What Is The Why?

What an incredibly long hiatus this has been. Feel like I haven't written in forever, and when a couple of people questioned why, it got me to thinking. The word why is a powerful word, and most of us take it for granted. This is the word that drives everything we do, and who we become.

Take a minute to let that sink in. The Why is what drives us forward. Without it we would literally sit still. Every day has a reason that we get out of bed, every shift has a reason we put on the uniform and every hobby has a reason we love it. It became very apparent to me in some recent training I attended that taught about de-escalating situations and disengaging dangerous situations.

While I sat through this training, I came to a realization, and it brought me back to why I put this uniform on in the first place almost 20 years ago. I was raised by wonderful parents who encouraged me to be the best me I could be(as corny as it sounds It is the truth). They also taught me to lend a hand to friends and strangers alike. They instilled a set of values in me that included helping others. Armed with this value system I heard a speaker in my young adult life who was greatly inspiring and also a former Paramedic in Ontario. This speaker spoke a lot about the impact Paramedics can have on a family. From that moment on the spark was lit and the rest is proverbial history.

Over the last several years the system under which we work has changed. Budget constraints, staffing shortages, long hours, long hospital waits, psychological ramifications of continually meeting people on the worst day of their lives just to name a few. The Why started to get lost and the focus changed, the focus became survival.

Just get through the shift, pray we don't get a late call, look out for ourselves, and when is pay day?

This isn't an exclusive problem to our service, it's an international pandemic that is causing paramedics to leave the industry at alarming rates. It is also causing severe psychological trauma and in several cases has caused self inflicted tragedy.

When I think about this it breaks my heart to see what I value as an incredibly noble career being ravaged by such problems. I do not claim to have answers but instead I thought I could bring people back. Try to shut out all of the noise, remember the camaraderie, remember the impact we have, remember the why that drove you.

The problems we face in EMS are not going away anytime soon. Bit by bit progress will be made, but it will take time. Only now have employers and the governments started to realize the toll this career has on us as individuals. If you or anyone you know is struggling, reach out to your friends, your loved ones, reach out to me if you need to. I will be there for any of you, as each of you is a brother or a sister to me and YOU are a part of my why.  For me, my why is the helping of others, families, patients, coworkers, strangers, anyone that I can help.

We are so much more than people realize, and that is something to be immensely proud of. Take the time to refocus on your why, look out for each other, and despite the system falling down around us, let's stick shoulder to shoulder and hold each other up. Please like and share this post with your friends and families!! 

EMS Culture, What Changes Us And Why?

As we move into 2017 I think about the way EMS was, and how it is today. I find myself wondering what has changed and why? Our culture has evolved. In some ways good and in some ways not so good. This career takes it's toll on all of us. It is an inevitable fact that the things we see have an impact on us, both physically and emotionally. I was recently in a training course that has been established to help front line first responders recognize and respond to psychological injuries within ourselves and our peers. This training is a valuable addition to our arsenal in self care.

My question, and this question was imposed to me recently,  is why is it inevitable? Why are we changed by this career? I only had the old school answer of well this is just how it is. When I began my career in EMS there was very little talk of psychological injury or mental health in first responders at all. Many first responders suffered silently, and alone for many years. Some of those people moved on into other fields, and some continued in EMS, untreated, and this untreated psychological injury has manifested in some to make them bitter practitioners that as a defense don't let people close or treat new staff and students disrespectfully. This was not their fault, and when we think about or meet these "grumpy ass medics" we should ask ourselves why are they this way. Is this a years long coping mechanism to protect them from some of the horrifying things they have seen? On the flip side of that some people had many great supports and took care of themselves when no one else would and are still happy and love doing what they do. Does that mean the person who is "grumpy" or suffering silently did something wrong or deserves to be treated differently? Absolutely not. The driving factor behind change is recognizing the way something was done is not necessarily the right way and that evolution is necessary.

When you continue to do things the way you always have, you will continue to get things you have always gotten. It is time for change in 2017, and it is time to understand that those people suffering from psychological injury are just that. They are injured, no different than a physical injury it's just that you can't see it. I have been more cognitive of this as of late and realized that it is important for us to acknowledge mental health awareness and not let the way we did things ruin it.

I was excited for this training that we had and I look forward to having more training down the road as the drive to end the stigma of mental illness in first responders continues to evolve. To all of those people involved in bringing forward these initiatives I want to salute you and thank you for your hard work. Change is slow, and is often resisted, but keep up the effort. If our methods don't change our profession won't evolve. This evolution in our profession is a giant step forward to creating longevity for all of the talented professionals who put their psychological and physical health on the line every day to protect the public at large.

Thank you for reading, hope you will like and share this article with your family and friends if you enjoyed it.