried diffusing the situation. I stood up and calmly asked the man to put the bottle down and asked if he needed help. He started calming down and said he wanted another beer. I told him I could not help him with that but offered him a bottle of water. Just then, law enforcement arrived and handled the matter while I finished packaging up my patient for transport."
Written by Krista Wenz on November 11th, 2022
Answer Example
"A couple of months ago, we were called to the scene of a bad auto accident, and two ambulances were dispatched to the scene based on the number of victims. As we pulled up to the scene, I saw two victims lying in the roadway next to a badly damaged and overturned truck. When I was approaching the vehicles, a man exited the other vehicle with a dented front end and came at me, holding his arm in the air. He told me that his arm was broken and he was in pain, and he demanded that we take him to the hospital as soon as possible. Seeing that his arm was deformed but that he was walking around and talking, I told him that we were there to help, but we needed to attend to the other critically injured patients first. I told him another ambulance would arrive shortly with more medics, and a third unit was also dispatched. I asked him to wait by his car and keep his arm immobilized, and he obliged."
Written by Krista Wenz on November 11th, 2022