We Lose: The Story of Us and Them
"Us" and "Them"
In today's age, "us" and "them" could be used in just about any conversation, followed by a supercharged and passionate argument - with probably neither side listening to the other. For the purpose of my article, I will limit "us" and "them" to the EMS field.
So long as there remains an "us" and "them," there will never be a "we." This divisive view prevents bigger and greater things from ever becoming. One of the most powerful examples of "we," in my opinion, is the first three words of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution --
"We the people...."
The reason I view this as so powerful is because "we" are united in this effort. "We" are making a statement that is collaborative and that has been bought into by all parties involved. And again, I'm going to keep this article limited to today's EMS environment and not a historical debate.
Examples
EMS is littered with innumerable examples of "us" and "them." Here are but a few off of the top of my head:
- EMTs vs. Paramedics
- Paid vs. Volunteer
- Municipal vs. Hospital-based
- Big City vs. Small Town
- Public vs. Private/Commercial
I'm sure as you read my list, you began to formulate some of your own examples. Please feel free to comment below with any that I may have missed. My intention is to bring to light (like many of the "awareness-level" course we take throughout our careers) things that may not be so obvious, but ought to be.
How many of you can relate to the following scenario: You and your partner are driving down the road in your ambulance (or rescue truck or suburban) and you wave to an oncoming ambulance from another agency only to be grilled by your partner, "Why are you waving to Agency X? They're our competition!" Let me ask this - did the other crew wave back? Were they possibly thinking the same thing?
I'm not even going to bring up waving to other first responders, such as fire personnel or law enforcement officers - remember, I'm keeping the scope limited to EMS.
LinkedIn Post
Those of you who may be following me, or certain hashtags, may have come across a recent informal, and even flawed in terms of methodology, post of mine asking EMTs and paramedics to share their level of education while involved in providing care. One of my goals is to show that we providers of pre-hospital care do have formal education, beyond the certification course, and should be considered on par with other allied health personnel and even other licensed practitioners/providers.
I have been involved with EMS since 1987. All these years later and we are still looking for pay parity with firefighters, law enforcement officers, and nurses. One of the reasons I believe this to be the case is that we do not have state and national lobbyists representing the collective and all powerful "we."
"Avengers assemble!"
My family and I enjoyed watching most of the Marvel movies. We watched the journey and transformation of individual heroes become one powerful team and make a difference. It took time. There were differences. There were even battles within, but in the end, they all came together. They trusted and respected each other, as is necessary for a truly powerful team.
We need to trust and respect each other and understand that we are all on the same team. We are all here to help those in their time of need. When we come together, when we assemble as one, everyone will win. But as long as it remains "us" and "them," as it has been for the past 30+ years, "we" lose.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mike Chanat currently is a paramedic Field Training Officer at Rockland Mobile Care (Rockland County, NY) and has 32+ years of emergency services experience.
He holds a Master's degree in Public Safety with a concentration in Emergency Management from Capella University.
His field of experience is diverse and he leads and trains EMS clinicians so that they can provide quality care to their communities.
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Rosemary Hood DVM Emerita
4 年Professions develop from recognition of standing in society as necessary, to ensure standards of practice. EMS needs to do this difficult step. It is the time, seen as enhancement in this, as a Covid -19 opportunity.
Educator @ AED Advocates | CPR/AED/First Aid/BLS, ACLS, Dental Life Support
4 年In the 70s there was, as there still appears to be, a huge gap between "EMTs and Parmedics". It really hit me one day when I was talking to a BLS crew after run and I was getting the stink eye from couple other medics. Then even the EMT expressed surprise a paramedic (he used the term ParaGod) would be asking the opinion of "just an EMT." I pointed to my name tag and asked if he did not notice that while he was "just an EMT" , than I was "just" an EMT as well. His said EMT-B and mine said EMT-P. I suggested that this created similarity, not dissimilarity. I am "just" an EMT with more education and a few more toys than an EMT-B. I viewed him as the expert in "B" - basic life support. I count on my EMT-B colleagues on a call to assure I do not get tunnel vision and miss important basic steps as I add advanced life support the the expert treatment they have already begun. Inside the hospital I started noticing that nurses and doctors kept getting bigger and bigger name tags! I was doing the same thing, but I had never thought about it before. But it seemed to be a race of sorts as to who could win the alphabet game. My name tag started out saying "Dan"...that's it, just "Dan". Then it was EMT, FF/EMT, FF/EMT-P, than NREMT-P.....the nurses were doing the same. It was RN, then RN-BSN, than RN-BSN-CCRN-and on and on. Don't even get me started on how many letters the doctors were wearing, especially as specialization was starting. It was no surprise people were burning out! Look at the size of the nametags they had to haul around all day. So I went back to Dan - HSG. (What? You don't have an HSG! Everybody in medicine that does not have one yet needs to get one, it is the next best thing, you see so few wear it proudly....High School Graduate.) The point is the patient only needs to know we are there to help and we know what we are doing. They see that more from our demeanor and professionalism than from engraved letters. And we need to remember the lip service we give to "continuity of care." We all have our roles, BLS, ALS, Critical Care, Specialty and Sub-Specialties. We have one mission, one goal. Having "them" around just makes the job burdensome and is counterproductive.