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FIrefighter Pre-Hydration – Fight Fire like a Marathon Runner

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Has anybody else noticed that it’s sweltering outside? There’s no other way to describe the oppressive heat we’ve been facing without trotting out the word “sweltering.” The word itself is almost fun to say. I recommend that you work it into as many conversations as you are able these days while you toil outside in the intense heat. It won’t keep you any cooler, but at least you’ll be adding to the vocabularies of the other sweaty people working around you. It sure beats asking them if it’s “Hot Enough” for ‘em. That gets annoying.

In the last few weeks here in Southern Wisconsin we’ve been having some terrible fires requiring response from multiple area departments. Some of them have been heat related and some of them have just come at a bad time, but all of them have had one common denominator. They’ve all been dangerously hot. Not just the fires themselves, but the oppressive, dangerous, and potentially deadly heat on the fire ground due to the weather conditions has contributed to multiple firefighter injuries. Thankfully, most of the injuries have been minor and heat-related but some of them have been worse. I don’t know if the heat contributed to all of the injuries suffered by those brave firefighters, but it certainly couldn’t have helped.

In times like these, all firefighters need to remember the fact that active firefighting activities are nearly the same as competitive sporting events. Firefighters working on active fire grounds have the same or higher demands put upon their bodies as do athletes on the playing field. It is of extreme importance to remember that fact and take appropriate action to keep yourself and your brothers and sisters safe. Extreme weather is a great equalizer. It affects all of us no matter our station in life. Everyone on the scene has the responsibility to recognize the risk they’re taking by exerting themselves outside in these conditions and take appropriate steps to protect themselves. Nobody wants to see their fellow firefighters fall ill and even less than nobody wants to be the firefighter who goes down themselves.

By design, firefighting personal protective equipment provides an effective barrier to thermal energy. This becomes a problem in hot weather because it doesn’t allow for the shedding of excess body heat and raises the core temperature of the wearer quite sharply. While after years of promoting rehab, even the staunchest believer in their own invincibility can usually be coerced or threatened enough to go to rehab after heavy work on the fire ground, rehab is of even more importance during hot weather because it allows the firefighter to shed his or her PPE and allow that body heat to escape. However, it is important to remember in times of extreme hot weather like we’re facing now that rehab after working is not enough to keep you safe from heat-related injuries and illness. It’s simply too hot for normal people to work effectively without prior planning and preparation. Athletes spend days preparing themselves before competing in physical events by resting adequately, storing up calories and carbohydrates, and pre-hydrating. We should as well.

While it is important to keep yourself nourished with healthy food, I don’t recommend that firefighters load up on calories and carbohydrates before every shift like runners before a race. I do recommend pre-hydration. To pre-hydrate is to drink water before you need it and it is important to realize that one should drink water before they are thirsty to maintain normal hydration. While the adequate daily intake of water for healthy adults varies due to temperature conditions, levels of activity, and other factors, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends that adult males take in 3 liters of water per day and adult females take in 2.2 liters. The water doesn’t need to come only from drinking water, and can come from water stored in food we eat. The IOM says that if a human is producing around 1.5 liters of pale yellow to clear urine per day and is urinating at least once every 3-4 hours they are at close to normal hydration levels. However, many factors affect our hydration and it is easy for a person to become dehydrated without realizing it. Dehydration leads to fatigue, headaches, tachycardia, low blood pressure, and other nastier symptoms that greatly affect firefighting performance and safety. It has been stated that it is not uncommon for firefighters to lose two liters of water through sweat while working on the fire ground in full PPE. If you start to sweat that much when you are already dehydrated, you will not be effective for very long.

Pre-hydration is all about keeping your water tank full before you respond and is as simple as drinking water throughout the day and maintaining your hydration levels. Since fighting a fire in full gear can be compared to running a marathon, we may want to emulate their guidelines. Marathon runners are taught to drink 20 to 32 ounces of water 2 to 3 hours before running and then to drink 8 to 10 ounces of water every 20-30 minutes before they run. While actually running, they are advised to drink 8-10 ounces of water every 20-30 minutes as well. It is not advisable to intake a large amount of water before engaging in strenuous activity because it takes time for the water to move from the stomach to the large intestine and be absorbed into the blood stream. Too much water in the stomach at once can lead to nausea and vomiting during periods of strenuous activity. Sports drinks with electrolytes like Gatorade, Power-ade, and others like them should be consumed occasionally to replace any electrolytes lost through sweating however there is no need to pre-load yourself with them as the body does not store more electrolytes than it needs and excretes any excess quite rapidly. Replacing lost electrolytes through food is of great value, and most can be replenished by eating fruit like a banana. In addition, avoid soda pop, carbonated beverages, or beverages that contain high amounts of caffeine and/or sugar as these drinks can actually contribute to dehydration by acting as diuretics.

It is easy to encourage pre-hydration among your crews. People need to drink water before they feel thirsty, and should continuously drink small amounts of water through the day. Place water in conspicuous areas throughout the station and the living quarters. Water that is out of sight is out of mind and can be forgotten. By placing water right in the line of sight of everyone, they are reminded of the need to have a glass or two. You can make the drink more attractive by adding commercial flavorings like lemonade, crystal light, or Mio mixes that add taste without adding too much sugar. Another trick is to place the bottles of water in the engine next to every staffed seat and encourage every firefighter to drink a bottle during any response to a working incident.

By pre-hydrating, you will ensure that you and your fellow firefighters hit the fire ground with full water tanks and can perform at peak levels in this oppressive heat. Keep yourself hydrated and stay safe out there. We’ve sickened and injured too many firefighters lately and I don’t want it to keep up. Turn the tide and drink up. You’re worth it.

Posted by on July 9, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, EMS Health & Safety, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Training, Training & Development, training-fire-rescue-topics

Coming Soon – The Law of Unintended Consequences meets the fire service

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Remember the post I put up a few days ago entitled “A Predatory Ambulance Fee”? It talked about how the Elgin, IL city council is planning to help recoup their costs for Fire and EMS services by charging for refusals.

(This is the link if you didn’t read it: “A Predatory Ambulance Fee”)

This just in:

Apparently they’re not done proposing new fees in the city. They seem to be very serious about recouping their costs and finding new ways to monetize their services. According to this article posted on Firefighter Nation, they’re planning on adding quite a few new fees to their repertoire.

Here’s the link: “Illinois Department Considers Charging Non-Residents for Fire Services” Read it and see what you think.

