EMS One-Stop

EMS One-Stop Show Notes - National EMS Museum

This episode of EMS One-Stop With Rob Lawrence is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

In this episode of EMS One-Stop, Host Rob Lawrence discusses the National EMS Museum (NEMSM) with President Dave Zaiman; Museum Director, Kristy Van Hoven; and Jon Krohmer, MD, immediate past-secretary and "We are EMS" coordinator. The National EMS Museum is a volunteer-led organization that collects, preserves and shares the history of emergency medical response in the United States in hopes of inspiring future professionals to take up the call.

The National EMS Museum organization operates a virtual museum and produces traveling exhibitions that tour the country every year. The Collections at the National EMS Museum house over 300 years of history that cover the development of prehospital care in the United States, North America and around the world.

TOP QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE

“We are here to educate the future. We are here not only to document the legacy, but here to provide a foundation and an education that EMS as a profession, as we move forward is respected, is understood, and maybe in a small part this museum can play a part in improving EMS altogether.”

EPISODE CONTENTS

03:05 – Origins of the NEMSM

05:04 – The style and model of the NEMSM

07:00 – Changes underway – recruiting individuals with experience in museum activities

11:50 – President Dave Zaiman

13:20 – Getting EMS into the community

15:00 – Favorite artifacts

16:30 – From MAST pants to blood transfusion

17:20 – Fundraising effort in order to take the museum on the road

20:30 – Developing a traveling mobile “We are EMS” museum project

23:40 – How to book a traveling exhibit

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON THIS TOPIC

• The National EMS Museum

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Dave Zaiman

Dave is currently Sales VP - Midwest at Pulsara.  For over 30 years, Dave has been working in healthcare – both as an EMS professional as well as holding several leadership roles in the healthcare technology industry. Based in Minnesota, Dave spent his first 15 years working in the field as an EMT and paramedic in the Twin Cities metro area for both Allina and Hennepin County Medical Center.

Kristy Van Hoven

Kristy is the museum director for the National EMS Museum and PhD candidate at the University of Leicester. Over the last 3 years, Kristy has worked with the National EMS Museum’s Board of Trustees to develop and implement engaging e-volunteer opportunities and community programs that reach their digital audience. In addition to her work with the EMS Museum, Kristy volunteers at several local museums in Toronto, Ontario.

Jon Krohmer, MD

Dr. Krohmer served as the director of the NHTSA Office of EMS before his retirement in November 2021.  During his tenure as director, Dr. Krohmer oversaw several milestones for the profession, including the creation of EMS Agenda 2050; major revisions to the National EMS Scope of Practice Model and the National EMS Education Standards; and improvements in the collection and use of EMS data through the expansion of the National EMS Information System. Soon after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Krohmer was tapped to lead the prehospital/911 team as part of the Federal Healthcare Resilience Task Force.

Prior to joining NHTSA, Dr. Krohmer had decades of experience as a local EMS medical director, initially in his home state of Michigan. His EMS career began as an EMT with a volunteer rescue squad. Like many EMS professionals, he was inspired by the television show “Emergency!” and by the emergence of the relatively new field of emergency medicine. He entered medical school at the University of Michigan knowing he wanted to make EMS his career. After becoming involved in EMS at the state and national level, he also served as president of the National Association of EMS Physicians from 1998 to 2000. In 2006, he came to Washington to serve as the first deputy chief medical officer for the Department of Homeland Security Office of Health Affairs and served in several other DHS roles before joining NHTSA in 2016.

RATE AND REVIEW THE EMS ONE-STOP PODCAST

Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Contact the EMS One-Stop team at [email protected] to share ideas, suggestions and feedback.

This episode of EMS One-Stop With Rob Lawrence is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

This week, Host Rob Lawrence welcomes back, Alexander Isakov, MD, MPH, professor of emergency medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, executive director of the Emory Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response (CEPAR), and EMS lead for the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC).

Returning guest, Dr. Isakov provides an update on the current emerging pathogens, diseases, outbreaks and fevers that have featured recently in the news. Candida auris, Marburg virus disease, avian influenza, Nipah virus are discussed as well as recaps on Ebola, COVID-19, polio and seasonal influenza.

TOP QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE

“What’s concerning CDC officials and experts is there is a multi-drug resistant strain of Candida auris that is really picking up in their surveillance programs.”

