My organization had the privilege of hosting our County’s EMS Awards on Wednesday. It was an honor to bestow public recognition to the men and women who personified the hard work, patience and dedication to the various facets of prehospital care. It is National EMS Week, and I’m sure that many systems across the country took a minute to recognize their own “everyday heroes.”
Normally, I’m pretty strident about being vigilant in our business. We have to be our own worst critics — it’s the mark of a profession that polices its own activities. But, on the flip side, there’s a lot to be said about what is good about EMS in how it serves its communities.
This article does a great job describing the different activities that the mentioned departments do to raise awareness about what they do. As I read it, I can imagine many other departments that are doing the same thing.
What did your department do this week? Did you participate in the celebration of your profession? Kudos to you if you did; if you didn’t, think about what you can plan for next year, right now.
Like my fellow columnist Kelly Grayson said in his column, we do some of our best advocacy by performing well, day and day out. Public awareness events such as these can build great relationships with the community, who in turn will better support us when we need them.
Along with all of the feel good stuff, we must continue to grow our profession, through advocacy, education and performance, and reducing the threats to it, from stupid, dangerous actions and destroy the public’s trust in us.
For this week, let’s raise a glass and toast to our successes. Next week, it’s back to the work we love.
