It would be a bad thing if volunteerism in EMS went away

[brentoli]

In the six-county Adirondack/Appalachian region (which includes sparsely populated Hamilton County, an area of 1,720 square miles that's nearly the size of the state of Delaware), between September 1996 and January 2001 the number of EMS volunteers decreased 31 percent, and then leveled off. Retention rates are high, officials say, but new recruits are hard to attract, which is why some officials envision a day when EMS volunteers will be replaced with fully paid staffs, at taxpayers' expense.

"If things continue as they are as far as recruitment and retention," Mulleedy said, "there's no question that day is coming."

"The writing is on the wall now," said Tim Mirabile, executive director of Regional Emergency Medical Organization, which operates EMS in Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady counties. "You see many squads now going to pay crews, especially in the daytime hours."

Margolis said low-population-density communities will continue to rely on volunteers for the foreseeable future, because "you would literally have to fundamentally restructure the way EMS in this country is financed and paid for. Not only would it be more expensive, the way you'd go about funding of the system would have to change pretty dramatically."

"Volunteerism is a wonderful social activity that increases the strength and the fiber of our communities," Margolis said. "It would be a bad thing if volunteerism in EMS and in all walks of American life went away."

Albany NY, Times Union

I was hopeful when I read this story. Thought maybe some leaders out there are coming around, changing things for the better. Making this a job where we could make money.

Then I read the last line.

[JakeEMTP]

Yeah, they had me going for a minute also.

Volunteerism is a wonderful social activity if we are talking about cleaning up the parks, Habitant for Humanity etc. However, when we are talking about medicine, which EMS is, there is no room for it.

[Dustdevil]

LOL@wonderful social activity!

The sad thing is, that's exactly what too many people think our profession is.