Why Did YOU get into EMS?
After over 40 years of being an EMS provider, I am sometimes asked “Why did you decide to pursue EMS as a career path?”. While many providers “fall” into this career path accidentally or due to a financial need, others use EMS as stepping stone to becoming an RN, RT, PA, NP or even a physician. One thing is clear however, the answer to this question is, to my knowledge, never been “for the money”, “for the work schedule” or “for the recognition. Prehospital and Critical Care transport has often been considered the red headed step child of healthcare and often viewed as “less than” other healthcare providers.
While I think we all can agree that EMS has made great strides over the past 6 decades, we still have a very long way to go to be considered on-par with our other healthcare cohorts. We have come a long way in regards to scope of practice, standards of care, education requirements for certification and professionalism but much more needs to be done. We as a profession, need to not only continue to improve our patient care levels to improve patient outcomes, we also need to strive to improve our image as a part of the healthcare continuum. Formal EMS is much younger than our other healthcare counterparts. All things considered, EMS is still in its infancy when compared to other healthcare professions.
Hippocrates (circa 460 BC) is commonly referred to as the “Father of Medicine”. He taught that diseases had natural, not divine causes and went on to develop the Hippocratic Oath. This oath outlines the foundational ethical principles of providing medical care with an emphasis on patient confidentiality and the principle of acting in the patient’s best interest. To this day, the Hippocratic Oath is often taken by physicians at the onset of their medical careers. Even before Hippocrates, there is recorded evidence of physician type providers dating back to prehistoric times.
Nursing practice also has evolved since ancient times with formal nursing practice often being linked to the Crimean War and Florence Nightingale (circa 1954). She is credited with developing the Nursing education programs in a number of British Hospitals. The first Nursing education programs in the United States were instituted in 1873 with three formal nursing courses located in New York (NY), Boston (Mass) and New Haven (Connecticut). These initial nursing programs were loosely labeled “Nightingale schools” as a nod to Florence Nightingale herself. It took until the 1890s for the nurses to develop nursing specific associations to advocate for for the profession itself. These associations live on today with different names but largely the same mission statements and core concepts.
Fast forward to the mid-1960s when Freedom House Ambulance Service was first organized. The first providers at Freedom House in Pittsburgh Pa were mostly homeless, jobless and/or futureless men who saw EMS as a possible way out of the revolving door of poverty and inner city living. The program was instituted under the oversight of Dr. Peter Safar who is often referred to as “The Father of CPR”. Prior to Freedom House being established, the majority of prehospital transports were provided by either local funeral homes or the city police department. Patient care from the scene to the hospital was non existent at best and deadly more often than not. Since that time, EMS has made incredible strides towards becoming a true profession. With the development of standardized training curriculum, national organizations and minimum certification and recertification criteria, we are slowly progressing towards achieving the recognition and respect that our nursing and physician counterparts already enjoy. EMS is still in its infancy when compared to other healthcare professions but we are getting there……..slowly.
So I ask you, as a Emergency Medical Responder, Emergency Medical Technician, Advanced EMT, Paramedic or Critical Care Provider. Why did YOU get into this profession? We all may have different answers and these motivations may have changed over your career but one thing is probably true. We all initially wanted to, and hopefully continue to generally want to help people in their time of need. While this may be your third STEMI this shift or your second multi system trauma patient since you punched in, this patient or family member is not built emotionally like we are. This may be the worst day of their lives. They are filled with fear, anxiety, frustration, panic etc. What we do in their moment of need can and often will dictate their impression of our profession. Take the time to do the little things. Things like an extra blanket if it’s cold outside, explaining procedures and next steps in their continuum of care so Why Did YOU get into EMS? they know what to expect, putting a hand on their shoulder when appropriate, making eye contact with them and their family. These little gestures don’t often add any time or expense to their encounter with us as EMS providers, but it very often can improve their view of us and their perspective on the very profession that you we represent. I myself, knew I wanted to be a paramedic even before I graduated from High School.
