by Hal Newman<\/p>\n
The Adopt A Highway program was created to promote community pride and to \thelp carry out or sponsor activities such as mowing, weeding, landscape \tbeautification and litter pick-up. There’s even a company you can pay who \twill provide the cleaning so that you can receive the recognition and \t‘display your civic pride.’<\/p>\n
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While adopting a section of the Trans-Canada Highway would certainly give me \tthe opportunity to put Big Medicine’s name on a sign that would be seen by \tthousands of motorists each and every day, I’ve been thinking that maybe \twhat we really need is an Adopt-A-Medic program.<\/p>\n
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We could donate a bit of money each month to an organization that would be \ttasked with ensuring our adopted medic’s family can afford more than just \tthe basics. Basics that are hard to come by when our government continues to \tpay the same base salary of the old days while continually adding to the \tindividual responsibilities of the medics and simultaneously refusing to \tbolster support for the system itself.<\/p>\n
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Daniel Garvin is a street medic in Montreal. We’ve known each other for a \tcouple of decades. He’s still working on the ambulances. I’m 49 years old \tand I cannot even imagine hauling myself into those garages every morning to \tstart a shift. It’s a tough job. It tears at your heart and it hammers away \tat your soul. It follows you home even when you try to leave it in the rig. \tIt has to be a calling because otherwise who the hell would voluntarily take \ton such an insane role.<\/p>\n
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“One of the biggest hardships of being an EMT-P here in Montreal is \tobviously the salary. While many of my friends and neighbors ask why do we \tcontinue to work in such conditions, my answer is always the same, we are in \tthis for the people, not the money. I feel that EMS is a calling, more than \tjust a job.”<\/p>\n
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“Most people I know have the regular 9-5 boring obligation and rarely talk \tabout the workplace in social circles. On the other hand, whenever we gather \tsocially, my job always sneaks its way into the conversation. “Busy week \tDan?” “Did you work that accident on the 40 the other day?” “Any news about \tyour contract?”<\/p>\n
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“The paramedics that I work and am associated with in other systems are \tdedicated to rendering the best possible pre-hospital care they are capable \tof giving. The salary is secondary.<\/p>\n
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“Lately though, our employer has been putting more responsibility on our \tshoulders and not matching that with compensation. When I began in EMS some \t24 years ago, we were officially trained to perform CPR and administer \toxygen to patients in need. That was almost the extent of our services in \tthe medical sense and the salary reflected that.<\/p>\n
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“Today, we administer front line medication, intubate patients to establish \tairways, deliver shocks to patients whose hearts have stopped beating, \tmonitor patients’ vital signs and intervene when necessary while en route to \thospital, deliver babies in diverse situations, deal with psychiatric \temergencies – sometimes while putting ourselves in great peril.<\/p>\n
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“These and many other interventions are what make up our day on a regular \tbasis and we are still being paid the base salary of the old days. When will \twe be recognized for what we do?<\/p>\n
“Our families do without because of this injustice. Paramedics \tin Ontario are being paid properly and doing the exact same job we do here \tin Montreal, paramedics across Canada are being treated much better than \tQuebec.”<\/p>\n
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Danny would likely punch me, hard, if I told him my idea about the \tAdopt-A-Medic program. He’s not the kind of guy who has ever sought a \thand-out in his life. He is a feet-on-the-ground family man who is the kind \tof paramedic I’d entrust the lives of myself and my family with. He is a \thard core street medic. You need to be pretty damned hard core to continue \tworking in an EMS system that has been Circling The Drain pretty much since \tthe day it was established.<\/p>\n
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The more I think about the Adopt-A-Medic program the more I like the \tconcept. We could become sponsors for Quebec’s paramedics. They could wear a \tpatch on their uniforms with our names on it so the people they encounter \teach day will know that our paramedics are a source of civic pride – at \tleast for some of us.<\/p>\n
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Of course, I realize that it’s the role of our government to adopt and \tembrace our paramedics and treat them with respect and appreciation. I have \tnever understood the government’s unwillingness to recognize the importance \tof the people who provide our emergency medical services.<\/p>\n
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After all, no matter who you are, when the shit hits the fan and you’re \tcritically ill or injured, your life will be in the hands of Daniel Garvin \tor one of his colleagues. I already know they’ll do their best in those \textraordinarily difficult moments.<\/p>\n
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What I’d like to be assured of is that the government is doing its best to \tsupport them and their families with a real-world living wage, with a \tgenerous pension plan, and with resilient support systems that will stand \tthe test of time and changes of administrations.<\/p>\n
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Be well. Practice big medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Hal Newman The Adopt A Highway program was created to promote community pride and to help carry out or sponsor activities such as mowing, weeding, landscape beautification and litter pick-up. There’s even a company you can pay who will provide the cleaning so that you can receive the recognition and ‘display your civic pride.’ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[29,37,39,32,38],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}