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| EMS, FIRE RESCUE, DISASTER MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SINCE 1998 |
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Opinion
Page 1 of 1.
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Lessons In Unpreparedness
By John Becknell
Everyone talks about 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina as America’s big wake-up calls to prepare for disasters. I’m skeptical. These tragic and dramatic events might have jolted us awake, but we quickly hit the snooze button and drifted back to sleep.
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Develop a Best Practices Mind ------- FREE EDITORIAL CONTENT
By John Becknell
When this newsletter began publication nearly 10 years ago, the term “best practices” was relatively new to emergency services. The term had been widely used in manufacturing, technology and business to describe processes that could be demonstrated to be superior to others. The idea suggested that there was a single method, process or activity that could be identified and proven to be most effective in obtaining a desired result.
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On SSM and the EMS Workforce
By Mike Taigman
Recently I’ve heard lots of folks complaining about the horrors of system status management (SSM). Employees complain that it’s just a way for companies to make more money on the backs of employees. They grumble that it abuses crews by having them post on street corners. They gripe about driving 300 miles during a shift to provide coverage while only running two calls.
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Lack of Cooperation, Leadership Causes Emergency Services To Miss Opportunities
In the December 2002 issue of Best Practices, several thought leaders indicated that 2003 would be a year in which emergency services finally would embrace the cooperative attitude necessary to respond effectively to the challenges brought on by terrorism, shrinking budgets, an aging and underinsured population, and the public’s demand for clear outcomes measures to justify our continued existence. A year later, however, emergency services are as fragmented as ever.
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On Responding to Criticism
By Mike Taigman
Even though bestselling author Ken Blanchard says, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions,” it’s not always easy to hear. The management team for Medic in Charlotte, North Carolina, was receiving their individual feedback from a 360-degree assessment tool. One’s boss, peers, direct reports and customers appraised each manager’s performance. The director of communications, Berry Bagwell, felt his blood boil as he read his report. “The supervisors who reported to me just trashed me,” he said later. “I was so angry that I couldn’t read the rest of the report, and I couldn’t stay in the meeting.”
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On EMS Research
By Mike Taigman
Should dispatchers take the time to tutor callers through opening the airway, giving mouth-to-mouth and checking a pulse on cardiac arrests? Maybe we should just have them start compressions. New information from our wizards of resuscitation research suggests that we might fire up a few more slothful hearts by not doing rescue breathing in the first few minutes after the heart quits pumping.
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On Saying "I'm Sorry"
By Mike Taigman
They weren't hurt, just trapped. Fort Wayne, Indiana, paramedic Tonia Kiester assessed the couple through the broken window of their crumpled car. They were both sober, alert and had no complaints of pain or discomfort of any kind. Their car doors were just jammed shut.
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What a Pain!
By Mike Taigman
Ask any group of patients why they called 911 or why they came to the emergency department and more than likely, they will answer by describing their pain. You’ll hear things like my chest hurts, I twisted my ankle and it’s killing me, or, it feels like a bomb went off in my head. On the list of things we can improve in our industry, our ability to “make it stop hurting” is near the top of the list.
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On How to Treat One Another
By Mike Taigman
As a speaker for EMS conferences, I’ve grown accustomed to unusual requests from conference planners. For one meeting this year, I was asked to present a topic for the EMS educator track called “Teaching People To Be Nice.” I had no idea how to approach the subject, so I started asking nice people how they became that way and why they were nice.
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