Professional Pride

[WolfmanHarris]

FD not withstanding this video sums up well one of the big issues I've been having early in my entering of my profession. The lack of pride in one's profession. I don't mean in the whacker, bumper stick and t-shirt way, any slob can do that. We don't seem to get too much of that around here anyways.

I mean pride in the sense of: clean pressed uniform, washing the truck (not decon, just washing), keeping the station clean, fully checking bags, fully checking the truck.

All things considered, and looking at the problems making the news in services south of the border, I'm confident in saying I work with a dedicated, well educated group of professionals. I rarely see a bitter, burnt out medic with crappy patient care, and when I do they are recognized as the oddity, someone to be moved to a quiet station to count the years until retirement. I find it difficult to find fault with how anyone I work with does their job, on scene. But I find the corners cut or missed on these fringe areas frustrating.

What issues have you guys faced in your own time with pride and that sense of ownership? How has it been addressed? What worked or didn't?

[crotchitymedic1986]

I think this is a symptom of the disease "greed". Throughout the 80's until now, this younger generation has watched corporations down-size, merge,be taken over hostily, and rape their employees just so the stockholders can make money, and the CEO can make 40 times what the average worker makes. I think they saw their dads get screwed over several times, and they said they heck with being loyal to a company, or taking pride in a company. The second thing is that to have pride, you have to have something to be proud of. Most management in EMS today is lacking the ability to produce companies that you can take pride in. You would hope that people would do the things you suggested out of "self-pride" but I believe that died somewhere around 1990.

[Kookaburra]

Unfortunately there seems to be quite a culture of... jock-itude and frat-mentality in EMS. It's hard to take pride in a profession where anyone who is not a white, heterosexual male is constantly derided, so much so that I wouldn't take my best friend to visit my "workplace". (In my case, a volunteer FD/Paramedic classroom)

Though I'm hoping that most of the people who exhibit those traits in my Paramedic class wash out.

[NickD]

I'm a private (I hate that title - can't I at least be a corporal or something) in a paramedic prep class with mostly young fire guys. During a break one fire guy offhandedly mentioned, "We make everybody walk to the gurney, or down the stairs, we don't carry anyone!" And all the other fire guys are nodding in agreement.

These guys aren't stupid, and in some ways they are better educated than I am. But they exhibit a too cool to care attitude that is very striking. And I doubt this guy has been in the field long enough to develop that way of thinking on his own. It's being handed down to him by the more experienced fire medics he works around. But in a larger sense I see selective pride in them. They do take great pride in the fact they are firefighters, and maybe not so much in being medical providers. You see it on the very uniforms they wear. On their shirts and under their names it says Firefighter EMT, not EMT Firefighter.

I'm one who'd like to see EMS out of fire's control, but I've also seen enough competent and caring fire medics to flatly condemn them all as a group. The overall problem with lack of pride in our, or any, profession is simply one of youth. And unless we took the drastic step of adding "age 30 or better" to the list of EMT requirements it's never going to change. I was chatting with a woman who does interviews for a local private ambulance company and she said the whole interview dynamic is now upside down. She said younger candidates are more concerned with what the company can do for them rather than the other way around. And she often feels like the one being interviewed.

I laughed and said it's her own fault. If you look at her company website it, like most EMS websites, starts right off on the wrong foot. It states, "We work with you!" And, "Do you need a flexible schedule for school? No problem!" "Like lots of time off? No problem!" "Want to work and have a life too? No problem!"

I told her until they change that and make it more the way the Marine Corps of years ago recruited her problems won't go away. In 1971 when I signed up for the Corps there was a small sign hanging on the recruiter's door knob that read, "If you're looking for something easy, keep walking."

[46Young]

Hey NickD, I understand the importance of presenting yourself as a valuable potential asset to the company during the interview. However, prior to hire, matters such as salary, work schedule, benefits, leave policy, paid time off, selection procedures for promotions, deferred comp with match, etc. etc. need to be discussed. Several weeks or months into the job isn't the time to be learning these things, as they ought to be in writing prior to hire. So, if not at the interview, when and where should one address these concerns?

All too often certain things are promised to the new employee (verbally, not in writing), and not delivered. "We've had a recent change in policy". "We never said that." "Where did you hear that we were giving (XYZ) benefits?"

