Posts Categorized: Politics
Customer Service: A Bad Concept?
While we can quantitatively point out that having a customer service attitude benefits us in public support, there should be a much more altruistic reason for our embracing that belief.
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EMS: Is what you do the Best You Can Do?
"Is that the best you can do?" Those seven words are so simple, yet when asked of ourselves and others, can become so powerful. Is what you're doing in your EMS career the "best" you can do? Think of what we could accomplish if all simply "tried our best".
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Thanks Rogue Medic – What are EMS’s “Fad Diagnoses”?
Our friend Rogue Medic has a shiny new site up there on the Interwebs. It rocks. Rogue Medic is one of the many, many bloggers, non-bloggers, and/or random people who are much, much smarter than I am. I read his site a lot and I am very pleased to throw …
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Volunteer Fire/EMS: Taking the High Road and Letting go
Is "helping people" your goal? Are we committed to our communities? We have common ground... Here's my resolution to make us stronger... will you join me?
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Modern (f)Art
"Art Purchased by Experts who are not spending their own, personal money" - Ann Arbor, MI is trying to redefine "Art" by spending what "experts" call a "WHOLE BOATLOAD O' CASH" on "art" while laying off firefighters. You'll laugh and get ticked off with this. Mostly ticked off.
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Four Words: EMS, Apathy, Disgrace, Massachusetts.
You've heard about the Mass. 200, right? Well, this is my take on it. The system may be broken, but they needed to do more than just ignore it. There's more.
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The Weekly Weasel – Your Jealous Eyes
Remember Shakespeare's Othello? Envy, people get killed, suicides occur, and the plot is exposed. Your basic Shakespearean tragedy, as it were. Sounds like work.
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Paramedics and EMTs are Special, a salute to the Spork!
The humble spork, the very symbol of efficiency, ingenuity, and ineffective eating performance. How does the spork tie in with EMS? Very well, actually. We are sporks and we're not sporks. It's complex... you'll see
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Balance and Equilibrium
Unless I am compelled to do so for official business, or intend to engage in a learning session in which I can take away lessons from the event, I'd just as soon do the things I do and avoid hanging around to look at the carnage of someone else's bad day.
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The Weekly Weasel – Installation #1
Integrity is an important trait because it fills in the biggest blank in a personal relationship; it tells everyone that if presented with an ambiguous situation, you will do the right thing.
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EMS Week 2010 – Sent to the Newspaper
I wrote this piece in honor of EMS week 2010 and sent it to my local newspaper. You might want to do the same. This is appropriate for the public and you may use it as you see fit.
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Conflict
Conflict is inevitable. Conflict will come regardless of how much you try to avoid it. Because it is inevitable, as a leader, you need to know how to deal with it.
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A Slap in the Face for Medics? How about a Wake-up call
Following up to the "A Slap in the Face to Paramedics Everywhere?" Post, this is how I see it once I've calmed down a bit. It is a slap, but it should serve as a wake-up call for EMS.
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A Slap in the Face to Paramedics Everywhere?
Maybe I'm way off base here, but I'm just plain ol' irate. I saw this ambulance on display at FDIC last weekend and I think it's a full-on slap in the face to paramedic types like myself. It's real, I took the picture myself.
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Red Lights to the Left of them, Blue to the right! – Coloring Emergency Lighting
Ever pull over for a tow-truck or a snow plow? What's up with the lack of a standard for emergency lighting colors? It's confusing as heck..
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Squirrel In The Middle of The Road
Our job entails more than just responding to emergencies. It entails responding to community needs and assisting our neighbors. That assistance comes in many forms, but the agencies who get it will be survivors, and those who don't, well, I think you can figure that out yourself. It's not a matter of "if", but "when".
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Saved by the Bell? High School Student EMS
Remember High School? I do. I was the geeky kid who did show choir. I played football too, though. I was young, naive, and inexperienced. I also desperately wanted to be on an ambulance before I was 18. Was that a good idea? Some communities are doing just that. I was for it... but should I have been?
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Huddled Masses. Healthcare. Honor. EMS.
Undocumented Immigrants? Illegal Immigration? Where do we stand on this as EMS professionals? What do we do?
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Two Cases, One letter – From one Paramedic’s struggles, change can come
A letter I got from a fellow Paramedic has caused me to write a long tyrade on the state of EMS. This post will make you mad. It will challenge you and challenge our profession. You will probably see yourself in the words this Paramedic wrote to me. We Need Change.
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Values
If your organization doesn't have agreed-upon values, it's a good time to get your people together and discuss some. Value statements provide direction to those who have to make a watershed decision at some point with little guidance otherwise.
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Prove Yourself
Don’t waste your time thinking that opportunity is going to come find you. The chief of department, when he has a sexy project, isn’t going to come hunting you down unless he is familiar with your track record. If you want those good assignments, you are going to have to sniff out and handle some unpopular ones first.
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Trust Is The Mortar
Trust is the mortar, the bond between power and responsibility. Without empowerment, people are unable to act on their vision. Give someone power and they are free to create all kinds of possibilities.
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Are We the Gatekeepers to the Emergency Healthcare System? – EMS 2.0
EMS 2.0 has so much potential to save billions in unneccesary healthcare costs here in the US. Could this be an example? In this scenario, I tell the story of what I've put into practice since the Chronicles of EMS came on the scene.
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