I recently had two articles published by EMS1 as a couple of “mythbusting primers” on the topic of dynamic deployment. The articles were Dynamic deployment: 5 persistent myths busted and Dynamic deployment: 5 more persistent myths busted. My intention was not to convince anyone of a position that opposes their current EMS world view pertaining to deployment models, but I had hoped […]

Anyone who follows my posts here, or on Twitter, will recognize that I consistently argue for the value of prompt responses by emergency vehicles to nearly all incidents. However, this post will be different thanks to an inventive challenge through EMS Basics asking bloggers to consider an opposing view to their favorite topic. You can read […]

It was my privilege to have been selected as the Official Blogger of the EMS Today conference for 2016. Like my predecessor, Tom Bouthillet at the EMS 12-Lead blog, I took that role very seriously and visited as many of the sessions, vendor exhibits, and even socials (they are definitely part of the experience) as I possibly […]

I know that some of you will be in Baltimore this week for EMS Today, while still others cannot join us. Regardless of which category you may fall into, I have some advice to help you make the most of this week. First, if you are travelling, hopefully all your arrangements are complete. But even […]

Of course “Black Lives Matter.” Just like white ones, red ones, blue ones, and every other color that we place as a ‘label’ on a life. All. Lives. Matter. But that isn’t the end of the story. Martin Luther King, Jr’s vision was not just about ending racism, but about stopping every form of intolerance […]

A guest article by Caitlyn Armistead Clinicals are a critical component of EMS education. These dynamic educational environments can be complicated to manage in order to ensure a complete education for each student. Consider these points as you structure your program and develop guidelines for the coming year. 1) Support Strong Mentorships Formal preceptorship relationships […]

When EMS professionals complain, the justification often includes an appraisal of how our family in the ‘big red trucks’ do (or sometimes, don’t do) things instead of comparing ourselves to our brothers and sisters that make up that ‘thin blue line’. The choice of comparison is most likely swayed by the fact that somewhere around half of us working in EMS do […]

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 […]