Over the last week, which happened to be EMS Week, I tried to do a Facebook post each day with my thoughts on EMS for EMS Week. Here’s that collection for y’all…
Sunday, May 16
Happy EMS Week to my EMS friends and extended family.To those of my friends who aren’t in EMS, now’s your chance to ask questions. And please, understand that EMS, EMT, and Paramedic are not interchangeable terms. EMS is Emergency Medical Services — the organizations made up of people who provide prehospital medical care. EMTs are emergency medical technicians. And paramedics represent the highest level of education and skillset in prehospital care.
Monday, May 17
I’m going to try, with no guarantees (see, there’s my lawyer side showing) to do an EMS related post every day of this EMS Week. And since a lot of people are posting about their early days in EMS, I’ll shamelessly follow that trend. In 1999, as a bored second year law student at Texas Tech, I signed up to do a ride along with Lubbock EMS because the Lubbock Police didn’t allow rides. Needless to say, after just over sixteen hours with Jackie Buck on 9744 running a cardiac arrest and a really weird car wreck, I was hooked. I pretty much became a regular around Lubbock EMS and I realize how annoying I was as someone without any training. During my return trips home and prior to getting my EMT, I also had quite a few Austin/Travis County EMS crews putting up with me. (Thanks Warren Hassinger for always answering those emails…)In 2004, I got my EMT certification and started doing things for real at CE-Bar Fire Department/Travis County ESD 10. In 2006, I decided EMT wasn’t enough and by 2007, I got my Texas licensed paramedic patch…It’s been a heck of a ride and I wouldn’t give up the experiences, education, and most importantly, the friendships, for anything. I truly have the best of both worlds practicing both law and prehospital medicine.
Tuesday, May 18
Another #EMSWeek post. I’ve been a bit of an EMS nomad over the years, having volunteered up and down the I-35 corridor of Texas as well as the Houston/Gulf Coast area and the Texas Hill Country. I have the fortunate luxury of being able to walk away from EMS because of my primary career. But if you want to know how/why I’ve been a bit of a nomad, it’s simple. I know what I’m getting paid as an EMS volunteer. Namely nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero. What I don’t know is what I’ll have to put up with at an EMS agency. In other words, how much do I have to put up with before I decide to move on?Most in EMS don’t have that ability. But we continually lose the best and brightest to other fields, especially nursing. Maybe it’s time to look at the culture of EMS, including how we treat our fellow medics and how we develop and promote leaders. Because, let’s face it, there’s easier ways to make $15/hour than to be micromanaged while moving from parking lot to parking lot for 12+ hours at a time. If we want EMS to remain a viable career (or even become a viable career), we’ve got to treat each other better, especially our employees. Otherwise, we will never improve because we will be in a constant cycle of hiring and replacing people who’ve left the profession for something else. In some cases, people leave EMS for ANYTHING else.This EMS Week, we must do better.
Wednesday, May 19
fancy themselves influencers. More than a few of them have taken positions on social and political issues. That’s fine, although my politics usually trend differently. More than a few pride themselves on not being prejudiced. Good for them.But one form of prejudice and bigotry exists on a lot of EMS pages and groups — and seems to be tolerated, if not outright promoted. Namely, bias against one group of EMS providers — volunteers. It’s the one place where the IAFF and the “social media influencers” of EBM and third service EMS meet.These people talk about morons as volunteers, talk about how volunteers take jobs from EMS, and how there’s “not volunteers running the library, picking up the trash, or fixing the streets.” Having experienced some of the mismanagement and shenanigans in volunteer fire and EMS, including the mindset that a volunteer status is an excuse for lowered standards, I empathize.But when I remind them that I’m a volunteer, I get the answer of “you’re different.” It reminds me of the excuse “some of my friends are of XYZ group” when you call out other forms of bigotry.Is there incompetence in volunteer EMS? Absolutely. I think we all know examples — and have seen it promoted. (See also: New Jersey First Aid Council.)However, volunteer emergency services, whether EMS or fire, can — and do — work. In many of these communities served by volunteers, the only alternative would be to have a large commercial EMS operation from a nearby area pick up the community and respond from even farther away, potentially leaving the area with even more substandard coverage.Volunteer EMS has its pros and cons — just like any other model of EMS system. It can work. It does work in some areas. It’s also an abject failure in other areas, especially when the cliques and personalities override patient care and responsibilities to the community.Having said that, bias against volunteer EMS service seems to remain the last acceptable prejudice in EMS circles, particularly on social media.
Thursday, May 20
And as threatened, here’s today’s #EMSWeek post. Two words that EMS routinely fails to grasp are promotion and education. In two cases, these terms are inextricably linked.1) We absolutely stink at public education and promoting who we are and what we do. We’ve largely succeeded in educating the public to “call 911 for an emergency.” Yet, we’ve never told the public what’s an “emergency.” Anyone who’s spent time in a 911 ambulance knows that our definition of emergency and the public’s definition don’t match up. Also, we haven’t told the public much about us or what our capabilities are. See also: members of the public using the terms ambulance driver, EMS, EMT, and paramedic interchangably. See also: questions like “why is there a fire truck when I called for an ambulance” or “what do you mean there’s a bill.” To get the raving fans in the public that other public services like the fire department, parks, and libraries have, we have got to create a generation of educated, raving fans who will advocate for EMS.2) Also speaking of promotion and education, we don’t educate or even prepare the people we promote. “Fred is a good medic. Let’s make him a training officer” is soon followed by “Fred is a good training officer. Let’s make him a supervisor.” None of this is accompanied with any leadership education. And when you don’t develop leaders, at best, you develop managers. Managers look at metrics and take direction, then pass it down the chain. In other words, there are a lot of EMS managers and damned few leaders. Think about that when you’re working for an EMS provider whose business model requires you to drive around town and park in 7-11 parking lots for 12 hour stretches. The abject lack of leaders who advocate for EMS and for their team are exactly why EMS is how it is, where it is, and why the current paradigm stinks. And to add fuel to the fire, there’s more than a few of the current (and previous) generation of EMS grand poobahs who continue to dominate the EMS committees, work groups, etc. They’re hanging on to their fading relevance and routinely tell new faces to “wait their turn.” Once again, EMS has met its enemy — and it’s often us.
Friday, May 21
Another #EMSWeek thought to ponder. It’s good, heck it’s imperative, to be current on one’s medicine. And it’s right that EMS education focuses on the application of science to medicine.But that’s just one part of being informed, educated, and successful in EMS. One also needs to understand the world of EMS operations — because what makes EMS different from most of the rest of the world of healthcare is where and how we deliver medical care — namely outside of clinical settings.And perhaps most importantly, we need to understand the business, economics, law, policy, and politics of EMS. Because if we don’t own those spaces — someone else will. And invariably, those people don’t necessarily have EMS’s best interests at heart. (See also: virtually every state or Federal EMS committee where the EMS practitioners are outnumbered by the other “stakeholders.”)
Saturday, May 22
Final #EMSWeek post. I’ll leave you with two thoughts. First, it’s a privilege to do this work. Strangers trust us to enter their lives at their worst moments and trust us to know and do what’s right for them. Second, EMS can be fun. For me, it’s a huge change of pace from the practice of law and the constant meetings, emails, and issues that drag on for a long time. As long as you keep those two things in mind — and have a life away from EMS as well, it puts everything else about EMS into perspective. And if you’re not having fun with this, ask yourself if it’s you or if it’s where you’re at.
