A nugget of EMS organizational wisdom every day.#16 Be true to yourself. “Each of us has a special contribution to make to the human world. Each of us is born with the package of assets, deficits, problems and blessings needed for that work. Each of us struggles to understand what […]
The Positive Paramedic Project
105 posts
A nugget of EMS organizational wisdom every day.#15 Stepping up I’ll just go ahead and tell the story. “Step up, tell the truth and take responsibility for your actions and all will be big medicine.” When I said those words I was the newly-minted director of a small Emergency Medical […]
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. […]
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. #8 Give up your seat on the raft. If I could whisper just one bit of advice into your ear it would be to find your own pathway to physical fitness. Find that path and make that journey part of your everyday […]
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 […]