The article only mentions two specific fees, a $500 per hour fee for an engine response and $2200 for “a serious car accident where someone has to be transported by helicopter.” These fees are interesting enough, but the article also hints that there are further fees forthcoming.

The chief is quoted as saying that he expects most of these fees to be covered by insurance. After all, he says… that’s what insurance is for.

The chief may be very correct with that statement; insurance exists to pay for the unforeseen costs of bad things that happen to people who pay for it. Insurance companies pay these costs based upon rigid contracts they sign with their customers and charge their customers rates based upon the average risk they assume on behalf of the customer. They will only pay for what they are contractually obligated to pay for. While I have no knowledge of whether or not insurance will actually pay for the charges Elgin is proposing in practice, I’m assuming the city of Elgin doesn’t either and if they don’t seem to care whether the people they are saddling with these kinds of fees are insured for them or not, why should I?

It’s not like these insurance companies aggregate risk across all of their customers and will pass the overall cost of these fees to everyone in the area causing everyone’s insurance rates to go up, right?

Remember, I am not against fire departments, cities, and/or EMS services finding new and innovative revenue streams or ways to defray costs. The City of Elgin is not a villain here. It is very expensive to operate a service and I completely understand wanting to recoup some of those costs. These kinds of fees are somewhat the result of a rigid and over-regulated EMS payment system that chains our entire industry and squashes most hopes of innovation. I believe in EMS payment reform. In fact, I demand it.

But guys? While you’re by far not the only department in the US proposing and implementing things like this… you’re all opening Pandora’s Box. Your citizens are going to fight this, the press won’t be good, and you may end up creating more of a wave of dissatisfaction than you’re really prepared to endure. Think about Moline, IL and what they’re going through right now. Could you imagine their chances of winning their fight if they had implemented these fees?

Then again, perhaps they should implement them in Moline and let the revenue sources balance their budgets… In Moline they say they’re operating at over a $340,000 budget deficit and maybe these kinds of fees would offset that deficit enough that they could make their EMS financially viable.

Or maybe the marketplace will decide and departments that do this kind of thing will be put “out of business” (for lack of a better term) by competitive forces.

I would be willing to bet that there’s someone out there that would only charge $450 an hour for an engine response and only $2100 for a “serious car accident”. There are probably plenty of people and companies that would be happy to do fire response for profit. That’s what happens when governmental services start acting like monopolies in a capitalistic system, they get replaced by free market alternatives. Back in Ben Franklin’s day the fire service was a private endeavor that was only made public when the cost of providing protection wasn’t profitable enough to serve the ends the people wanted it to serve. Make the fire service profitable and private industry may find a way to make a solid business model out of it. Don’t believe me? Think Fed Ex and UPS versus the US Postal service.

I’m not saying it’s a good or bad thing. It’s why private industry exists. If there’s an opportunity to make money doing something, someone will step up to make money doing it. These fees, if they become lucrative, may just be the opportunity for private industry to find a business model that didn’t exist before.

I am able to understand why Elgin wants to implement these fees… but I think that this is a situation ripe for the Law of Unintended Consequences. If I could give cities proposing these kinds of fees some advice I would tell them they should find every single efficiency within their existing budgets before they set about increasing revenue through raising fees. Make no mistake, within the contemporary political climate; citizens are going to scrutinize every aspect of your budget when you start trying to get them in the wallet. You may not like what they find.

I don’t have the ultimate answer but I’m keeping an eye on this story. You should too.

Posted by on November 4, 2011 • Filed under: 911 fail, Administration & Leadership, ckemtp rants, Command & Leadership, Economics, Emergency Medical Services, EMS, ems 2.0, EMS Management, EMS Topics, fire, Fire department, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighting Operations, Funding & Staffing, News, northern illinois, politics

Remebering My Father, Chief Richard A. Kaiser

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I was walking out of a nursing home last night after a simple transport when my brother sent me a text. We talk fairly often; my brother and I, so this wasn’t very significant… except for this text said “11 years today, RIP Richard Kaiser.”

And I hadn’t remembered.

Has it really been 11 years? Did my father, Chief Richard Kaiser really pass away 11 years ago? 11 years? Eleven? Years? Has it been that long?

My dad passed away in his sleep, the cause of death being listed as cardiac arrest of an unknown cause. He probably was a victim of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA), possibly precipitated by a heart attack (MI) that he either wasn’t aware he was having, or didn’t report that he was having. My educated guess is that my father ignored chest pain. If I had to guess about my father, the proud, healthy and vigorous man that he was, I would say that he probably felt some chest pain and ignored the symptoms. I’d guess that he believed, as so many of my patients through the years have believed, that his body wasn’t telling him anything important when he chose to go to bed and see how he felt in the morning. I’d guess that he had been experiencing the pain in his chest all day and didn’t choose to do anything about it.

My father was a volunteer Fire Chief in the small town I grew up in for well over a decade. The department and the community there still benefit greatly from his legacy. He owned the hardware store in town, was the president of the town’s small water company, and was the general fix-it man for many of our community members when they needed something done. He was always willing to help out anyone in need and was a genuine example of a genuinely good man. I benefit greatly from having his example to lead me in my own life and I am blessed to have had him for the twenty years that I did. I will always be thankful for his legacy and the path he left me to follow.

I’m a career paramedic and firefighter and I would say that it is probably him that got me interested in the Fire Service, which blossomed into my love of the Emergency Medical Services. Without his lead, I don’t know if I would have gravitated to the ambulance game. Perhaps my bank account would have benefited more so if I had chosen to adopt his entrepreneurial spirit, or even maybe his MacGyver-Like ability to look at something and make it fixed… but I took on his love of helping people. In fact, as his legacy I’ve tried to impart in the kid that I consider to be my own son that “Our family helps people”… and a lot of that comes from my dad.

After he died, I lead an unsuccessful attempt to place AEDs throughout the part of the county where we lived. The area is very rural. In fact, the town I grew up in, Edgington, IL, is an unincorporated bump-on-the-map surrounded by vast amounts of corn and cows. There isn’t even a post-office. The ambulance that responded was actually the first ambulance I ever ran a call in, and it came from 13 miles away staffed with EMT-Basics. An EMT did respond direct to the scene from her house and began CPR, but she wasn’t equipped with a defibrillator… and ALS care was coming from the city 30 miles away. I was an EMT then but I wasn’t home.

Needless to say, when someone drops dead out in that area, they tend to stay that way.

