By Dr. Chris Nollette, NAEMSE President
“When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled my pocket with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children; and being charmed with the sound of a whistle, that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one. I then came home, and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family. My brothers, and sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth; put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money; and laughed at me so much for my folly, that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure.”
-Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin recounts this story from his childhood of paying too much for the whistle, for he lacked the wisdom and experience to make a better choice. One could only imagine that if he had sought council before his purchase how much happier he would be in the end. If we fail to seek out mentors then we become open to making many of our own mistakes. These mistakes can be as costly as the whistle and some will cost us much more in our professional and personal lives. Think back over this year and realize how many trusted public servants and notable celebrities who have stood before the cameras and faced a world that shakes its head at how much they all paid for the whistle. Then think about those who have mentored and shaped your life as they helped you realize your dreams. Maybe they even helped to inspire you to dream in the first place — the power of mentoring.
Mentoring is the very heartbeat of the EMS profession and becomes the calling of every professional. We all have a duty as professionals to reach out and share our wisdom, our purpose, and our passion with the next generation. This is essential to maintain and grow as a professional body in a positive and purposeful manner. How many of us owe so much to those who have come before and inspired us to see the world and ourselves so much differently? While mentoring is really defined as a long-term relationship, it can be for a lifetime or one can be mentored for the moment. We have all been changed by something a patient has said or done — maybe it is true that we mentor even when we do not know we are mentoring.
Many professionals who started in the 70s and 80s joined our profession in these early years by watching “Emergency!,” the show inspired a generation. Those early professionals so inspired by “Emergency!” shared their passion with the next generation and grew an entire field we now know as EMS. Researchers have long stressed just how important mentoring is from a professional standpoint. It is more critical today then it was yesterday for the world is much more complicated and we see constant change to our professional landscapes. Many are fearful of asking for help, for they believe that it will show them to be less capable and intelligent so they suffer in silence. The challenges before us are real and no one can have all the answers; therefore, we must depend on each other for support.
Unfortunately, the world is filled with leaders who lack vision, which is the foundation for mentoring. It is through vision that we see the world not as what it is, but what it can become. We realize the mistakes we have made or the opportunities that we missed and want the next generation not to follow suit. Are we better today for those men and women who mentored another generation by showing just how shortsighted we were as a people? Think of Mother Teresa, Ceaser Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, just to name a few. Their visions galvanized mankind to address social issues that rekindled the human spirit and created a future of great possibilities. They mentored a whole generation to believe that the world could have greater justice — an idea was born and a generation mentored to think differently — so great change became possible.
The National Association of EMS Educators (NAEMSE) is a body of professional educators who are committed to mentoring and next year will be launching an ambitious national mentoring program on several fronts — national accreditation, field and clinical practices, administrative issues, implementation of educational standards, just to name a few. The board of directors for NAEMSE is a visionary board that believes it is not enough just to leave the organization in stronger financial shape; we must reach out to all our members and create tomorrows that are filled with many possibilities. We must never take comfort in what we have done but must move forward to tackle the work that is left undone. Let it be said of every professional organization — large or small — that each carefully counted out its coppers and did not pay too much for the whistle. For as we lift each other up and embrace mentoring, we begin to rise ourselves and in the end we are all better for the journey — which is a harmony born of service and a price worth paying both personally and professionally.