True Story…
The dispatch information was updated before we had even rolled our rig out onto the pad. Eye injury, no serious symptoms. Jodie shut down the lights and I informed dispatch that we’d be responding non-emergent.
Up stairs and inside the small two bedroom apartment, Samantha, our patient, was waiting on the couch, holding a hot compress to her swollen right eyelid. Mom worked calmly in the kitchen finishing diner for her other two children. Alan, Samantha’s father sat on the edge of his seat next to his daughter in a state of barely containable anxiety.
He had recently arrived home from work and his wife had informed him of the apparent infection in Samantha’s right eye. One look and he was on the phone to us. Now he breathed rapidly as he fumbled through a list of questions. What caused it? Could it damage her vision? Could she lose her eye? Could she go blind?
I cleared the engine to go back in service and sat down next to him. Over the next ten minutes we both explained what pink-eye was and how to take care of it. We talked about hot-compresses and how contagious the bacteria was going to be. We reviewed the typical course for such and infection. How to prevent it in the other kids. How likely it was that one of them already had it. And we discussed his plan for morning. (It involved asking a neighbor to drive them to a near-by clinic.)
Alan called 911 for pink-eye. And…(This part is bound to be controversial, depending on what kind of system you work in.) I never offered to take him to the emergency room. And he never asked.
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“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life… as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”
- Booker T. Washington
With multiple premiers of The Chronicles 
of EMS and a wave of enthusiasm from the EMS Today conference in Baltimore, the future of EMS looks bright, blindingly-bright. I’m incredibly optimistic about where this crazy experiment in EMS is headed, but I also see some big hurdles in our path.
Put on your shades and let’s talk about what I feel are the five biggest challenges to EMS reform.
1.) We’ve been talking a lot about unity and standardization, but individual EMS systems are unique in every way. How do you influence standardization and still allow for the tremendous leeway required for EMS agencies to be optimized for the communities that they serve? Can EMS agencies be different in geography, financial resources, administrative structure, culture, call volume, compensation and certification/education level and still find enough unity to advance the profession together?
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What if I told you that you could adopt one simple, yet powerful belief that would improve your happiness at work immediately and forever? What if I could tell you one simple truth and, if you were willing to accept it, you would feel less stress and bring more joy and well being to your job starting right now? Would you be interested? Read on.
Carl Jung was the first psychologist to put fourth the theory of the collective unconscious. He recognized that an individuals behavior was driven, not only by their personality, but by the myths, ideas and beliefs held collectively by their culture.
It’s worth recognizing that when you came to emergency services you arrived with some of these beliefs.
You had an idea in your head of what an EMT, a paramedic or a fireman was. It’s probable that your beliefs were based more in the myths of the collective culture than reality, but the industry could take some blame as well.
We did nothing in your training to convince you that your job would be anything different than what you had seen on TV and in the movies. We may have even used some of these images in your recruitment process.
If you endured a fire academy you were taught each day about structures on fire and victims that needed to be dragged to safety and turned over to imaginary medical personnel. In EMT class you spent each day learning about the various medical emergencies that befall humans. From aneurysms to zygomatic fractures and everything in between, we drilled you on how to recognize those sick patients and how to intervene appropriately. And you learned. You diligently studied for the day when you would be the one responsible for caring for the sick and bringing calm to the chaos.
But the instructors didn’t say much about headaches. Blinding migraine headaches that make the patient so photophobic they can’t see to drive their car. They didn’t talk about stubbed toes either. They didn’t mention that many of the patients would be depressed, abused, addicted and homeless. Nothing was said to prepare you to kneel before drunks and criminals and people with mental imbalances, social dysfunctions and minor yet overwhelming needs that have nothing to do with your training.
In all your training nobody prepared you for emergency services. We may never have even mentioned that emergency services has much less to do with the real, life threatening emergencies than the collective myths told you. Instead, it has everything to do with caring for people and their problems. Welcome to EMS.
But here’s the kicker … none of this is a bad thing.
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