I was having a discussion with one of my favorite younger medics. He’s brilliant; he’s got a mastery of the science; he’s just convinced he’s right and won’t always let you forget it. (Sound like anyone you know?)
We reached a couple of brilliant conclusions.
- With the current state of EMS education in anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology, I think it’s eminently reasonable to expect entry level medics to have mastery of the bare minimums of knowledge, particularly relating to medications and expand and grown their knowledge base through continuing education. Of course, this means that continuing education becomes just that, rather than a biennial repeat of topics you already knew about.
- EMS won’t be fixed with one big solution. It’s going to be fixed one medic at a time. In other words, if you aren’t mentoring or being mentored by a colleague, why not?
- Two of the most underrecognized failings of the average EMS provider are that we don’t understand the long term effects of our therapies nor do we ensure that the right patients get to the right hospitals.
We lack pride in our profession. If we had pride we would strive to be the best that we could ever be, but sadly, few medics have any pride in themselves, and if they do have it, it’s false pride based upon an inflated notion of their own knowledge and skills.
Most EMS initial courses do not challenge students, possibly because too many students do not want to be challenged, whine and whimper and gripe when they are challenged, and the folks who fund training (fire chiefs and private EMS providers) are not interested in quality. They are only interested in having a student who can pass the abysmally minimal and insulting NREMT exams, thereby enabling them to fool themselves that they are hiring people who are minimally proficient.
Query: When you are sick, do you want to go to a doctor who was the “minimally proficient” member of his class or one who was in the top 10 percent?
Sadly, when one calls EMS in the USA today, one will be visited by a minimally proficient medic most of the time, and often one who is uninterested in his craft, uninterested in his patient, lazy and borderline incompetent.