Why EMS is not likely to change any time soon..

[MedicAR]

Those in EMS is the cause for the fall of it. Very rarely you see any in legislation to cause change, nor any truly educated Paramedics to set an example by. So we get what we ask for....

R/r 911

That's true. We're our own worst enemy. Legislation won't change anything, but having a voice to shape new legislation in the future might.

[Asysin2leads]

People like reading stories like this. People read stories like this. Newspapers sell advertising space by running stories like this. The man is a professional, a professional writer and he is doing his job of writing a story that the papers can print and people will read. Its kind of like why there is a slight bias towards stories involving disappearing rich white people in the news media. Not because its particularly important or necessarily true, but because people read it and it sells advertisements.

If you start just trying to write stories about the God honest truth about a field and notions that people have warm and fuzzy feelings about, you end up getting air space at about 12:30 a.m. on college radio or NPR. Truth doesn't sell. Flaming oxygen does, and as long as flaming oxygen sells, oxygen will burn readily. In that vein, how true does anybody think this story is?

[mobey]

. In that vein, how true does anybody think this story is?

Horray... they performed CPR on a postictal baby!!

[Odorono]

While I normally feel pretty strongly about volunteerism in EMS, this article didn't really bother me that much. Perhaps it's because I recall the author from my days further upstate, and he struck me as a rather calm and capable basic in a service that was decidedly not (Their "chief," who weighs about 450 pounds and wears padded suspenders everywhere, has recently taken up bicycling, which can usually found in the bed of his giant red pickup truck that also serves as a NYS-certified BLS QRV and a snowplow).

Either way, I can see how this article could be misconstrued. Keep in mind, he wasn't writing it to give the public an expose into the world of EMS-- he was describing how his days off are different from most others'. As asys pointed out, much of this is written to be palatable to the greater public, and if we all looked through the oxygen-fueled flames, we could see that he finds some interesting things to say.

He talks about how quickly he lost the impression that we just joy-ride and slap Band-Aids around, which is definitely one view the public has of us. His "juxtaposition between serenity and chaos" was one of the reasons I chose EMS, and I'm sure many of you can say the same at some point. And he leaves the reader with the firm impression that gory tib-fibs are not what it's all about; that ultimately the most meaningful calls are the least dramatic.

Many will fault the author because he's a volunteer. But the guy's got a PhD in English. Why should it make a difference whether he gets paid a paltry sum for that one shift a week or just works it because he wants to? Most importantly, keep in mind that this is a pretty complimentary article that, while it may often be fluff, DOES serve as a counterpoint to the other stories in the news about EMS. Like it or not, we actually need more stuff along these lines. I'd work with him.

[WelshMedic]

The prose is fine, it's very well written. Which begs the question: why does someone so eloquent seek to portray EMS so poorly?

WM

[jbanagas]

Yes I agree with the first post, don't give this prescious service away for nothing, who knows how long till EMT'S and Paramedics will earn a livable wage like nurses, and I don't think many hospital use volunteer RN's.