How can EMS educators help their learners find resilience in what is sure to be a challenging profession? In this episode, recorded live at the 2025 New York State Vital Signs Conference, Prodigy EMS Medical Director Maia Dorsett sits down with renowned artist, retired paramedic, and counseling therapist Dan Sundahl. Their conversation explores the powerful intersection of creativity, trauma, and learning in EMS. Starting with a “Mindset Minute” from Ginger Locke, the episode challenges the traditional analytical focus of EMS education and highlights how inductive, creative thinking supports both better clinical reasoning and mental health. Dan shares his journey through PTSD, the role of art in healing, and the transformative potential of post-traumatic growth. Educators will gain insight into how creative pathways, neuroplasticity, and deliberate processing can help learners find resilience—and even emerge stronger—after difficult experiences.

Ginger Locke highlights the episode's key points with her "Mindset Minute."

The EMS Educator is published on the first Friday of every month! Be sure to turn on your notifications so you can listen as soon as the episode drops, and like/follow us on your favorite platform.

What if EMS educators placed as much focus on emotional intelligence, empathy, and reflective practice as they do knowledge and skills? Listen in as hosts Maia Dorsett, Hilary Gates and Rob Lawrence talk with Liz Harney, quality assurance leader at Baptist Health in Kentucky and former paramedic program director, to explore the often-overlooked affective domain of EMS education.  Liz shares how her frustration with the neglect of the affective domain inspired her to transform her own EMS instruction—bringing emotion, awareness, and humanity into every case study, scenario, and clinical rotation. From teaching students to manage bias and self-regulate under pressure, to modeling vulnerability and connection as educators, this conversation reveals how intentional focus on the affective domain can elevate not only patient care, but also the well-being and longevity of EMS clinicians.

As Liz says, teaching the affective domain can help your students "choose the version of themselves they want to walk into a room."

Ginger Locke highlights the episode's key points with her "Mindset Minute."

Mentioned in the episode:

Bloom's Taxonomy for cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains:

Rob's story about the hypothermic man on a bench:

Addressing Bias in Patient Care: 

The EMS Educator is published on the first Friday of every month! Be sure to turn on your notifications so you can listen as soon as the episode drops, and like/follow us on your favorite platform.

Discover how collaborative learning, well-designed simulation, and fostering a culture of psychological safety are transforming prehospital airway care. National EMS Quality Alliance’s (NEMSQA) Airway Collaborative organized EMS agencies from across the country to analyze their current practices and explore ways to improve the safety and effectiveness of airway management. Join hosts Maia Dorsett and Hilary Gates as we explore why education alone isn’t enough for sustained improvement, highlighting the crucial role of system design and a patient-centered approach. Guests from the collaborative include Shawn Brinkley, Matt Francis, Tom Grawey and Marlow Macht. They share candid insights from their agencies, discussing how data revealed surprising performance gaps and spurred a paradigm shift towards optimizing patient outcomes over simply “getting the tube.” Listen in for invaluable lessons on how to cultivate a system where the expectation is a patient managed carefully by EMS to be truly optimized for the best outcome possible. 

Ginger Locke highlights the episode's key points with her "Mindset Minute."

Mentioned in the episode:

NEMSQA Airway Collaborative: https://www.nemsqa.org/airway-collaborative

IHI Breakthrough Series: https://www.ihi.org/library/white-papers/breakthrough-series-ihis-collaborative-model-achieving-breakthrough

SALAD: https://www.sscor.com/suction-assisted-laryngoscopy-and-airway-decontamination-salad

The EMS Educator is published on the first Friday of every month! Be sure to turn on your notifications so you can listen as soon as the episode drops, and like/follow us on your favorite platform.

