Last Sunday evening I went in to the rescue squad for my written test to become an ambulance driver. The exam is about 3 hours long, and it took me back to the awful late-high-school days of SATs and other standardized methods of academic torture. There a re about a zillion "fastest-route" questions, i.e. "From the station, list the fastest route to a call to the 5800 block of Connecticut Avenue." And: "List the fastest route between 6000 Oregon Avenue and Holy Cross Hospital." Others evaluate both knowledge of the area and your judgment: "You are transporting a critical patient to Georgetown Hospital and are at the corner of Bradley and Wisconsin when the patient suddenly codes. To what hospital would you transport this patient?" And there are others on how to position the unit on different kinds of calls where other rescue vehicles will be arriving, what to say over the radio in various situations, and on and on.

I'd been so concerned that my knowledge of our vast response area would be inadequate that I'd studied streets from northwest DC well into Maryland in painful detail. This included (as required) the hundred-block splits at almost every major intersection. (For example, where Nebraska Ave crosses Connecticut is the 5000/5100 split, so all addresses south of this on Connecticut will be under 5100, and all north will be greater than 5100.) This is very useful knowledge when paired with a set of books we carry on all our rescue vehicles, which provide directions to almost any obscure address from the closest major intersection. An entry in the "road code" might begin with "From the 5700 block of Wilson lane..." and will then provide detailed directions, but it's up to the driver to know where that point is and how to get there speedily from anywhere in our area.

In addition to studying maps and our standard operating procedures, I spend considerable time driving around, matching the terrain to the abstract lines in my battered ADC map book. I drove the major running routes to all the hospitals in the area, scoped out access ramps to major highways, found the entrances to some of the major buildings that we run frequently, and submerged into some of the confusing warrens of tiny streets in the more hidden neighborhoods.

As a result, I did fine on the written test. The next evening I came in for the practical, another two hours of driving around in the ambulance with an officer who gave me various locations to find and asked questions as we drive around. Having passed that as well, I'm now a "second string emergency" driver, meaning I can drive emergency calls with lights and sirens as long as there's a driver trainer in the cab with me. It's bit like getting your learner's permit. Once I've accumulated twenty satisfactory reports for calls I run with my fellow driver, I'll be cleared to drive emergency on my own.

Being an emergency driver is pretty much the last major hurdle for me at the squad; there's not much else I intend to do in the next year or so. I can take some classes at the academy, learn more about command and fire operations, but the worst is over -- now I can focus on running calls and getting experience. I'm a little worn out from a couple years spent preparing for tests and certifications. It will be great to be something other than the new kid, having my skills checked out by those responsible for making sure I'm ready to become a charge EMT/firefighter/driver. It's a necessary process, but now at this plateau I can spend less time studying for the next test and more working on getting better at what I already know.