“While no one wants to be exposed to a multi-drug-resistant Candida auris, it’s really the ominous compromised patient that’s going to be likely most affected by it, so that means elderly patients or patients that are getting chemotherapy and have some immunosuppression consequence of that or people that are taking immunosuppressant drugs, they are the ones really at greatest risk.”

“The likelihood that EMS personnel are going to encounter somebody with Marburg virus disease in the U.S. during routine operations is extremely low, but good to be vigilant about it and identifying that someone might have been exposed, and understanding their travel history, if someone is ill, has a fever or myalgia, GI complaints and has travelled within the last 21 days to equatorial Guinea or Tanzania, then it would raise suspicion.”

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON THIS TOPIC

• CDC: Infection prevention and control for Candida auris

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Alexander Isakov, MD, MPH, is a professor of emergency medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. He is certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine in both emergency medicine and emergency medical services (EMS).

Dr. Isakov is the director of the Section of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine whose faculty provides medical oversight for 911 communications centers, and ground and air EMS responders in metropolitan Atlanta. He is also the executive director of the Emory Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response (CEPAR), which serves as the center for Emory enterprise-wide planning for and coordinated response to catastrophic events.

Dr. Isakov has provided leadership in emergency medical services and disaster preparedness locally and nationally. He serves as the medical director for the Sandy Springs Fire Department and Air Life Georgia. He is the founding medical director for the Emory-Grady EMS Biosafety Transport Program. He is the EMS lead for the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC) and is a designated Subject Matter Expert for the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Technical Resources, Assistance Center, and Information Exchange (ASPR TRACIE). Dr. Isakov is also on the American College of Emergency Physicians Epidemic Expert Panel and is a member of the EMS sub-board for the American Board of Emergency Medicine. He previously served on the National Association of EMS Physicians board of directors and the Technical Expert Panel for NHTSA’s EMS Agenda 2050.

Dr. Isakov has an MD from the University of Pittsburgh and an MPH from Boston University. He completed his emergency medicine residency training at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and his EMS fellowship with Boston EMS. Dr. Isakov has lived and worked in Atlanta for 20 years. He practices clinically in the emergency department of Emory University Hospital.

RATE AND REVIEW THE EMS ONE-STOP PODCAST

Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Contact the EMS One-Stop team at [email protected] to share ideas, suggestions and feedback.

This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

In this episode of Inside EMS, host Kelly Grayson welcomes Nancy Magee, volunteer EMS consultant, and

Rom Duckworth, fire captain and paramedic EMS coordinator for the Ridgefield (Connecticut) Fire Department and the founder of the New England Center for Rescue and Emergency Medicine.

As a NAEMT board member, Rom recently attended the EMS advocacy event, EMS on the Hill, along with Nancy, who attended to represent the interests of rural EMS providers. 

Rom shared, “Bottom line, the experience was great, some parts a little frustrating, but I feel like we were fighting the good fight overall and it was a learning experience for me and I think an eye opening experience for a lot of the other people who were down there trying to fight for a little bit more money, a little bit more protection and a little bit more rights for EMS providers.”

Nancy and Rom recount their experiences and what they learned in Washington, including:

• What the representatives asked of legislators

Connect with us

Email [email protected] to share your feedback!

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While EMS is uniquely rewarding, it is also uniquely challenging, with physical, mental and emotional impacts. During the inaugural First Responder Wellness Week, our dynamic duo, Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson, hosted a special live edition of Inside EMS.

In this edition, our cohosts, joined by EMS One-Stop podcast host Rob Lawrence, welcome Global Medical Response's Ed Racht, MD; and Rhonda Kelly, who manage one of, if not the biggest EMS wellness programs in existence. Listen in to learn how wellness programs are essential to creating resilient responders, and what's working to support members' health, emotional wellness and coping strategies for career longevity.

WHAT ATTENDEES LIKED FROM THIS PRESENTATION

"Great ideas and options to assist providers when they need help and to encourage them to ask for help." 

"Good practical ideas to implement."

"It was very informative on information that we as an industry are using to move ahead with responder wellness." 

This episode of EMS One-Stop With Rob Lawrence is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

Russ Myers, Nikki Holm and Gwen Powell are chaplains at Allina Health Emergency Medical Services and in this episode, they join Rob Lawrence to discuss the role of chaplaincy in EMS. The guests discuss their role and responsibilities as well as the book, “Because We Care: A Handbook for Chaplaincy in Emergency Medical Services,” written by Russ Myers.

