Welcome to EMS in the New Decade!

Hello, and welcome to the first edition ofEMSin the New Decade.I thought I would use this first edition of the Blog to answer two big questions:

1.What is this Blog going to be about?

Well, as the title of the Blog indicates, we are going to be talking at great length about EMS in the new decade: the 2010’s.  Sure, I know, the decade doesn’t officially start until 2011, but many of us saw 2000 as a big step, so here we are ten years later.

I am going to be looking at and discussing where we are, where we have been, and most importantly, where we are (and should) be going in our future.  I hope to include product reviews, and opinion pieces that will address articles and challenges inEMS, both at the field level, and in the front office and behind the scenes level.

Finally, anyone in EMS knows that it is hard to talk about the field without including some good old War Stories.Those will be here too.

2.Who the heck are you?

My name is Scott.  I’m 31 years old.At the young age of 15, I realized that EMS was my calling in life.  It was the one thing that I found that felt I was really good at.  I come from a family of Emergency Medical Technicians, and started out as a Cadet on my local First Aid Squad in New Jersey.  From there, I moved up to a larger volunteer service, and finally found myself attending college in Massachusetts pursuing a degree in Emergency Medical Services Management.

As part of my degree program, I obtained my Paramedic Certification in the Commonwealth of Massachusettstowards the end of 2000.  This started my career with a large private company that hold the 911 contract for most of the Greater Springfield area.

In the nine years since, I’ve worked as a street medic in the city, I’ve been promoted to supervisor, I’ve worked in a smaller 3rd party municipal service part time, I’ve been a teaching assistant, and I’ve even done EMS at a local Theme Park.

I take in a lot of what I see around me in the EMS Community, and am a constant advocate of change and evolution, which anyone within the Community will tell you is VERY difficult.  EMS is filled with a lot of Type A personalities, and I certainly am one of them. I also consider myself a “student” of some of the great modern thinkers inEMS: Skip Kirkwood, David Shrader, Mic Gunderson, and Gary Wingrove, just to name a few.  Chances are, you will see their words of wisdom repeated in this Blog.

That is going to wrap up this first Edition of EMS in the New Decade.  I encourage all of you who have read this to comment on anything you read, whether it be positive or negative, and start any conversation you like.

You can also follow me, find out when this Blog is updated, and pick up some pretty good Links and news articles by following me at http://www.twitter.com/MedicSBK.

Thank you all, and stay safe out there!