emergency services professional
"Mindfulness isn't about pausing when you need to take action...Mindfulness is having the sense to appreciate the miracle of the present moment." ~ Crawford Coates Working through some difficulties earlier this year, I stumbled upon Mindful Responder by Crawford Coates. Having dabbled in various forms of mindfulness to help with job-related stressors, I decided to …
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This past week, I joined several others in learning all about child safety seats. At the end of four days we knew many things, the most important of which is...you guessed it, "check the manual."This may seem like a dig at our instructors (it's not) or my being sarcastic (it is). In the end, it's …
When someone is bleeding - and I mean serious, uncontrolled bleeding - life is literally leaving their body. Though we often associate "bleeding out" with horrific events, it doesn't take an active assailant (shooter, knife-wielder, bomber, etc.) event to cause death from bleeding. Here's a sobering fact: serious, uncontrolled bleeding can cause death in the …
I was recently asked if I follow a certain page on social media. I won't mention it by name; in reality, it could be any of the many, many pages associated with emergency services. I see memes and rants from these pages shared many times over; sometimes I chuckle, but most of the time I …
A week or so ago I was fortunate to photograph 18 years of my #EMS career in one shot. Between September 17th, 2001 and May 26th, 2009 I worked in the Communications Center of Mercy Flight Central. I began the current phase of my career with Monroe Ambulance on June 1, 2009 and continue working …
This may seem like a contradictory statement considering my full-time work, but I've gotta say it: being antisocial once in a while is great.
This should go without saying, but the foundation of any premier service provider is a strong initial and continuing education program. Unfortunately, in emergency medical services (at least in my experience) this seems to be forgotten in lieu of getting bodies on the trucks, not wanting to pay for training hours, or giving in to …
Continue reading "Building a strong foundation through training"
This morning, I received some terrible news: one of my colleagues, a past supervisor, was found in his home. I don't think I need to elaborate further on what that means. It hits too close to home, coming on the heels of an anniversary of another tragedy in our public safety community. I'm still stunned, …
A recent story in the Tampa Tribune, available here, talks about the "price" first responders pay for the stressors encountered on the job. My comment to my friend who posted it: "The reality of the job stressors in our environment is becoming more evident. I'm seeing more and more of this come out, and its …
Every once in a while, a trend starts regarding the fitness for duty of EMS providers, including a recent story of a fire department mandating fitness while on duty for their firefighters and paramedics. While I'm not on board with departments mandating fitness while on duty, I am on board with EMS providers needing to …
Jon David LeRoy 