As we go about our routine business each shift, it can be easy to forget that we are involved in a field of healthcare that is still relatively young. Our history as a unique discipline has only recently been documented through the efforts of  the National EMS Museum, which is itself just in its infancy. […]

Just as each year transitions at harvest from abundance toward its inevitable end, we in the prehospital field often usher lives fraught with medical disorder or trauma from normalcy toward a cold, strange world. We wear uniforms with our stoic masks and find nature’s trickery affecting strangers who beg us for treatment. Beyond the surface, the history of Halloween also […]

It is not hard to find an article that bashes the industry’s insistence on measuring response time as a performance goal. The latest one I saw was published just today in “Don’t let response times overshadow the role of EMS” by the respected author Arthur Hsieh. The flow of his article follows the traditional pattern of […]

Every EMS agency could use a little more political clout. After all, we deserve it. We actually save lives! “They” should just automatically recognize “our” value, right? Well, if you have ever thought/said that statement, you are going about it all wrong. I don’t care what financial/political model your agency operates under, politics work basically […]

I know that the debate on EMS wages did not begin last week with Sean Eddy’s post “5 Reasons Why EMS Doesn’t Deserve Higher Pay.” For instance, Caitlyn Armistead did a great article last October entitled “Burger Flippers Vs. Ambulance Drivers” long before her recent rebuttal in “5 Reasons EMS DOES Deserve Higher Pay“. The […]

In a guest ‘rebuttal’ yesterday to a recent article by Sean Eddy on EMS wages, I apparently succeeded in generating “more heat than light” on the conversation. While I regret the author’s tone in that post, my desire to open a dialog with interested parties remains. I discussed the topic with up-coming EMS author and […]

  I believe Sean Eddy knew he was playing with fire when he wrote his article on “5 Reasons Why EMS Doesn’t Deserve Higher Pay” posted at the Uniform Stories website. It certainly struck a chord with Adam Smolensky shortly after I posted a link on the High Performance EMS Facebook page. He later contacted […]

In 1974, President Gerald Ford declared the first “National Emergency Medical Services Week” as an annual observance to recognize the critical component that emergency prehospital medicine began to play in the public health safety net. That year was a time of many other significant events. Richard Nixon had become the first president to resign in office. The newly formed OPEC consortium successfully constrained production […]

This post is from an invited guest blogger. Andrew Randazzo is the Director of Prime Medical Training and is a Nationally Registered Paramedic. Aside from teaching, Andrew’s faith and church play a big role in his life, and he also enjoys backpacking, scuba diving, competing in triathlons, and international travel. — Disclaimer: I am not being […]

One of my first really successful posts years ago was “A Short Take on Long Boards” where I found myself piling on the negatives regarding our habitual dependence on the Long Spine Board. I do not feel as though I can take any credit, however, for agencies such as the Palm Beach Florida Fire Department or the New York […]