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 …
End-of-Life Decisions
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 …
“Just A Basic”
** 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, …
Praise in Public
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 …
Follow-up on today’s post
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**
Thank you, Thom Dick!
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 …
Public Perception
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 …
Keep Calm, Carry On
Surely you're seen various evolutions of the British propaganda slogan, "Keep Calm Carry On." I recently found myself using this phrase after receiving disappointing news on a job opportunity. I realized that repeating this when feeling down seemed to lift my spirits. You see, I realized that no matter what happens in my personal or professional life, nothing is worth getting overly …
Loss
Over the past several months, there has been much ado over the loss of life in emergency services. Tragically, in December, two firefighters in a neighboring district were fatally wounded and two others sustained serious injuries in an ambush (read my original blog post on this topic here). But not every loss is directly associated with …
Moral Obligations
In the news yesterday was a story of a "retirement facility" nurse in Bakersfield, CA who refused to perform CPR on a resident (911 Recording Details Calif. Dispatcher's Struggle). Reading this article, I felt the frustration of a Dispatcher who was doing everything they could to urge someone to provide potentially life-saving care. I sympathize with …
Jon David LeRoy 