Over the past half century, the field of chaplaincy has come to a fork in the road. Many will recognize the well-traveled path of traditional chaplaincy. Others will follow the newer but clearly marked way to professional chaplaincy: a clinically trained, evidence-based discipline, reflecting and serving the diverse expressions of spirituality in modern society. Until now, chaplaincy in EMS has been the terra incognita, the unknown land on the map. Drawing on three decades of clinical chaplaincy practice, scholarship and original research, Russell Myers charts the map, making the case for ambulance service chaplaincy: how to think about it and how to do it.

TOP QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE

“For me it’s all about love, how can I bring some light, some life, some love into the world, and I am able to do that in these situations by just showing up as we call in chaplaincy – the ministry of presence.” —Gwen Powell

“I do this work is to come alongside people and remind them of their humanity to help them break down their defenses and their shields to get back to the truth of who they are, to help them be seen and heard and taken care of.” —Nikki Holm

EPISODE CONTENTS

1:23 – Introduction Russ Myers

2:43 – Introduction Nikki Holm

4:00 – Introduction Gwen

7:35 – Book discussion: Because We Care – The Role of the Chaplaincy in Emergency Services

11:20 – Terra Incognita

12:30 – What motivates a chaplain?

15:30 – A chaplaincy intervention story

20:15 – A chaplain’s workload

23:00 – Being Proactive: Establishing a trusting relationship with the workforce

23:30 – Being Reactive: when an incident or issue occurs

30:15 – Education and being a presence during training

34:58 – If you are thinking about introducing g a chaplain

36:30 – Moral Injury and the social contract

40:40 – Overcoming the staff stigma about coming forward

42:00 – Close

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON THIS TOPIC

• “Because We Care: A Handbook for Chaplaincy in Emergency Medical Services”

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Russell Myers serves as a chaplain for Allina Health Emergency Medical Services, based in Minneapolis. He holds a BA from Ohio State University and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota. Russ is ordained by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is board certified with the Association of Professional Chaplains. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Gwen Powell is an ordained episcopal priest and board-certified professional chaplain who has been working with Allina EMS since 2020. Prior to working for Allina, she provided spiritual care to patients and staff on the adolescent behavioral health units at the M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center. Gwen graduated from Valparaiso University with a degree in psychology in 2008 and earned her Master of Science in Psychology from Kansas State University in 2010. She earned her Master of Divinity from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN in 2014 and has been passionate about mental health chaplaincy since beginning her ministry work in 2015. In her free time, she likes to beat her husband and kids at Mario Kart, exercise, walk/hike with her family, watch baseball, and sing with the Northern Lights Chorale.

Nikki Holm has been engaged in the meaningful work of EMS Chaplaincy through Allina Health since the Spring of 2020. Prior to making the transition to EMS, Nikki provided spiritual care and health education in an outpatient mental health setting for several years. Nikki was board certified with the Board of Chaplaincy Certification Inc. in 2017, graduated with a Master’s degree in Spirituality from St. John’s School of Theology in 2007 and with a Bachelor’s degree in Theology from The College of St. Benedict in 2005. Nikki lives in an earth home with her husband, their three beloved children, and three furry companions. Outside of soaking up life with her littles, Nikki enjoys rock climbing, writing, reading, yoga, gardening, and otherwise spending time with her tribe. Contact Nikki at [email protected].

RATE AND REVIEW THE EMS ONESTOP PODCAST

Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Contact the EMS One-Stop team at [email protected] to share ideas, suggestions and feedback.

This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

As we lead up to Lexipol’s First Responder Wellness Week, this week’s cohosts Rob Lawrence and Kelly Grayson learn about the work of two important EMS and public safety charitable organizations – EMS Gives Life, with Executive Director, Christine Fiechter, and the Code Green campaign with Treasurer and Board Member RJ Morrison.