Since my father passed away at age 53, most probably from ignoring pain in his chest, I have been hyper-vigilant on diagnosing and treating heart attacks and chest pain. As a paramedic, my number one pet-peeve is patients who ignore the symptoms of a heart attack and don’t call 911. Trying to “Tough it out” cost me my father. It cost my father his life, and I have got to tell you… there are times in my life since where I really have wished I had him around to talk to. I have tried to stop questioning how different my life would have turned out had my father simply chosen to call 911 and get his symptoms checked out. I have come to terms with the fact that it was his time and that we can’t second-guess or play “what-if”. I’ve even reconciled my feelings that I can’t always be there for everyone all the time, no matter how much I may have wanted to be.

But people who ignore chest pain and other serious medical symptoms simply because they believe they’re tough or that it can’t be happening to them still bug me. My ambulance partners will tell you, I give these people “the speech” where I expound upon the fact that they should always call 911 for chest pain. Sometimes I even get through to them.

In remembrance of my father, Chief Richard A. Kaiser of the Andalusia/Edgington Volunteer Fire Protection District, I am asking each and every one of my readers to do me a favor. Please spend some time evangelizing to your friends, family, and other loved ones that they should never ignore chest pain or other symptoms of a heart attack. Tell them to learn the symptoms and make the call to 911 when they have them. You do the same for yourself. Don’t try to tough it out or do anything stupid like that…

Because I miss my dad.

Call 911 for chest pain. Just FREAKING do it.

If you’d like to share something on your Facebook pages, twitter accounts, or print something out and pass it to your friends, please click on this link: “Heart Attack? Call 911 – Don’t Just Burp” It’s a piece where I write about the same topic… just without this level of emotion behind it. I’d like that piece to go as far around as it can go. If my father’s legacy can save any more lives, this is one of those ways.

Rest in Piece Dad, I love you. Thanks to you all in advance for helping me spread the word.

Posted by on February 17, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, American Heart Association, Command & Leadership, cpr, Emergency Medical Services, emotions, EMS, ems 2.0, EMS Topics, EMT, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, In the Line of Duty, Line of Duty, Paramedic, Patient Management, STEMI, volunteer fire department

I don’t usually talk about Political things…

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But when I do, they’re usually of the macro-local type and  have something directly to do with EMS.

This is one of those things.

The village of Schaumburg bucked the national trend of raising taxes and fees to cover rising expenses when its board unanimously approved a 4.4 percent reduction to the 2010 property tax levy

You read that right: reduction.

But that’s not all.  Village officials also did away with vehicle sticker fees and moved to have property taxes cover garbage removal.  

Just for the record, Schaumburg is in Illinois, folks. The same state that sent our senator up to the White House last election cycle. Lowering taxes isn’t exactly the modus operandi for an Illinois municipality. In fact:

Schaumburg is an anomaly among Illinois municipalities. Others like Gurnee and Orland Park raising taxes and fees where ever they can. Northbrook, which has seen an increase in sales tax revenue stood pat.

Schaumburg is one of the larger municipalities in the sprawling conglomeration of suburbs surrounding Chicago. It faces the exact same economic challenges that other municipalities in the area face, but it seems to be doing much better, economy wise.

The measure, if you read the article, isn’t final, but it looks like it will pass. Schaumburg has a full-time Fire/EMS dept and pays their firefighters extremely well, they also seem to have great city services and every time I’ve been in the city I’ve liked what I’ve seen.

In fact, the recent NAEMSE conference was held in a hotel in Schaumburg, and they played a small part in paying the hotel tax.

As I’ve said before, I’m not one to wax too poltical on this blog. This is an EMS and Fire blog and you come here to read about things related to Fire and EMS. I understand that. I don’t want to hijack the discussion to the miasma that is our national political scene and end up alienating a different percentage of my readership every time I post something of an opinionated political nature. However, local politics affect EMS and Fire, and I speak on the politics of EMS quite a bit. This is one of those issues.

I have to ask the question here:

Businesses pay taxes, residents pay taxes, Visitors pay taxes… It goes to say that the more businesses, residents, and visitors a locality gets, the more taxes they’ll pay by sheer volume. People have a choice on where they locate their business, where they visit, and where they choose to live. If you were in the position to do any of these things, knowing that Schaumburg is lowering their taxes, and plans on removing their property tax entirely - just like they said they would – would you choose to do so in Schaumburg, or in the other towns mentioned in this article?

In additon, removing the stupid municipal car stickers, which are really just a massive inconvenience and hassle to the residents of a city, and covering garbage disposal fees through what’s left of the property tax?

Well, Schaumburg… you may just be an island of sanity in an insane state. May word get out and people flock to your borders. It’s called “competition” and usually only successful businesses are the groups that think of lowering their prices to become more attractive to the customer. Bravo.

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Schaumburg-Officials-May-Lower-Property-Taxes-103947993.html?dr#ixzz10vUpO9PP

Posted by on September 29, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Economics, Emergency Medical Services, EMS, EMS Management, EMS Topics, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Funding & Staffing, News, newspaper, Paramedic, Uncategorized

Thanking Those who REALLY Deserve it – Merry Christmas

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I originally meant to post this during Thanksgiving, but this season seems appropriate enough. I love Christmas. It’s my most favorite time of year. I love family, friends, cooking, and giving gifts. I love Christmas parties, I love the fellowship, and I love being kind to everyone and having them not look at me strangely… ok *as* strangely as they do other times of the year.

And also, I tell people “Merry Christmas”. I don’t say “Happy Holidays”, “Happy Winder Holiday”, or “My lawyer sez to tell you ‘good luck”. If someone responds with “Happy Chanukah”, or “Happy Kwanza”, or “Happy MishMash Shaloob” I’m not offended by it and I’m happy that they wished me the sentiment so there ya go.

Oh, and to my UK friends, Merry Frumpydumples to ye’

So what’s my Christmas post going to be? Well, it’s about thanking who’s really important to thank. As you all know, I’m a volunteer paramedic and firefighter as well as being a career paramedic and firefighter. This time of year in the small towns, it’s pretty common to have people stop by and offer up sweet treats and tell us “Thank you” for what we do for them. Let me make the blanket statement that I really appreciate it folks, even if my waist line and my pending diabetes doesn’t. However, I don’t think that I deserve your thanks.

I have always gotten more from my service to others than I could ever hope to give back to it. I love EMS and I love the Fire Department and I love helping people. I identify with it and I couldn’t imagine my life without it. Even after a solid decade of running my “Life Under the Lights” I can’t imagine doing anything else. I am rewarded a thousand times over by every smile I get, every person I comfort, and every person that I am privileged enough to come into contact with as a caregiver.

