OK, I can’t keep this to myself any longer. It’s time for the big
announcement. With the final draft still in the mail from my editorial team and the final design still lacking a few details, it would probably be best to just keep this under wraps for a few more weeks, but I can’t wait.
My first E-book is scheduled for release on January 21st, one week from today. The e-book will be free and it will be available right here at The Spot.
The Book is called The Non-Conformists Guide to EMS Success. This book is the culmination of two decades of EMS experiences, mistakes, failures, trials, and errors that lead to my ultimate success. My goal was to write something that would be useful to EMTs at any stage in their career. And I didn’t hold anything back. This is my road map to finding true success and fulfilment in EMS work.
Read This Entire Literary Masterpiece…
Sure, this site isall about being a better EMT, but perhaps you’ve asked yourself, “Why?” OK, granted, it was probably one of your more cynical moments. Perhaps you had a bad day, a couple of frustrating calls or a less than optimal interaction with a patient, your partner, another agency, your boss … or
perhaps all of the above.
Then you went out and threw down your stethoscope. Or maybe you didn’t throw it down because you remembered it was a Littmann and a gift from your aunt, but you raised it over your head and thought about it. And while that stethoscope dangled over your head in your clenched fist you thought, “Why? Why do I work so hard to try to be better at a job that pays so little and offers so little in return?”
“Why?”
We’ve all had these moments. Moments when we contemplated, “Why don’t I just phone it in? The bad EMT’s make the same amount of money as the good ones. I clearly already meet the minimum standard. Nobody’s really pushing me to be any better. Nobody seems to recognize my growth or effort. So why do it?”
Read This Entire Literary Masterpiece…
From Your Computer
As you might imagine, I’m a big fan of E-learning. I also have a soft spot for the social media craze. But there are still a few things that you just can’t learn staring at a computer screen. OK, there are a LOT of things you can’t learn staring at a computer screen. Here are ten:
1.) You can’t learn pattern recognition.
If you’ve ever wondered about how experienced EMTs and medics can figure out exactly what’s wrong with the patient two steps inside the front door, it’s not magic. It’s pattern recognition. When you’ve seen what CHF looks like a hundred times, you can pick out the pattern almost instantaneously. Watch a hundred people have cardiac chest pain and you’ll be able to see it from across the room. But it doesn’t matter how many times you read those chapters in your books. You need to see it.
Read This Entire Literary Masterpiece…
In the span of a generation, NASA has lost two spacecraft and 14 pilots in the collective disasters of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. Can you tell me why? Trust me, it’s worth exploring.
The space buffs in the crowed might recall that faulty O-rings in the Challenger’s solid rocket boosters failed and allowed supper heated gasses to escape. The result was a catastrophic explosion and a sullen announcement from my school principal in the middle of sophomore science class. In his quiet monotone, we learned that the mighty Challenger, moments before, had been destroyed and the crew was lost.
Our teacher didn’t know quite what to say, and in the silence that followed, my sixteen year old world got a little smaller.
More of you might recall that Challenger’s sister ship, Columbia, burned up on reentry returning from a mission in 2003. The Columbia’s heat tiles were damaged when a piece of foam insulation dislodged during takeoff and struck the tiles on the wing. Those tiles later failed under the heat of reentry and the craft burned up over the mid-west. Interesting right? But what does all this have to do with EMS? Follow me on this next part.
Read This Entire Literary Masterpiece…
I’m going to ask you to try something out for me. And then come back and tell me what you did and how it went. I want you to go to your next shift with this idea:
Be Remarkable
That’s it.
What would it look like? How would you do it? Those are valid questions. They also might be resistance to the idea of being remarkable.
You may have grown accustomed to the idea of laying low, going with the crowd and being rather unremarkable. Here are some ideas.
1.) When little kids and grown adults are inspired by you, you’re remarkable.
2.) When you walk on to a scene and the energy you bring with you changes the mood for the better, you’re remarkable.
Read This Entire Literary Masterpiece…
Imagine we were walking down the beach together on a sunny day and I suddenly looked at you and said,
“Would you like an apple?”
If you were hungry, your initial reaction might be, “Yes, I’d love one.” But you might also be a bit perplexed. I mean, what if I clearly didn’t have an apple? Somewhere in your mind you’d wonder where the apple was. Did I have one stashed in a pocket? Do I know a good fruit stand near-by? Your next offering might be an awkward sounding question. “Uh … do you have an apple, Steve?” or perhaps, “Where is it?”
When it comes to physical objects the implication is clear. I can’t give you something that I don’t have. It’s not physically possible. Nothing could be more obvious. And that brings us to an interesting point about some of our more non-tangible assets like compassion, patience, kindness and good patient care.
You see, when writing about things like kindness, compassion and patient rapport I’m as guilty as the next guy of falling into “tips and tricks” mode. In the past I’ve written articles about how to speak and behave in ways that help build patient rapport. I’ve listed tips for making the patient feel welcome and comfortable and I’ve extolled the virtues of good listening, kind interactions and compassionate care. But I, like many other EMS authors, have overlooked one simple truth.
None of it really works if you don’t feel it.
Read This Entire Literary Masterpiece…
It’s both. And that can create quite a problem sometimes. OK … often.
Some EMTs are scientists. They see medicine in very linear, protocol driven flow charts. If the chief 
complaint is X then check Y and administer Z. They like statistics. They talk about efficacy percentages and risk-benefit calculations. If they can analyze the data … they can find truth. Within the beautiful geometry of research they can discover the perfect algorithm of care and believe that, by doing so, the patient will be served.
When it works, science based medicine is a beautiful thing. The problem is … well … it doesn’t always work. We are treating humans. Humans are an anomaly. They are the rouge element in the scientific plan. Human beings are the perfectly imperfect wild card in an otherwise flawless equation.
Some EMTs and paramedics are true artists. They approach each new clinical presentation with a haphazard mix of established treatment and gut instinct. There decision making process may hinge on such variables as the weather, the last EMS magazine article they read and which doctor is on duty at the base hospital. They tell jokes. They inspire movements. They throw together treatments like Jackson Pollock splashing paint on a canvas. They write deviation from protocol addendum’s. They surprise people with their knowledge and, in many cases, they give outstanding care.
And the scientists ring their hands in frustration.
This causes some problems:
Read This Entire Literary Masterpiece…