EMS Corps is a groundbreaking recruitment and training program that prepares young adults to work in their own community as EMS clinicians. The program helps to remove barriers to joining the EMS profession and focuses on leadership development, mentorship, and job training. Hosts Rob Lawrence and Hilary Gates interview Melissa Corney of the Oxnard Fire Department and Captain Janick Lewis of New Orleans EMS, both of whom have instructed in EMS Corps’ innovative model of flipped-classroom learning and wraparound support that sets up students for success.  One of those success stories is EMS Corps recent graduate Savannah Gaskill, also joining the podcast.  From its origins in Alameda County to recent national expansion, EMS Corps is proving that when clinicians reflect the communities they serve, patient outcomes, agency culture, and clinician confidence all improve.

Ginger Locke highlights the episode's key points with her "Mindset Minute."

Mentioned in the episode:

https://oxnardemscorps.org/

https://nolaemscorps.org/

The EMS Educator is published on the first Friday of every month! Be sure to turn on your notifications so you can listen as soon as the episode drops, and like/follow us on your favorite platform.

How well do EMS teams manage critically ill pediatric patients—and how do we know? In this episode of the EMS Educator Podcast, hosts Rob Lawrence and Maia Dorsett speak with Mark Cicero, lead author of a landmark study published in Prehospital Emergency Care. The study used simulation to assess EMS performance in pediatric emergencies.

Ginger Locke highlights the episode's key points with her "Mindset Minute."

Mentioned in the episode:

The EMS Educator is published on the first Friday of every month! Be sure to turn on your notifications so you can listen as soon as the episode drops, and like/follow us on your favorite platform.

We’re going back to school in this episode of The EMS Educator podcast! Specifically, you’ll hear audio recordings of what EMS students and educators wish they had known when they were in school.  Hosts Hilary Gates and Rob Lawrence are joined by EMS educator Ginger Locke to offer commentary on this sage wisdom. There are tips about possessing quiet confidence and kindness, practical study strategies, and the importance of active reflection and being open to feedback.

Tune in for this helpful discussion to help you navigate the demanding task of learning how to be an EMS clinician.

Mentioned in the episode:

Unconditional positive regard: https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57646/how-unconditional-positive-regard-can-help-students-feel-cared-for

Sahaj Khalsa's EMS Educator episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/addressing-bias-in-patient-care-part-1-of-2/id1573326528?i=1000565780169

For the first time, Maia Dorsett highlights the episode's key points with "Maia's Minute."

The EMS Educator is published on the first Friday of every month! Be sure to turn on your notifications so you can listen as soon as the episode drops, and like/follow us on your favorite platform.

Check out the Prodigy EMS Bounty Program! Earn $1000 for your best talks!

Get your CE at www.prodigyems.com.  Follow @ProdigyEMS on FB, YouTube, TikTok & IG.

What if we began asking patients “what happened to you?” instead of “what’s wrong with you?” This mindset shift exemplifies the principles behind trauma-informed care. DCFEMS Behavioral Health Coordinator Ronit Reguer once again joins hosts Maia Dorsett, Hilary Gates and Rob Lawrence for a powerful, practical conversation on trauma-informed care.  They discuss how this approach can improve both patient outcomes and provider wellness. Drawing on clinical experiences, EMS education, and real-world applications, you’ll hear a deep dive into how trauma affects patient behavior, the importance of recognizing individual agency during care, and how to build trauma-informed principles into EMS training.  Whether you’re an EMS educator, clinician, or student, this episode will challenge you to rethink your approach to care—and inspire meaningful change.

Mentioned in the episode:

SAMHSA's Trauma-informed Approach: https://www.samhsa.gov/mental-health/trauma-violence/trauma-informed-approaches-programs

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk: https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748

What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey https://a.co/d/72CItzf

Ginger Locke highlights the episode's key points with her "Mindset Minute."

The EMS Educator is published on the first Friday of every month! Be sure to turn on your notifications so you can listen as soon as the episode drops, and like/follow us on your favorite platform.

Check out the Prodigy EMS Bounty Program! Earn $1000 for your best talks!

Get your CE at www.prodigyems.com  Follow @ProdigyEMS on Twitter, FB, YouTube, TikTok & IG.

