...late than never...
Original Post Date: 6/1/08

From a very early age, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. When I was nine years old, there was a wreck in front of my house. Nothing serious, but all the emergency folks showed up just the same. When the ambulance cam, I asked my dad what they did. He told me they care for the injured and take them to the hospital. They got out of their truck with the dazzling red light carrying bright orange bags and boxes full of, well…I didn't know. But whatever it was, it had to be as cool as the truck and the clothes and I was hooked. On that day, by the side of the road 25 years ago I made my career choice. And, since, I have harbored a certain amount of mistrust for anyone who had not felt as strongly as me for as long. Most of the great paramedics I have known told similar tales of a very early commitment to paramedicine. Therefore, in my mind, folks for whom EMS was any less than a lifelong obsession were party crashers; intent on eating the food that we long-timers paid for and leaving us to clean up the mess.

Turns out I may have been a little hasty.

While the needs of our business continue to grow, the labor force available to us is steadily shrinking. This inverted math forces administrators to cultivate trainable employees from rather non-traditional soil such as vocational reassignment centers and retraining programs. These are perfectly competent, usually intelligent people who have zero knowledge of emergency care and often choose EMS as a career option through a process of elimination. This is known in some educational circles as the "zero to hero" approach to EMS training and staffing. To educators, it presents a unique challenge wholly unlike teaching those who have genuine passion for the business. On the one hand, you don't have to worry about untraining bad behavior or correcting bad care habits because they enter the program with no habits at all. But on the other hand, there is a real risk of turning out a "cookbook" technician with a wealth of classroom knowledge and no experience. So where is the balance? I believe it is in the hands of the end-user of this new manpower—the personnel-strapped agencies.

I've recently had the opportunity to work with several brand new paramedics who, for whatever reason, did not immediately grasp the basic principles of their newly bestowed responsibility. They struggled with ideas and concepts so basic that I wondered if they and we had not all made serious mistakes by indulging their fledgling EMS aspirations. It was while sitting with one of these new medics, she on the cusp of tears, that I grew up. At that second, looking into the face of somebody who just didn't get it, I got over it, got over myself and realized that she just didn't get it YET. In that moment, I knew that the only thing standing between her and a bright EMS career or a life in the food service industry was somebody that gave a damn one way or the other. Folks like her don't need a free ride, they don't need attitude, the just need a push. And a map. And a flashlight.

For me, EMS was..is a passion. For them, it's the next thing in a life that I can barely guess at. They have passions of their own that they can share if we will let them. And we need to let them, because we need them. Badly.

It's not important that they haven't wanted to do it for 25 years. What matters is that they want to do it today.

Next: Projects.

Nice relaxing week coming up for me. Heading out on Monday to catch the Eagles in Myrtle Beach. We debated for a while about making this trip, but we had to ask ourselves…how many more chances will we have to see these guys? What are they, like 80?

In sports, the Cubs have just completed an undefeated homestand, have won seven games in a row and, are you sitting, have the best record in baseball, baby! Yeah, it's only June, but as a friend pointed out to me yesterday, they've got steam and are rolling healthy and strong towards the All-Star break.

If you have to manage, teach or live with anyone born between the years 1980 and 1997, I highly recommend an article in Newsweek titled "The Dumbest Generation? Don't Be Dumb." Interesting reading and discussion for they Generation Y'er that you know…if you can get them to put down the iPod long enough to read it.

Do good things with the week to come, learn something new and be safe.