Ginger talks to Dr. Ben Abo. He is a paramedic and EMS physician. He’s been on the Ted stage. He’s the medical director for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s Venom response teams. He’s a fellow in the Academy of Wilderness Medicine. He’s saved a stranger who collapsed on train tracks. He’s an international man of mystery and in this episode, we will talk about none of that. Instead, Ginger reached out to him because she wanted to make an episode about the use of humor in emergency medicine. Ever since the first day she saw a picture of him in scrubs in the ER talking on a banana phone, she knew he would be the one to teach us what I need to know about when, where and how to use humor in medicine.

Zoom out with Humor

Ginger Locke is a paramedic and professor of EMS students in the US. She has long been fascinated with the inner-workings of medics' minds. In this podcast, she interviews medics face-to-face, in long, intimate format. She thoughtfully asks her guests to open up about their mindset, routines, mistakes, thought-processes, and lessons hard-learned. 

She is on twitter @gingerlockeatx and show notes from each episode can be found at medicmindset.com.

Medicine

Science & Medicine

Science

Health & Fitness

Paramedic, Taylor Kellogg (@kello011 on Twitter) joins us. This episode is a chance to take a break from clinical learning and listen to the story of a medic who has a passion for meteorology. Wildland fires in Southern California, a thunderstorm on a goat ranch, tornadoes while on shift, flooding that brought him eye-to-eye with a snake knocking on the station door & winter storms in Central Texas. He marvels at the good & the ugly that natural disasters provoke in humanity and how extreme weather makes us vulnerable in a way that connects us.  Show notes at medicmindset.com Follow Medic Mindset on: Twitter & Instagram

The Weatherman

Dr. Maia Dorsett joins us again! You may remember her from the Thinking: Lift Assist episode. This time she shares what she knows about the process of death notification. It's a passion-topic for her because she knows how important these conversations are for the loved ones of patients who have died... and for us. She frames a death notification as a procedure that can be taught, learned and practiced.  NAEMSP Article Bite #33: Is Death Notification Training associated with decreased burnout among EMS professionals This YouTube video was made by the Monroe-Livingston EMS Region at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in anticipation of the rise of out-of-hospital death. Paper outlining The GRIEV_ING algorithm in the Prehospital Emergency Care journal.

Death Notification Choreography

Kevin Hazzard reads 2 chapters from his latest book, American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became American’s First Paramedics. Freedom House EMS is EMS’ origin story. It was almost erased until Kevin Hazzard meticulously researched the story so it can sit in the forefront of our our collective consciousness. His first book, 1000 Naked Strangers, was recommended by Nyssa Hattaway in this Medic Mindset episode as the one book she’d give to a new paramedic.  

Sirens In His Voice

Kevin Hazzard reflects on a TV show based on a book called "5 Days at Memorial" by Sheri Fink. In this story, the characters are faced with impossible challenges inside a hospital in the days after Hurricane Katrina. There are so many parallels between what they experienced and what out of hospital paramedics are presented every day. The first time I heard Kevin's voice was in 2016 when he was a guest on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. They were discussing his book "1000 Naked Strangers" where he recounts memories from working for Grady EMS in Atlanta for over a decade. I was struck by this quote during that interview: "There are a lot of situations where it's just not practical to wait for it to be completely safe and you gotta just try to weigh the odds." With that quote, I knew he'd be a guest well-matched for Medic Mindset where we understand the grey in which decisions are made in EMS everyday. Shownotes at medicmindset.com

5 Days with Hazzard

How do we find our way out of this? Initial education, recruitment and retention in EMS are all in crisis. Paramedic and EMS educator, David Fifer proposes an educational pathway for paramedics in this keynote lecture at the 2022 National Association of EMS Educators' Annual Symposium. Days before delivering this keynote talk, David was working with a crew to hoist people out of disastrous flooding in Kentucky. He called on those in attendance to offer financial support through this site if possible. This episode was made possible through the collaboration of some of the best in EMS education: Prodigy EMS, NAEMSE and EKU's David Fifer

Zoom out with Humor

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