How should we best acquire medical knowledge and skills so that we can easily retrieve and effectively use them in the field? Now that we are past the stressful March 31st recert deadline, hosts Maia Dorsett, Hilary Gates and Rob Lawrence delve into the issues surrounding EMS recertification and continuing education. Special guest Ethan Setnik, Chief Technology Officer at Prodigy EMS, offers unique insights into the design of learning from his perspective as a system engineer. 

We know that the typical last-minute rush to recertify isn’t the most effective approach to learning, so listen and be inspired by evidence-based strategies for better knowledge retention. We discuss effortful retrieval, spaced repetition, and interleaving to enhance learning and improve clinical practice. Ethan shares insights about the ways technology and system design can support continuous competency and self-directed learning, moving beyond simply “checking the box” to fostering a meaningful educational journey for EMS clinicians.

Mentioned in the episode:

The graph of recert volume at Prodigy EMS: https://postimg.cc/6T7ShPYB

"Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning" https://a.co/d/0n5zMCr

Learning by Scientific Design: https://www.deansforimpact.org/tools-and-resources/learning-by-scientific-design

Ginger Locke highlights the episode's key points with her "Mindset Minute."

The EMS Educator is published on the first Friday of every month! Be sure to turn on your notifications so you can listen as soon as the episode drops, and like/follow us on your favorite platform.

Check out the Prodigy EMS Bounty Program! Earn $1000 for your best talks!

Get your CE at www.prodigyems.com  Follow @ProdigyEMS on Twitter, FB, YouTube, TikTok & IG.

Does your classroom have a joyful buzz? Jonathan St. George has it figured out--as the founder of the Protected Airway Collaborative (PAC), Jonathan was inspired by a museum visit to create a learning environment like no other. Join us as we dive into his innovative world of airway management education.  Prodigy EMS team members Maia Dorsett and Shane O'Donnell report from the PAC as they experienced the self-directed learning approach firsthand.  Listen to their interviews with Jace Mullen and Andrew Merelman, and learn how to enhance your instructional delivery through this pioneering educational format.

Mentioned in the episode:

Protected Airway Collaborative: https://theprotectedairway.com/

Flipped Classroom: https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/flipped-classrooms

Self Directed Learning: https://www.self-directed.org/sde/

Ginger Locke highlights the episode's key points with her "Mindset Minute."

The EMS Educator is published on the first Friday of every month! Be sure to turn on your notifications so you can listen as soon as the episode drops, and like/follow us on your favorite platform.

Check out the Prodigy EMS Bounty Program! Earn $1000 for your best talks!

Get your CE at www.prodigyems.com  Follow @ProdigyEMS on Twitter, FB, YouTube, TikTok & IG.

What if the best EMS educators weren’t clinicians, but patients themselves? In this episode, hosts Hilary Gates and Maia Dorsett welcome sudden cardiac arrest survivor Nova McCarthy and medical director Alicia Bond for an insightful discussion on how patient experiences can enhance EMS education. Nova describes her experience as a keynote speaker and explores the power of patient-centered learning. She details powerful moments from her near-death experience, including the compassion and kind words of the EMS clinicians who cared for her.  Listen in to discover how EMS providers can learn directly from those they serve—gaining deeper empathy, refining communication, and improving decision-making in high-stakes moments.  This conversation challenges traditional training methods and offers an innovative take on EMS education. 

Mentioned in the episode:

Heartsight

Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation

Trauma Survivors Network

Near Death Experiences

Email Alicia Bond: [email protected]

Email Nova McCarthy: [email protected]

State of Jefferson EMS Conference

Ginger Locke highlights the episode's key points with her "Mindset Minute."

The EMS Educator is published on the first Friday of every month! Be sure to turn on your notifications so you can listen as soon as the episode drops, and like/follow us on your favorite platform.

This podcast is sponsored by EMS Gives Life.  Would you consider becoming a living organ donor? For more info visit www.emsgiveslife.org

Check out the Prodigy EMS Bounty Program! Earn $1000 for your best talks!

Get your CE at www.prodigyems.com  Follow @ProdigyEMS on Twitter, FB, YouTube, TikTok & IG.