Our esteemed colleague at Captain Chair Confessions really screwed the pooch (IMHO) on his latest blog entry: Get over yourselves, drivers. He says it’s okay to be referred to as “Ambulance Drivers”. That’s not the message we need to send out to each other, the public, OR ourselves for that matter. In part, he says:
But, do you actually drive an ambulance as part of your normal work duties? Oh, you do?
Then get over it.
As a profession, the best way for us to present ourselves as professionals is to look good, with clean, iron (SIC) uniforms, and provide quality care in a timely and efficient manner. Not bitching about what we are called by the general public.
Show me the cop who accepts being called a Gunslinger. Show me the Fireman that tolerates being called a Hoser. Show me the Nurse who is fine with being called an Asswiper. Each of those things are the LEAST of what they do.
Yes, individually we each have the right to joke around with each other about what it is we do, but unless we start etching into the minds of the public-at-large that the work we do is important and professional and WAY beyond the appearance of a nicely pressed uniform we will never gain the traction needed to turn EMS into a true profession. A Doorman wears a nice uniform, but maybe that’s a bad analogy because Doormen get tipped!
I’m sorry. After forty-plus years Ambulance Drivers is exactly what we are and it’s because WE have not made it otherwise. (No offense meant to Kelly Grayson personally 
) The place it has to start is how we view not each other in places like these blogs, but how we view ourselves, to ourselves. I’m talking about standing up to claim what we do as worthwhile.
It’s an image, self-image and self-esteem issue as much as anything else. We have to be willing to talk about ourselves and each other as if the work we did was valuable. NO, we don’t have to come off as heroes but for Chrissakes why can’t we just be honest about our contribution; even if it is running IFTs! There’s nothing wrong with coming up from the bottom as long as the system you’re part of helps you come UP instead of go nowhere.
I see it all the time throughout the EMS cyber-world; there’s a consistent befuddlement about why things aren’t different or better in EMS. Medics refer to themselves as being subject to the institutions that confine them, whether it be the hospitals, private companies or fire departments, City, County or State, the Docs, the Nurses you name it!
What’s missing is that none of those institutions are standing up for our good name. They are in full agreement that we are no more than Ambulance Drivers, and again, IMHO, they like it that way. It is economically feasable, if not an economic necessity, to assure that the people in their charge do not unite. God forbid we’d have to pay them what they’re worth to society. (If you really can’t see how you contribute, this may be a good time to leave.)
And unity of purpose and mutual support and respect must be the starting place if anything is to change. And that will not happen while we continue to call each other Ambulance Drivers. Unless we unite to change our image in the eyes of the public AND the eyes of the systems that employ our services, we will continue to be dogs under the table, relying on the scraps others toss at us for our nourishment. They keep us fed because they know when they call, we wag our tails!
It’s time to stop being subservient, but it’s gonna cost you your nice comfortable cushion and your doghouse.
Just so my position is clear I want to repeat that the primary reason EMS is not a profession is because of burnout. There is not enough consistency and longevity in dedicated personnel to make the profession stick. EMS is a transient’s playground. It is for this very reason that we need to start raising our own standards to give EACH OTHER reason to stick around and make a difference. And it starts with language.
How hard would it be?
What if every Newspaper in the country had to publish a Correction every time they referred to an EMS professional as an Ambulance Driver? Do you think after a while they’d start using the proper terms for the personnel they are reporting on, like EMT or Paramedic? Do you think they would make a better effort to identify the professionals they refer to in their articles and photographs in the future? That will only happen if we take responsibility for the protection of our image.
I guess that would take someone in your service to actually keep up with what is being reported and how your service is portrayed. Gee Whiz! Maybe that same person could begin generating articles that will teach the public what EMS does, why, and how they can help us help them. What if WE were to establish ourselves as Experts at what we do? Who is doing that for us now? And by Experts I mean professionals assigned to attend to the emergent medical needs of the public.
“Emergent” you say? I thought we were in the “Emergency” business? From the Free Dictionary:
e·mer·gent (
-mûr
j
nt)
adj.
1.a. Coming into view, existence, or notice: emergent spring shoots; an emergent political
leader.b. Emerging: emergent
nations.2. Rising above a surrounding medium, especially a fluid.3.a. Arising or occurring unexpectedly: money laid aside for emergent contingencies.b. Demanding prompt action; urgent. (emphasis mine)4. Occurring as a consequence; resultant: economic problems emergent from the restriction of
credit.