So who should the people that wish to thank us actually be thanking?

Well , first thank my wife for every time that I’ve had to get up and leave for a volunteer call in the middle of a family dinner. Thank my kid for every time that I’ve missed out on play time, or story time, or nap time because the pager called me away. Thank my family for all of the times that they’ve had to do without me because I was working mandatory overtime. Thank my wife too for all the nights she sleeps alone because I’m on a 24 and am sleeping at the station. Thank my friends for all the times that I’ve stood them up on plans because I’ve gotten stuck running calls. Thank everyone who cares that I spend time with them, because a lot of the time I could be doing that I’m off caring for everybody else.

Thank the same people for every volunteer or public safety person you know… because without the caring and understanding of the people that truly matter in life for us, we couldn’t be out there doing it for you. They’re the heroes here.

That, and one more thing. I was never in the Military and I probably should have been. This may not be much, but Thank You to all of our Military Men and Women out there serving for me and my family. I can’t write enough to say how much I deeply, and truly appreciate your sacrifice… but from the most humble part of my heart, Thank You for everything you do. The same thanks goes to your families and loved ones as well.

Merry Christmas, Every one.

Posted by on December 24, 2009 • Filed under: 2009, Ambulance, appreciation, Emergency Medical Services, EMS, EMS ethics, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Motivation, EMS pep talk, EMS Topics, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter, Firefighter Safety & Health, In the Line of Duty, Line of Duty, News, Paramedic, pride, profession, professionalism

The day I didn’t die – Firefighter Close Calls

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Laying prone on the quivering floor, I had been pushed down flat on my stomach by the searing heat and smoke. I was as terrified as I’d ever been as I frantically yanked and tugged on the inch-and-a-half hose line that was stretched down the basement stairs towards the engine company that had disappeared down the dark hole an eternity ago. What had started out as a small, concealed fire with light wispy smoke conditions had quickly deteriorated into this hellish, searing inferno that I was convinced was killing the three men below me.

Twenty minutes before this, my two man tanker company had been first on scene to this structure fire that had been dispatched while we were returning from a small brush fire. We were the closest unit and were first on scene. Light staffing that day caught us when this fire was reported during the height of our daytime volunteer shortage. These factors combined a two-man tanker company together with a two-man brush-truck company to make a primary search of the structure. The light smoke and little heat had lulled us into a false sense of security as we entered the single-family home. The concealed fire between the first floor and the basement caught us unaware. It spread quickly and weakened the floors we were standing on. When I found the first floor had been weakened, I sent out my partner to inform command as we were on the tanker and had no radio communications inside the structure. Unfortunately, another engine company with a hot-shot lieutenant arrived and, despite my fervent protestations to the contrary, he took his three firefighters down the stairs to the basement. I stayed to mark their exit.

Outside the air-horns sounded their three quick blasts, calling for an evacuation of the structure. I stayed, waiting for the crew to emerge from the staircase so that I could lead them to safety. They never showed. The intense heat burned me through my turnout gear as I screamed as loud as I was able through my SCBA mask into the abyss. I tugged on the hose and screamed at them to return, only taking a break to recognize the ringing of my low-air warning bell on my air tank. I had no idea how long it had been ringing, but when I noticed it, it was slow. Instead of a sharp ring, it was a slow ding that was getting slower as I was sucking as much air as I could to yell down the staircase.

This moment, this intense moment, was where I made a decision the likes of which I hope I never have to make again. I knew that if I stayed more than a few moments longer, I would suffocate and burn to death right there on that floor. I also knew that the men below me needed me to be there for them when they came out of the basement. They needed me to be there to lead them to safety.

It was a decision that made me choose between leaving my brothers to perish by saving my own life, or staying to face my own probable death. Ding… Ding… Ding… the sluggish bell ticked off my air supply, inching ever closer to the point where it would just stop, leaving me to asphyxiate.

That moment, I chose to flee and save myself. It’s why I’m sitting here typing this story.

I knew where I was in the structure. While it was pitch black from smoke and I was blind, and while every movement made my skin contact my turnout gear and burned me, I turned tail on my stomach and frantically crawled towards the doorway I knew it was only a few feet away. I knew I could make it. I knew my brothers were dead or dying. I knew…

“CRACK” went the floor as it opened up to reveal the inferno underneath my belly. I felt myself falling I saw the flames come up and envelop me. My vision turned from completely black to completely orange as I felt myself falling into the intense heat. I screamed and reached out ahead of me into the darkness. I clawed and flailed forward, grasping on to anything that I could grab to save me. God willing, my fingers found the concrete steps out the outside door to the residence. Inch by excruciating inch I pulled myself up and out into the light and the fresh air.

As soon as I was out of the house I stopped breathing as my SCBA mask sucked into my face for lack of air in the tank. I ripped it off of me and sucked in the sweet outside air. Waiting for me outside, about to try and find me, were the three firefighters who had went into the basement. They had evacuated through a basement door. Nobody knew that I was still inside waiting for them until they made a headcount in the confusing scene and found that I was not accounted for.

Looking back at this experience, I am proud of myself for finding out that I will go up to the last possible second to try and save my brother firefighters… although thinking about the decision I made to turn tail and run, I’m almost ashamed that I didn’t stay past that point of no return.

Of course, my policy is that I go home at the end of the day every day… but still.

Close calls are terrifying experiences. Thinking about losing any one of my coworkers or colleagues is unfathomable. It can happen, however, and we combat this reality with safety and organized command structures. This call was years ago in my career but it sticks in my mind at every call I’ve been to since that day.

Train hard. Keep your wits about you. Take everything seriously.

 

The Hole a firefighter fell through in a strucure fire (uninjured)

The Hole I fell through in a strucure fire (look right by the door)

Posted by on November 25, 2009 • Filed under: accident, EMS Health & Safety, fire, Fire department, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, training-fire-rescue-topics

Soapy Demons – Ckemtp is a geek

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Washing Machine Sta 1Ok, so this post really proves just how much of a geek I really am. Just bear with me for a bit.

This subject causes me a lot of personal grief. I know that it probably shouldn’t and that I am indeed a geek for worrying about this issue because seemingly no one else does, however this issue has plagued me for years and I need to get it off of my chest.

This is about the washing machine at the main fire station where I work. I’m at this station a lot, whether I’m working one of my three weekly scheduled paid shifts, hanging around with my wife who works there three scheduled paid shifts as well, or volunteering my time for call response, training, or work projects. So I have the opportunity to use this particular large, commercial, washing machine quite a bit.

