There Is Always One More Call

The 911 line will never stop ringing. Not on your day off, not on your vacation, not after you retire.

I'm Christopher Schuman, a board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner serving patients in Texas and Washington. I spent years working dispatch before this, and the thing I most want to say to people newer to public safety is about what happens when someone can't accept that sentence.

Finding Purpose in the Work

There's a long-standing idea that some people come into these fields carrying a question about their own purpose, and public safety answers it. The work has obvious meaning. It's fast, it matters, and it's clear at the end of a shift that you did something.

That's a real thing to get from a job, and I don't want to make it sound like a flaw.

But people don't plateau. There's always something beyond the last thing. Always one more call, always one more report to write.

At some point in a career I hope someone arrives at the recognition that it can be enough. That's a different skill than the ones the job trains.

The People Who Drive Too Fast

It's often the same people who get in trouble for driving to every call at speed.

The instinct is understandable. Someone needs help, so you go. But at a certain point you have to learn to ease off slightly, because the emergencies are going to keep happening either way.

Suffering will continue to exist. People will trip and break bones. Heart attacks will happen. Crimes will be committed. That's true on your shift and equally true on the days you're not there.

Being able to hold that without it eating you is not indifference. It's the thing that lets a person stay in this work for thirty years instead of five.

Where This Turns Into a Problem

If someone in their early formation was genuinely appalled by the idea that bad things happen to good people, this industry will be very hard on them.

It's fine to want to do better. It's fine to be moved by what you see. But when something goes badly on a scene, that isn't a moral failure on your part. Those are questions and dilemmas well beyond any one person.

I'll say this plainly, because I believe it: if someone plants their feet and refuses to accept that reality, they're carrying an elevated risk of developing post-traumatic stress. There's a degree of humility required to stay healthy in this work, and it isn't optional.

What This Looks Like in Practice

It means taking the time off and treating it as legitimate rather than as abandoning your post.

It means being able to compartmentalize, which gets a bad reputation but is a necessary skill when used deliberately.

It means noticing if you've stopped being able to leave work at work, because that's usually the earliest sign that something needs attention.

None of this requires you to care less. It requires you to accept that the line keeps ringing whether or not you answer it, and that this was always going to be true.