I don’t know if the phrase “Emergent Medical Services” has been coined before. I know I have used it a couple times here and in other of my writings, but that is where we’re going if we haven’t already arrived.
Who are you kidding? The reason EMS isn’t working as a profession is because it still thinks it’s a specialty when everything it responds to is getting more and more broad and complicated every day.
Uh-oh, and here comes the BOMB!
WE are not recognizing that the world of EMS has left Johnny and Roy behind. If they want to catch up, they’re going to have to go back to school to learn more about anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, disease entities, sociology, management and psychology (for starters!).
YOU, my friends, are going to have to go back to School! I think ole Rogue would agree.
Full disclosure: the only schooling that I would subject myself to after my compulsory stints in High School and college a couple years was Paramedic training and that primarily because it was equally practical and textbook. I am the world’s worst student (though I did Ace my curricula; well, almost Ace. Would you beleive…?).
WHY MORE SCHOOLING?
* Because the role you play in the larger picture of what Medicine has become has expanded exponentially from what was true at the beginning of EMS and you really do not have the knowledge you need to do the work you’re being asked to do.
* Because the people you serve both need and deserve that knowledge to get them to the next level of appropriate medical care
* Because you will need the educational credibility so you can help define and shape new aspects of Emergent Medical Care for the future so that the people in your care have somewhere to go OTHER THAN the Emergency Room.
* Because when it’s time to come to the bargaining table, you’ll won’t have to listen to, “Listen you Monkey, there’s a million of you guys on the line out there.”
* Because no one is going to create new career paths for you. You’re going to have to do it for yourselves.
So really, my friends, listen to your friendly EMS Outside Agitator when he tells you you’ve fallen behind and it’s time to catch up to the realities of your job. Unless you step up to the plate and help SHAPE the future, you’ll keep coming up with rationalizations that justify your being called “Ambulance Drivers.”
Did I really miss the past tense of “iron?” Damn. I’m going to have to do some better proof reading from now on!
The fact that this discussion continues is why we are disrespected. Just as a white shirt or a gold pin may be “earned” and grant you a management pay grade does not make you a leader, being called a “Prehospital provider professional, an EMT, a Paramagician or whatever does not in anyway entitle you to any more respect than being called an ambulance driver. I agree 100% with CCC. Get over it. Demonstrate skill, compassion and professionalism and treat your peers and colleagues in the industry with the same respect you would expect from them. I have been called “Bitch”, “Honey” “Medic” and ambulance driver pretty much equally over the years and really could not care less. When I take off my boots and hang up my scope at the end of the day, I know exactly who I am and what my role is. And that is all that really matters.
If I may be so bold, I am aware that I am not qualified in your field. I am, however, a full-time cop and a rookie firefighter.
Oh, I’m sorry, did I say “Cop”? I meant to say “Police Officer.” Or, as I idealistically prefer to think of myself, a “Peace Officer.” But sometimes, when I’m driving circles around the city and assess myself objectively in the same mirror that I use to check for tell-tale flecks of glazing sugar on my uniform shirt at 4:30AM, I might use the term “Donut Eater.” It might be slightly pejorative, but it’s technically correct (find me anyplace else that’s open at that time of the night in semi-rural areas), and it gives us some levity. I’m NOT Starsky or Hutch or Sipowicz or that guy from Die Hard. I’m a street cop, and at the end of the day I hope that I’ve helped people. Oops. There’s that word again.
And perhaps it’s my background that makes me more willing to call myself, when I put on my firefighter hat, a “hose-dragger“. You know what? The other men and women at the station house call themselves that, too. They’re proud people. I’m proud to be around them, and learning from them. I’m just a rookie, and have a lot to learn from those hose draggers.
When, in a couple of months, they send me to EMT school, and I graduate, I’ll wear that patch, and I’ll proudly call myself an Ambulance Driver. Maybe I’ll call myself a paramedic when (or if) I get my EMT-A patch. But probably not, because those men and women are smiling and calling themselves A.D., as well.
You know who take themselves too seriously? Mall cops. TSA security guards-turned-federal-LE after 9/11. Certain lifeguards who’ve seen a few too many episodes of BayWatch for the purpose of critiquing David Hasselhoff’s CPR protocol (NOTE: This was not the reason to watch that show.).
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not be thought of as one of those guys. I would rather that my pride and professionalism show through from the manner in which I treat my care receivers, rather than my insistence that you call me a nice professional name.