It’s a nice machine. It handles the huge loads that we generate on a daily and nightly basis. It cleans the stuff pretty well and runs pretty quickly and quietly.

The problem is, the soap. It does not rinse the soap out of the clothes, bed sheets, blankets, turnout gear, or anything else that we put in there. The “rinse” water is always white with suds and everything comes out soapier than when we put it in there.

I am well aware that this is not a sexy problem. It’s not a big issue and castles will not fall because of it. It just drives me nuts.

When it comes to be my time to use the machine, I run two full cycles at a minimum to rinse out the machine. The third cycle usually has at least some soap in the water but I use it anyway because all of the residual soap that is left in the stuff that we constantly wash in there. The stuff is full of soap! Our sheets, our towels, our turnout gear… everything. After you run a load in there, even after a second full cycle, the water is white with suds on the final rinse phase.

For a few years, I begged, pleaded, cajoled, and bargained to get people to use less soap in the machine. I tried to get the purchasing division to get us a different type of soap that might rinse cleaner. I even went so far as to post up a few memos in the washing room and write a couple of written requests to the purchasing division and the officer above them.

Predictably, nobody cared those times and still nobody cares about the issue now. Everybody still dumps the same big glob of soap into the machine when they start it and then promptly forgets about it. Whomever comes in and removes the stuff from the washer just puts the stuff right in the dryer, still soapy as all get out, and throws another load in the washer. Then, they dump a big glob of soap in the machine and the cycle perpetuates. Honestly, it’s a losing battle for me and I know that I’m the only geek who cares out of the 100 other people on the department. Nowadays I’ve resorted to trying not to care about it so much and also by surreptitiously watering down the soap that we use. I’ve been doing that for years and nobody seems to ever have noticed (until they read this). It helps a bit, but still our stuff is soapy as heck.

Am I crazy? Probably, but consider this: This small issue is hurting my department and the way we function. Really. We spend hours per week cleaning and polishing our apparatus. To do that, we need towels. Lots of them. Now that they’re all full of soap, they don’t soak up water anymore and we have to constantly replace them with new towels that promptly get full of soap and don’t absorb water and leave our trucks streaked with laundry soap and water spots. Then, we replace the towels again and the cycle perpetuates. How much money do we spend on new towels?

Consider this also: Our guys sleep on linens that get washed every day after they’re used. These linens are full of soap and are against our guys’ skin every night. What happens when one of them develops an allergy? Occasionally, some of this linen goes for use on an ambulance… when will we get a patient with an allergy to our soap?

Consider this as well: How much does it degrade our turnout gear to be full of regular laundry soap? Sure, we bought the expensive specialized turnout gear cleaner, but it doesn’t matter because the water we’re using to wash the gear is full of the soap from everything else? Does that degrade our protection? How much are we harming our very expensive protective clothing by filling it with soap? When will the gear fail and someone get burned because of this? Will it happen? When someone gets burned will it be my fault because I didn’t try hard enough to fix an issue that I saw?

Yes, I’m a geek for caring about this issue so much. I feel like an OCD Chicken Little. However, this small, nothing issue is costing the department money overall and could get someone hurt out there on the fireground. After that, I’m sure people will wonder how this could have been prevented. I’m sure also that they’re looking for ways to cut costs now that the economy tanked and tax revenues are down.

And there sits the washing machine, quietly driving me crazy.

How many issues out there do people know about like this? Issues that are small enough so that nobody else cares but that snowball into big problems for the organizations. How many of these issues affect EMS and the fire service industry-wide. How many of them affect everything?

One day I’ll conquer my soapy demon. For now, I have to keep watering down the soap in secret… but as crazy as it seems, I feel that I’m making some small difference. You can too. Be it the way your equipment is checked in the morning, the way you package your lifesaving gear, the way you make sure that the gas tank is full, or the way you do whatever it is you do to make your service the best it can be.

Now get out there and water down your soap. You might just save a life.

Posted by on October 10, 2009 • Filed under: edemse, Emergency Medical Services, EMS, ems 2.0, EMS ethics, EMS safety, EMT, Ethics, everyday ems ethics, fire, Fire department, Firefighter, new perspective, Paramedic, pride, professionalism, soap

The Insanely long work week – Part 14 2/3

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This has been my shifts so far. One really good save at the start of it, then… well, this.

I was the cat at the end. I envision that there’s an epic fail coming up

Posted by on June 25, 2009 • Filed under: Ambulance, EMS, EMT, fire, Fire department, Paramedic, shift length

Video – Rockford, Illinois – Train derails and explodes during severe thunderstorm

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June 19th, 2009 – Rockford, IL

So last night, I was working my ambulance job in Wisconsin and MISSED THIS. My Illinois Fire Department sent an engine and a chief through the MABAS system who are still there. I don’t have all the details, but apparently a severe thunderstorm washed out railroad tracks which caused a train to derail. The train was carrying haz-mat. It ‘sploded, sending a fire ball 300 feet into the air.

Wow. And I missed it. I slept most of the night. They are reporting that there is one dead and nine injured. Those poor people. God’s blessings to the rescuers and the victims.

You can get more details at: the Rockford Register Star

Update: Here is some more information from RRstar.com

Posted by on June 20, 2009 • Filed under: EMS, EMT, explosion video, fire, Fire department, Firefighter, illinois, MABAS, Paramedic, Rockford, train derailment, train explosion

“In Their Eyes” – From Guest Author – Randy Lovelace EMT-B

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Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, EMS people and Firefighters,

I bumped this post up, because Randy’s such a darn good guy.

This post is placed with the permission of the author, Randy Lovelace EMT-B. He’s a friend of mine and a firefighter/EMT-B at a department where I work. He wrote this article after a training that our department completed and it was just published in our department’s monthly newsletter. I believe that the post needs more exposure, because it is just great. It exemplifies the camaraderie and community spirit that is embodied in our small-town department (that runs about 3k calls a year). We’re an anomaly, our small-but-proud department. We’ve got a fanatically devoted, passionate group of highly trained volunteer firefighters and EMTs that provide the best possible service to our citizens.

I’ve taken out the references to our department because I try to maintain my anonymity to provide another level of protection of patient confidentiality. It doesn’t detract from the piece.

Thanks Randy, great article.