[Kookaburra]

Yes, getting things is writing is of paramount importance.

Though I would suggest that people of gen X and Y don't clean because they are slobs. (I am a gen-y-er and came to this conclusion during my first year at college. I can be messy too, but holy geez!)

Has anyone here been "mentored" in the fire service and/or EMS like he talks about?

[Dustdevil]

I told her until they change that and make it more the way the Marine Corps of years ago recruited her problems won't go away. In 1971 when I signed up for the Corps there was a small sign hanging on the recruiter's door knob that read, "If you're looking for something easy, keep walking."

Another nail takes one on the head!

Garbage in = garbage out. An organisation has to start off with something to work with, and not just the lowest common denominator. It doesn't guarantee you that they'll all be excellent employees, but it certainly raises your odds significantly.

Mr. Fishbine interviewing Speed in "Mother, Jugs, & Speed" was a great example of a proper EMS interview!

[maverick56]

...The overall problem with lack of pride in our, or any, profession is simply one of youth. And unless we took the drastic step of adding "age 30 or better" to the list of EMT requirements it's never going to change. I was chatting with a woman who does interviews for a local private ambulance company and she said the whole interview dynamic is now upside down. She said younger candidates are more concerned with what the company can do for them rather than the other way around. And she often feels like the one being interviewed.

I'd have to say yes and no to that. Yes, youth definitely has an impact, but remember that pride and professionalism have to be taught as well. As a chalk leader in the Army, I had 9 medics under me, 6 of whom were under 20 and green as grass. Basic military bearing and pride in the uniform was drilled into them in Basic and AIT, but it was up to me and my team leaders to show them what it really meant to be medics in a line company, to be professional and cool-headed under pressure, and to know that every man in the unit was counting on them to be the best when the heat was on. It was my job to give them a reason to be proud to be a "Red Rider", both by demanding excellence in training and encouraging outside socializing. They became a team, a family, and showed pride because of it. Constant training, often with a competitice twist, promoted confidence and professionalism, which translated outwardly in how they handled and carried themselves. There is no reason why the same type of approach shouldn't be used in civilian EMS. The whole mentor thing is right on - some one has to take that position of team leader, squad leader etc - call in the NCOs!

Edited October 23, 2009 by maverick56

[Mateo_1387]

The overall problem with lack of pride in our, or any, profession is simply one of youth. And unless we took the drastic step of adding "age 30 or better" to the list of EMT requirements it's never going to change.

I am sure that 'pride' may not be instilled in youth so much today, but the lack of pride is all over the board, not just with the youth of today. I found that to be quite a generalization.

[DwayneEMTP]

Unfortunately there seems to be quite a culture of... jock-itude and frat-mentality in EMS. It's hard to take pride in a profession where anyone who is not a white, heterosexual male is constantly derided, so much so that I wouldn't take my best friend to visit my "workplace". (In my case, a volunteer FD/Paramedic classroom)

Though I'm hoping that most of the people who exhibit those traits in my Paramedic class wash out.

Do many feel differently that I do when giving/taking points? That it's not based (as it is for me) on the quality of the post, or whether or not an opinion is expressed to the best of the posters ability, but that it's based on the popularity of the opinion??

I'm finding that many of the posts I see that have been given negative numbers simply have ideas that may not be popular, but that the posts themselves fulfill the standard set down by the Admin as well as the standards of many of us here. If this is KooK's experience, then why should s/he not say so that we can be exposed to this point of view and discuss it? And, if the above has been this poster's experience, then I believe that the opinion certainly belongs in a thread based on professionalism, right?

This post has good spelling, punctuation, decent grammar, actually used the accurate word 'derided' instead of resorting to 'treated shitty' or some such language, and expressed an opinion on behavior that is too often exhibited in EMS.

Can someone that gave a negative rating please take a moment and explain why you chose to do so? I'm not saying it was an incorrect thing to do, only that I don't understand it.

Thanks in advance.

Dwayne

Note: If I could vote for myself I immediately give this post a -1 for lousy sentence structure, but then give it right back for breaking the world record for the most commas used in a single post. But it's late, and I'm lazy, and I'm willing to take my beating rather than reword everything.