Look, listen and feel

A note on this 350th day of The Last Ambulance / La Dernière Ambulance project.

I believe we need to re-imagine EMS as a community builder/sustainer rather than just a service rendered to individuals ("Look, the paramedics are at the neighbour's house.").

EMS needs to be recognized as a cornerstone of economic development, of quality of life, of re-location choices, of community-based care -- and not a budget-driver or revenue-suck (depending on your service-delivery model).

Once we realize just how much is at stake, we will prioritize the very people our EMS systems depend upon.

Until we do that, we are doomed to repeat the same cycle -- recruiting great people only to see them decide to re-orient their career pathways, just as they achieve an amazing combination of wisdom, skills and experience.

When I started out as a paramedic, we were still being taught to Look, Listen and Feel when ascertaining the patient's level of consciousness.

It's interesting that over time we have managed to do forget to do the same for our paramedics. Decisions affecting how paramedics practice their profession are often made without consulting them -- much as decisions about EMS coverage are made without consulting the communities they serve.

Look, listen and feel.

Trust me when I tell you the pulse of the emergency prehospital care system is getting weaker and more irregular as it struggles under a suffocating blanket of bureaucracy that has very little to do with the delivery of quality patient care.

- Hal Newman, The Last Ambulance / La Dernière Ambulance