 “Who knew you could donate a portion of your liver – many of us don’t and that portion of your liver you donate grows back in full size and functionality in a short period of time.” —Christine Fiechter

“This is a community that has a very hard time asking for help. They don’t want to ask for help, they want to sit silently; they are used to being the helper, it’s very awkward to ask for someone to donate a kidney.” — Christine Fiechter

“We bring to your attention the names of people that have passed through suicide or have passed through medical or accidents, etc., but we never talk about the people that didn’t – what about the people that did go and get help, that did reach out, that did ask for support, and we don’t read their name, because they were successful.” — RJ Morrison discussing the Code Green “Names not read” tag line

“No one knew how many of our brethren took their own lives unless someone reported it, or said so in an obituary, and we still don’t know how many died in accidents because they were depressed or suffering from PTSD. It’s hard to do good work if you don’t have the statistics and the [FBHA Register] is a crucial initiative.” — Kelly Grayson

Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Contact the Inside EMS team at [email protected] to share ideas, suggestions and feedback, or if you’d like to join us as a guest.

This special episode of EMS One-Stop is part of 2023 First Responder Wellness Week. Do you want to improve your physical fitness, increase your resiliency, eat better and sleep longer? Get started with videos, articles and other resources at www.firstresponderwellnessweek.com. You can also learn more about what Lexipol is doing to support health, wellness and safety among first responders.

In this special First Responder Wellness Week episode of  EMS One-Stop, Host Rob Lawrence welcomes Mike Taigman and Kevin Pannell to discuss the many facets of wellness, why wellness is essential for first responders, and easy tips for getting started to improve fitness, nutrition, stress management and more.

Memorable quotes

“The work we do involves your cognitive abilities to think well and sort out challenging situations for patients and calls and circumstances. You’ve got to lift people and move them and those kinds of things, so there’s a whole physical component, and the stress management is absolutely part of the wellness, and if you don’t kind of have a handle on that, there’s a lot of stresses this world presents to you – and poorly managed stress, we know, tears down your physical, psychological and emotional wellness.” —Mike Taigman

“If you’re in EMS or fire and you can’t carry the med box in one hand and the defibrillator in another up two flights of steps and you’re gassed and you can’t work when you get there, then you’re useless. And, for police, if you can’t wrestle with somebody because you’re exhausted in 30 seconds, it’s a problem.” —Kevin Pannell  

Together, they offer tips like:

• Pay attention to your plant-to-processed food ratio

About our guests

Mike Taigman uses more than four decades of experience to help EMS leaders and field personnel improve the care/service they provide to patients and their communities. Mike is the Improvement Guide for FirstWatch, a company which provides near-real time monitoring and analysis of data along with performance improvement coaching for EMS agencies. 

He teaches Improvement Science in the Master’s in Healthcare Administration and Interprofessional Leadership at the University of California San Francisco and the Emergency Health Services Management Graduate Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Kevin Pannell works in program and project management in the healthcare IT space. He has previous experience as a public safety and military veteran, and produces wellness content.

Resources mentioned in this episode

• Pannell5 Fitness Club

This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

If you’ve seen his videos, you’ve likely said to yourself, “been there, done that.” In this episode of Inside EMS, cohost Kelly Grayson and guest cohost Rob Lawrence welcome Firefighter-influencer Jason Patton to the show. Patton, famous for Fire Department Chronicles and Fire Department Coffee, offers a caffeine-fueled glimpse at how he got started in producing videos that have garnered him over 5 million followers.

Listen in as they discuss:

• The power of social media

Don’t miss:

• “The world, especially our world, needs humor.”

This episode of EMS One-Stop With Rob Lawrence is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

In this EMS One-Stop international edition, this month, Rob Lawrence talks with Professor Tony Walker, immediate past chief executive officer of Ambulance Victoria, a professor with the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and Bachelor Paramedic Studies at Monash University. While in charge of Ambulance Victoria, Tony led significant transformation to improve the health and well-being of their workforce and the response they provide to the community.

In this broad-reaching discussion, Tony explains the structure, organization and funding models of EMS down under and then Rob and Tony identify current challenges, issues and solutions common to both the U.S. and Australia, including the dreaded hospital handover challenges as well as reduction in lights and siren responses.

TOP QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE

“We know at least one in five people who call triple zero, our 911 equivalent, don’t require an emergency ambulance and so new models of care are being developed.”

“When people call triple zero, they no longer expect that they will automatically get an ambulance, as often described to people, you don’t walk into a hospital triage and say I’d like you to admit me to the coronary care unit,, you get triaged, you work out what is wrong by a health professional and you get the care you need; that’s exactly the same being applied in the paradigm of ambulance service delivery here in Victoria and the rest of Australia.”