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In Their Eyes

Last Saturday, May 30th, the Mid-Size Midwestern Fire Department held training for all members at the Greenlee Farm site. Everyone that came was kept busy with all the work of training evolutions, scenario management, fire control, safety, and finally, the actual burning of the house on the property.

Throughout the morning, people started coming out to the site to see what was going on and find out why there was so much activity. Many of those people, however, were family members of the firefighters. There were wives, children and significant others all interested in seeing what we do and how we do it.

For the firefighters, the activities were fairly fast-paced. Most of the training was geared towards fire suppression, which required teams to advance hose lines into the burning structure, identify the source of the fire and its fuel, and correlate the conditions inside with a method of fire attack that would result in the maximum possibility of success while subjecting the firefighters to minimum risk. Some new operators were manning the pump controls on the engines, others were shuttling water from the nearest water source to our site, and dumping it into porta-tanks for use by the firefighting teams.

Instructors, safety personnel, training officers and operations officers all worked throughout the morning, checking everything, verifying that all risks had been mitigated as much as possible, and that all planned training was taking place on time to previously determined standards.
For many of the firefighters running evolutions against the scenarios, this was their first time in a burning structure beyond our training tower. This was their first time fighting fire in scenarios where the fire could get away from them, and their first time in conditions where the heat was a physical entity – attacking you as soon as you entered the house.

Our probies proved that morning that they knew how to properly check their nozzle and hose line before entering a structure. They remembered that you turn the nozzle head to the right (for a stream pattern) to fight the fire, and verify you have water, not air, coming out that hose. They didn’t know that our primary interior training officer was intentionally setting the nozzle for a fog pattern every time a previous team got done, just to test what they did remember. Even our newest firefighters remembered that you position yourself outside the hose line as it turns around a corner, and they all got to experience what it truly meant to back up the nozzle man – that they were his eyes, his guardian angel. They learned how much they could ease the work of aiming the nozzle for the nozzle man, or make it extremely difficult to even hit the fire if they positioned themselves improperly. They demonstrated that although the fire was exciting, it was a known force, and they were to look for the unknown dangers lurking in this burning environment in order to protect themselves and their partner.

Our new firefighters all came to understand the reason for properly wearing all their gear even outside the burning building. They got to feel the immense heat of the fire from 10 yards away, and they felt how much their gear does shield their skin from that heat. They learned that a fog spray from a nozzle can create a magic barrier, insulating them from the heat and allowing them to complete tasks near the fire.

At the end of the day, we had probies and rookies saying they’d never been this hot, they didn’t remember a time when they were this tired. Firefighters of all levels of experience were drenched in sweat, looking for any place at all to sit down, rest and cool off. This day, everyone worked their tails off, everyone was tired, and most had aches of one sort or another.
It’s days like this when we could have been mowing our lawns or napping in a hammock that each of us asks, “Why do I do this? Why do I give up my free time to train so hard?”
The answer to those questions could go in many directions. We could say there’s nothing better to do, it’s for the adrenaline rush, it’s for the camaraderie, it’s to get far away from the Wife’s Honey-Do list. But, reflecting honestly, I think we work and train like this for a different reason. I believe a small piece of each of us wants to be a hero. I’m not talking about saving the world all by ourselves, and I’m not talking about the rush to disaster when all others rush the other direction. I’m simply talking about doing something that needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and doing it well enough that we end up making things better, not worse, for all involved parties. I’m talking about doing the right thing, serving our community doing things that others will not or cannot do.

The belief I’ve just stated, however, was modified on Sunday, the day after our training burn and all that hard work. I got a phone call from my daughter, relating something that happened between my son-in-law (a firefighter) and his son, Austin.

Austin was at the fire on Saturday, and he watched everything he could. His eyes were flashing in every direction, seeing what was going on, where the fire was, what the firefighters did to contain it, watching pump operators, watching hose line tasks, listening to the commander give instructions over the radio. He looked for his father, wanting to see what Dad was doing. When his father sat down, Austin joined him, assuming the same posture. And Austin had the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on a child’s face during that entire time.

When he got home, Austin wrote his father a letter, and drew a picture for him. The letter, transcribed exactly, read:

To Daddy,

Dear daddy I loved waching the fire. It was one of the most coolest things I ever sean. I sean a fan fall that was fun. When I get older I hope I am going to be a firefiter. Just like you.

From Austin

(transcribed with permission from Austin and his Dad)

After my son-in-law read this letter, he was quoted as saying “Aw Buddy, that’s great. Thank you. I love you, too!”

When this story was related to me, tears began to form in my eyes, and I started to understand that I just might be wrong about this entire process. These people I trained with on Saturday, they’re not probies and rookies and veterans and officers, these people are family. I don’t train with them, and go to calls with them. I work with them. I work to protect them. I work to accomplish things together that we could never finish alone. And they all do the very same for me. We nurture each other, we care for each other, we make each other better people that any of us thought we could be.

This firefighting family isn’t a replacement for my own kin. But they’re a perfect model of our families at home. We do the same things at the department as we do at home. We protect and nur
ture, we prepare, we train, we work at home just as we do with the fire department.
I realized that we say we have many reasons for being volunteer firefighters, but in the end, we do it for our families. We do this because we have a need to teach our own how important it is to do good things. We teach them that rewards aren’t always monetary, quite often, they’re heartfelt. We teach them that hard work can be its own reward. In this process, we get benefits as well. We raise children that aspire to be like us, children that are excited for what we do, even when they see how hard we work and sweat to accomplish our tasks. We’re teaching future members of society to love the work we love, and we are preparing them to replace us when we’re too old to continue the exhausting pace that firefighting demands. We’re teaching our children that success exacts a toll – exhaustion, aches, sweat, time. Success demands that we first be ready for a challenge before we can tackle that challenge. And we teach them the sweet taste of victory when we’ve done all that work. We provide them with functional families, homes with love and caring, places to be safe from the rest of the world.

As you prepare for Father’s Day on the 21st, take time to reflect on what you’ve just read, as well as the following concepts. Please note, the phrase “father figure” implies gender, but there’s no gender requirement to be a father figure.

1. If you mentor, you’re a father figure to the one benefiting from your tutelage.
2. If you lead, you’re a father figure to those you command.
3. If you’re the Fire Chief, you’re a father figure to the entire department.
4. If you have children, you’ve already met at least 2 of the previous tests.

For each of us, there’s one more benefit. Austin said it in his letter and all of our children have said the same at one time or another. We’ve already done what we’re still hoping to accomplish. In their eyes, we’re already heroes.

———————————-

Comments on this post will be read by the author. He deserves kudos.

