A nugget of EMS organizational wisdom every day. #14 Failure shouldn’t be a terminal process. We all make mistakes. Sometimes, as EMS leaders, the screw-ups are little ones that go unnoticed by anyone other than ourselves. And sometimes, they’re big, ugly – but not irreversible. You can correct the process. […]
Hal Newman
157 posts
A nugget of EMS organizational wisdom every day. #13 Leadership is a team sport. Last summer, our daughters Emma and Sophie played soccer in Stanstead. Stanstead is a small town. In Pointe Claire, where we used to live, there were more than 2,000 kids in the soccer program. In Stanstead, […]
A nugget of EMS organizational wisdom every day. #12 Leave the lights on. It is often the smallest gestures made by one individual to another that carry the most meaning. This is the story of one of those straight-from-the-heart acts. On my flight from Washington-Dulles to Burlington, Vermont I […]
A nugget of EMS organizational wisdom every day. #11 When everyone shares a goal, everyone has a role. Yesterday morning at 07h30 our big black dog, Mateo, began barking very aggressively. He was tied out on the back porch where he provides a measure of security for our laying hens […]
A nugget of EMS organizational wisdom every day. #10 Make mine the salad, please. I am often asked if there’s an archetypal EMS applicant upon which all others are copied. What did you look for when someone applied to be a member of EMS? Was there a checklist? Did you […]
A nugget of EMS organizational wisdom every day. #9 Build strong scaffolding your team can rely on for support. Answering the siren calling you to be an EMS provider means learning how to deal with the extreme stress that comes with ‘the job’ – and the Stress Gods don’t […]
A nugget of EMS organizational wisdom every day. #7 All disasters are local. In EMS, we’re quite good at conceptualizing how our respective systems will react when stretched well beyond their breaking points. After years of dealing with Murphy’s Law on a patient-by-patient basis, planning for The Big One has […]
A nugget of EMS organizational wisdom every day. #6 Look, listen & feel. Look, listen & feel. Those three words were ingrained into my consciousness a long time ago – long before I was ever charged with leading a team of emergency medical services [EMS] providers. And yet, sometimes the […]
A nugget of EMS organizational wisdom every day. #5 Break bread [or make chili] with your medics If The EMS House had a soul, it was in the kitchen and the sprawling training/class room on the same floor. Many a difficult conversation started and ended at one of the tables […]
A nugget of EMS organizational wisdom every day. #4 We all started out as FNGs FNG Aahhh, the Rookie. FNG. JAFO. Cherry. New Guy. Newbie. Steve Merling heard them all. He was also one of the youngest members of CSL EMS. His transition from Apprentice to Medic was, in a […]