emergency services professional
I recently participated in a social media conversation started by a former colleague of mine who openly questioned the response to a working house fire. At issue wasn't the emergent response but the manner of the response. I don't normally engage in these types of conversations, because there is rarely any real resolution achieved. …
Continue reading "Response Policies, or, Responding Red at 11 pm"
Five years ago today, I experienced what to that point had been the most frightening situation I’d ever encountered. It actually still ranks up there in the top two or three in my mind. At 30 years old, with young family and the bulk of my professional career with the company, I lost my job. …
If you're local in the Rochester area, you've probably heard of the Greece high school teacher who resigned a picture of her using some questionable language in the classroom was posted to Facebook. Regardless of who was right or wrong in this case (there are questions surrounding the intentions of the student, the student's mother, …
Being assigned - willingly - to a double-basic EMT ambulance for a commercial provider, I often find myself being a transfer shuttle. I'm okay with that; after 15 years there isn't a whole lot that I haven't done at least once before, so catching hospital discharges and hospice transfers with a sprinkle of BLS emergencies …
Nothing like a hug from someone you don't know to bring you to the brink of tears. That's pretty much how I'm feeling right now: torn, angry, sad. I've just been visited by a sweet woman who wanted to borrow some equipment from the loan cupboard. The encounter started off pleasantly, as she was looking …
** NOTE: A slightly modified version of this post titled A "Basic" Fallacy in EMS Education was published on emsworld.com in April of 2015.** Let me set the tone: I've been a basic EMT for 15 years by choice. It's not that I haven't wanted to pursue the "bigger and better" world of wearing a Paramedic patch, …
Like many others, I got my start in my working life in a quick-service restaurant. I was humbled to be asked to join, and eventually lead, the training team a short time after becoming employed. One of the most important lessons I taught our trainers was to praise in public, remediate in private. I had such an …
Just thought I'd share this as a follow -up to today's blog post! **Note: this post originally appeared on my "BlueStar EMS Blog" on April 9, 2013**
I've been fortunate to meet many people who have inspired my career over the years. Some have been partners on difficult calls, others have been educators, supervisors, and members of brother services. But one person who I've found has inspired me most often I've only met once for the briefest moment in time: Thom Dick. Many of …
If it's not one thing, it's another. This week, news broke of a second FDNY social media controversy, this time an EMT Lieutenant who's Twitter handle was "Bad Lieutenant." When confronted by the media about controversial tweets, the Lieutenant broke down, stating "my life is ruined." You can read more about the story here. This follows last week's …
Jon David LeRoy 