Posted by on June 18, 2009 • Filed under: Ambulance, appreciation, camaraderie, EMS, EMS Blog Carnival, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Humor, EMS Topics, EMT, fire, Fire department, Fire Rescue Topics, fire truck, Firefighter, funny, humor, pride, Public relations, volunteer fire department, volunteer firefighter

A post worth reading

1 comment

Kelly Grayson over at http://ambulancedriverfiles.blogspot.com has written a great article on a patient he had exhibiting Wolf Parkinson White syndrome.

http://ambulancedriverfiles.blogspot.com/2009/05/little-cardiology-geekery.html

His “Cardiology Geekery” was one of the best written and most educational articles on the topic that I’ve ever read. I learned something, and so should you.

Please come back though :)

Posted by on May 26, 2009 • Filed under: Ambulance, EMS, EMT, fire, Fire department, Paramedic, wolf parkinson white, wpw, wpw syndrome

Follow Up to the Shine Factor – Grunts: Part 1

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 This is part 2 of a 3 part series on “The Shine Factor”

Part 1 of this series can be found here – The Shine Factor

Part 2 of this series can be found here – What Makes a Great Ambulance Service

Part 3 of this series can be found here – The Shine Factor – Grunts

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The other day I determined the most important piece of equipment in my ambulance for the day. It varies from shift to shift, you see. Sometimes it’s one of the sexier tools we carry, like the IO (intraosseous – Into bone marrow) drill or the $25k cardiac monitor. That day, it was definitely NOT sexy but nonetheless it attained the status of the most important piece of equipment of the day. It was (drum roll please): The emesis basin.

For my non-EMS audience (Yes!! I’m getting one!! Keep telling your friends!!) “Emesis” is a medical term for “Raalllpfffegh” or, more technically, “barf”. It’s puke, vomit, throw-up, and the like. It’s something that, (apologetically) has been mentioned a few times in my writings. For EMS people, as I keep saying, it tends to be an integral part of our careers. The “Emesis basin” is a polite, professional term for a puke bucket; A portable version of the Porcelain Goddess that people pray to on hungover mornings if you will. Having one on the ambulance is necessary for a lot of reasons, none the least of which is to keep the puke out of your shoes. If you ever want to see a medical person scramble, and I mean any medical person, yell that you’re going to need an emesis basin quick like.

Quick sidebar story: The other day I was working the clinic when a patient asked for someone to come into his room. He said “I think I’m gonna throw up!” and he definitely looked like he wasn’t kidding. The problem was, when calculating his probable trajectory; I saw that he was aiming for the exact ground level cabinet where the emesis basin was stored. I had to act fast. I sprung into action, diving commando style towards the cabinet. Seconds ticked like hours. Quickly I opened the door and grabbed for the basin, cursing myself in my head for the lack of dexterity I had in getting the basin out the door. If only I had more time! I could…

Yes, he puked on me… Only a little bit though… He just peppered my scrubs a bit with splatter off the floor.

So anyways, the emesis basin was the most important piece of equipment on the ambulance the other day. The patient needed it and needed it right then and there and I got it for her. Luckily for me we had one. Yep, we had ONE; Just ONE bucket that I used ten minutes into my hour long transfer. It was my fault too, because it was my ambulance for the day and therefore the responsibility to check the stock levels and functionality of the equipment was mine and mine alone. The fact is, though, that the emesis basin just isn’t on my mental list of things that I absolutely have to check. I check the biggies really well every shift. I make sure that there’s plenty of EKG electrodes because I really like 12-lead EKGs and I’ll do the fancy right sided ones when I think that they’re necessary. I check to see that we have a good supply of all sizes of IV caths just in case I need to turn multiple people into pin cushions. I check the airway stuff religiously, and even do a monthly op check on my monitor every shift just to make sure it works. That, and I follow our check list to the letter every time.

But I took the emesis basin count for granted, and it almost cost me another vomit bath.

Now, I’m not shying away from my responsibility to check out every piece of equipment on my truck before I head out the door every morning, but really if I was down to my last basin, so probably was the crew before. Since I don’t think that they had to use one, so probably was the crew before them. Then it goes right back to me, when I probably didn’t check it that shift either. More of my fault there then.

Luckily I had the one that I did.

I would wager that one of the most annoying things that can happen to an ambulance person is to find out that you’ve run out of something you need at the worst possible time. Everyone hates that. If it happens a lot it can really tear down The Shine Factor of your organization a lot. It makes the EMT that it happens to blame themselves a bit, but also blame their coworkers a lot more. Nobody likes to bear the blame entirely on themselves so they rationalize that while they may have not exactly checked that exact piece of equipment, the previous crew obviously didn’t either. Then anger starts, and eventually apathy blooms.

Here’s what a grunt like me can do to put an end to this: (Yes, very very simple, I know) Check your freaking truck!

I don’t mean check it like you are told to do per the rule book, I mean check it out thoroughly every single shift. Pull everything out. Make sure that it works. Make sure you know how to use it (couldn’t we all use a refresher on the traction splint?) Make a production of it to whomever happens to be around to see you do it. While you’re doing it, take the extra minute or two to spray something on the surfaces and wipe them off with a towel. It may not be a full decon, but it at least make things cleaner and more sanitary.

A strange thing will happen here, I guarantee it.

First, you will KNOW for sure that your truck is in tip-top response readiness. You can’t fix the fact that it may have 200k+ miles on it, but you sure can make sure that you’ve done your part. It’s a good feeling. Trust me.

Second, you’ve now just picked up a big part of the responsibility for increasing the shine factor in your organization by taking away a big potential aggravation spot for your other crews. They may not deserve it all the time… but at least you’re doing your part to keep everyone happier and to make sure that every patient in that ambulance doesn’t have to suffer additionally from the lack of needed equipment.

Third, by making this a production, and even by turning this into a game, you’ve single-handedly improved the overall care that your organization provides and therefore the pride that your coworkers have in the service. If you do your best truck check, and then challenge another crew to find something that you may have missed, you’re pulling their pride into it too. Make it a bet. Put breakfast or something like it on the challenge. Their pride is on the line too, and that will get them invested.

