Australian paper on EMS past present and future

[mycrofft]

http://www.jephc.com/uploads/9900821.pdf

Many sweeping comments but the macrotrends need to be thought about.

If young line people continue to focus on technique, they will continue to be technicians. Do EMT etc etc etc classes have sections on ethics, history, systems, business and law? (I think I need to take this again, my sacred bones and magic whistles are worn out).

 

[Melbourne MICA]

G'Day

http://www.jephc.com/uploads/9900821.pdf

Many sweeping comments but the macrotrends need to be thought about.

If young line people continue to focus on technique, they will continue to be technicians. Do EMT etc etc etc classes have sections on ethics, history, systems, business and law? (I think I need to take this again, my sacred bones and magic whistles are worn out).

G"day mycroft. How are you? I know this guy well. Ex ambo - hasn't been on the road for years. Gave up his operational carreer (through illness) to become an "academic". He now teaches/administers ambo courses in the uni system where all our 20yo graduates now come from.

Whilst I agree with your assessment I don't think Mark has the slightest idea what it's like to work on the road now and the lengths our organisation will go to to churn out fresh faced new ambos in their first job just to keep the government and bad PR off their backs.

Our skills might have improved but I think our industry is going sideways - there's a new paradigm taking shape that doesn't augure well for patient care beyond placating adverse public opinion and the business model is exactly that - all about business not service for a noble cause.

I think some of our bosses should take a course in ethics, philosophy etc.

Perhaps if they did they might see their staff as people not commodities in a business model. Frankly I think "technicians is exactly what the "new" direction is aimed at and what our business minded overlords are after.

Cheers
MM

 

[mycrofft]

Howdy and G'day yourself!

I got that feeling from his article, that he had some experience but had been thinking about it either on time off or behind a LSD (large steel desk). Grist for the mill I think, though.

I'm not opposed to there being technicians but I am opposed to the trend to let technique overrun system and structure so that after a while you have EMTBasics doing intravenous cutdowns in suburban Los Angeles, or Sydney.

I work in a large county jail (total population in two facilities about 5,000) and we are daily faced with the bosses being forced to sacrifice due to popular pressure from inmates and their families/romantic supporters. I was an active field EMT from '78 through '81 (you guess the century) and saw the beginnings of the accretion of more people running things and calling shots without practical knowledge and on the model that is once one EMT does something wrong, we all have to act as though that is something we are all doing and start taking these convoluted steps which after a while turn the "dance" of EMS into a backwards lombada.

 

[Melbourne MICA]

.......once one EMT does something wrong, we all have to act as though that is something we are all doing and start taking these convoluted steps which after a while turn the "dance" of EMS into a backwards lombada.

Love the turn of phrase. Perhaps we will all have to put on our dancing shoes. In a very real sense what worries me more is the ambivalence of people now - many seem to be like lemmings - so few seem ready to fight with passion for a cause they beleive in. We are seeing it in our current MICA situation in Melbourne right now. So few seem willing to get off their backsides to help the cause and worse still so many seem to be oblivious that soemthing really is amiss and needs the actions of good people to address.

The wheel turns and I still have pretty funky moves on the dance floor.

Nice to hear from you again.

MM

PS I had no idea you worked in the prison system - must be very challenging to say the least. Cheers