“In the next decade or so, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see predominantly women making up the majority of staff working on frontline ambulances.”

“New models of care have been developed. We have looked at the MPDS grid and where the disposition of those patients go to so we have reduced significantly the number of lights and sirens responses which has enabled us.”

“Issues of transfer of care in hospital are a real challenge for ambulance services in the time it takes to transfer patients and there is no easy fix for that.”

“If you are a paramedic who has gone to university, done your training, wants to deliver care and you are spending a significant proportion of your shift in an emergency department caring for your patient before he can offload it, that can be demoralizing and that probably goes against why you joined in the first place.”

EPISODE CONTENTS

1:16 Introducing Tony Walker

2:00 The scale and scope of Australian Services

05:45 Healthcare funding – how does the patient get their healthcare

7:45 EMS system organization and deployment

09:15 Degrees and paramedic education

11:50 Student debt … or not!

14:10 Is Australia over-producing graduate medics?

16:40 Alternative treatment models

19:00 Reducing lights and siren responses

21:08 Public expectation education

23:02 Looking after your people

25:50 Handover delay at the ED – a global issue

27:00 Gender and diversity

27:34 Scheduling and rostering – creating a flexible roster that meets the needs of the individual and service

28:40 Hospital capacity and flow issues

31:08 How can you work in Australia?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Additional EMS One-Stop podcast solutions to EMS staffing woes from down under: Australia EMS medics join the podcast to discuss their efforts to fill U.S. positions with their paramedic surplus

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Professor Tony Walker, ASM, is a registered paramedic with over 36 years’ experience working across senior clinical, operational and leadership roles within the ambulance sector. He was previously chief executive officer of Ambulance Victoria, where he led significant transformation to improve the health and well-being of their workforce and the response they provide to the community.

Tony is a Fellow of the Australasian College of Paramedicine and holds a Bachelor of Paramedic Studies, Graduate Certificate of Applied Management, Graduate Diploma of Emergency Health (MICA) and Master of Education.  He is a non-executive director of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, the Emergency Services Foundation and TLC for Kids, a Director of Fairhaven Consulting Pty. Ltd., and an executive member of the Global Resuscitation Alliance and an Associate Investigator with the Australian Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium.

He is a past non-executive director and chair of the Council of Ambulance Authorities (CAA), the peak body representing the eleven statutory ambulance services across Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, past chair of the Australian Resuscitation Council (Victorian branch) and past deputy convenor of the Australian Resuscitation Council ALS sub-committee.

Tony is published in an extensive range of literature relating to advancements in paramedic practice and prehospital systems of care, including prehospital thrombolysis, cardiac arrest, pain relief and prehospital rapid sequence intubation for traumatic brain injury.

Tony is a recipient of the Ambulance Service Medal (ASM) for his contribution to the development of ambulance services at a state and national level and awarded the National Heart Foundation President’s Award and Australian Resuscitation Council Medal (ARC) and included in the ARC Honor Roll, for his significant contributions to improving cardiovascular health and resuscitation practice and outcomes. He was a finalist for the Australian Mental Health Prize in 2019 in recognition of his work in improving paramedic mental health and wellbeing.

CONNECT WITH TONY WALKER

• Linkedin

RATE AND REVIEW THE EMS ONESTOP PODCAST

Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Contact the EMS One-Stop team at [email protected] to share ideas, suggestions and feedback.

This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

In the 10-year anniversary episode of the Inside EMS podcast, Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson discuss the shortage of EMTs, the imperfections of the onboarding process, and the importance of having good leaders in demanding jobs.

Join Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson as they celebrate 10 years of the Inside EMS podcast by taking a hard look at the desperate search for more EMTs. With more EMS professionals nationally registered now than ever before, the duo dissects why those statistics don’t match up with the number of EMTs currently working.

Our hosts take a close look at EMS leaders and their impact on new EMTs. Plus, they cover specific ways that we can improve the onboarding process to better prepare EMS professionals, and how the sink or swim method is harming new EMTs.

• The lack of preparation in onboarding new EMTs.

• “What we have is a shortage of people who are willing to work under horrible conditions for chump change and be unappreciated.”

• Article: “Top 10 Ways to Ruin a Good EMT” written by Kelly Grayson

• Listen to this episode of the Inside EMS podcast and look out for new episodes every Friday