At a service I worked for in times past, we always stayed with the same truck day in and day out. Since I’m pretty much OCD on truck cleanliness, I got into a competition with another medic from a different station that was riddled with the same OCD that I was. We polished, shined, cleaned, vacuumed, and tried to generally outdo the other with how brightly our truck shone in the sunlight. If I would have had the ability, I’m sure that we would have taken surface cultures to see how sanitary our trucks were (and THAT would be a great topic for an upcoming piece!). That competition put our personal pride into making our trucks the cleanest and shiniest they could be. Once we were invested personally, our pride inspired us to clean the trucks better than any management policy ever could. In fact, management’s best option to further motivate us would probably have been to offer prizes and recognition for the competition. Positive reinforcement other than negative sanctions that there would have been. It works.

Here are some things that I resolve to check each shift:

  • The batteries in my ear thermometer
    • And I’ll make sure that we have the little cover things too
  • I want at least two of every size ET tube in case the first one gets all mucked up
  • Every blade too.
  • I’m actually going to get out the test solutions and calibrate my glucometer. (Yea, when was the last time you did THAT)
  • The child car seat.
  • The portable suction unit, both manual and mechanical.
  • The cot. I’ll bet that the one you’ve got needs at least ONE thing tightened and has at least ONE speck of blood on it.
  • The number of towels in the cabinet. Does anyone else put one on their knee when they
    kneel down at the side of the cot and put the patient’s arm on their knee to cushion the bumps? How many times have you had blood run down on your pants? Now, be honest, how many times have you just felt it easier to walk around that way for the rest of your shift? (Guilty. Ewww)
  • Every other little thing, too.

As always, “Get out there and polish some chrome”

 

—————————————————————-

 This is part 2 of a 3 part series on “The Shine Factor”

Part 1 of this series can be found here – The Shine Factor

Part 2 of this series can be found here – What Makes a Great Ambulance Service

Part 3 of this series can be found here – The Shine Factor – Grunts

Posted by on March 30, 2009 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Ambulance, Command & Leadership, edemse, EMS, EMS ethics, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Management, EMS Motivation, EMS pep talk, EMS Topics, EMT, fire, Fire department, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Paramedic, The Shine Factor

Professing EMS

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Some time ago I was working a shift in a clinic on a particularly busy day when I had a few moments to sit down, have a cup of coffee, and talk with my coworkers. It was the usual stuff, talk about the day, tidbits about personal lives, and since most of the people I was working with were women, talk about things that I didn’t really need to hear about. After a few minutes we all had to get back up and head back onto the floor to keep up with the constant tide of flu-season sniffles.

It was all pretty mundane for me until the doc that we were working with who hadn’t been there much before, made a statement. As we were walking out, he said “Man, I really hate this! This isn’t my love, it’s not my passion!” I was taken aback. I asked him what he meant. He went on to say that he really wanted to be a concert pianist and that he only did medicine now because he didn’t know how to do anything else.

Now, I’m not you… but even though this guy was a pretty good Doctor, I immediately felt sorry for all of the patients that day. I mean, would you want this guy to be your doctor? Who in their right mind would want someone who hated taking care of you taking care of you?

It did, however, get me to thinking… Is that where we are in EMS today? I mean our profession. The profession of EMS, our careers and our industry. Are we made up of people like this doctor? Now during the day that I worked with him, he never made any egregious errors in patient care, nor did I see him do anything illegal, immoral, or fattening. However, if providers aren’t *in* to providing to care, would you want to have them providing care to you or your family? What about your service? Sure, we all know providers who love EMS, love their patients, and can’t wait to take care of any patient that calls for their help, but while I would hope that they are the majority… are they?

EMS is a profession in its infancy, we’ve only been around since sideburns were popular, but in that time we’ve gone from dedicated but untrained people rocketing around in hearses to professional providers practicing curbside critical care. It’s a great profession to be in and I’m proud to be a part of it. As a group we’re a pretty dynamic fast paced lot. I would like to ask our group though, do we have the love of providing care to the breadth of society who call us when they think that the life or health of their themselves or their loved ones are in danger? Or have we fallen short of the lofty goals set forth by Johnny and Roy?

Yep, I’m asking a lot of questions here. I just would like to open up a dialogue among the EMS professionals out there. Ask yourselves if the EMS providers in your area are advancing the profession of EMS to the place where you think it should be heading. Ask yourselves if you work with people who have the love of the profession enough so that if they were strangers and you were a patient would you want them making decisions about your life? I think that it’s high time that EMS is taken over by EMS professionals who care about advancing our profession into the future, not by people who don’t care enough to understand the vast array of issues that face our industry today. I would like EMS people to take ownership and drive our industry where we believe it should go. It’s our profession, and our responsibility to strengthen our service to meet the challenges that are facing our communities. And that responsibility starts with you, the individual EMS provider.

You, as a caring EMS professional actually have the tools to do this. First off, realize that EMS is a profession all its own, truly a dynamic industry that has earned a place in the very fabric of country. Think about it, our generation and the generations to come have grown up with the notion of 911. They know that when the unthinkable happens, all they have to do is call the magic three numbers and someone will come and help them. It’s a powerful piece of the American psyche that people rarely give second thought to… but they all know what they’re going to do the next time they find Grandpa unresponsive. I think that if EMS ceased to exist (and contrary to what it may look like from the dashboard of your ambulance some days, it’s not all that likely) our society would look a lot different than it does now. People need to have the notion of EMS. And make no mistake, we’re darn privileged to have the role in society that we do. It is, however, up to us to awaken the public to what it is that we do, to educate ourselves to our own potential, and to show the medical establishment what we’re capable of. Ask yourself, really ask, if you want some other group to decide where we’re going for us, oh… say like the nurses’ lobby, or the IAFF, or the DOT, or the (insert non-EMS acronym here). You are sitting right now in an industry on the cusp of a watershed change, and it’s up to you to take ownership and steer EMS where you want it to go.

Here’s what I’m doing, and what I would like to suggest to you all. First, recognize that EMS is indeed a profession; and a good one at that. Second, evangelize EMS to all you meet. You can’t complain about the system abusers (or worse, the people who truly need us and yet don’t call us) if you aren’t out there educating them about what we’re here for. Third, realize that “PR Saves lives” and make sure that the information out there about EMS in your community is projecting the message that you think it should, and if it isn’t, write something up and get the word out to change that. Talk with everyone you can and let them know just what it is that we do, who we are, and what we’re capable of. Take ownership of EMS, because if we don’t, someone else out there will.

As always, post publicly if you want public discussion, or contact me at: ProEMS1@yahoo.com

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Posted by on February 10, 2009 • Filed under: Ambulance, EMS, ems 2.0, EMS Topics, EMT, Ethics, everyday ems ethics, fire, Firefighter, Paramedic, Public relations
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