Tag Archive: Education

Many EMS agencies realize that new employees, whether new graduates of pre-service paramedic programs or employees with experience in other organizations, are not fully prepared to climb into an ambulance and head out to serve the community.

Higher education can help firefighters tackle the five biggest challenges facing emergency services today

Higher education can help EMS providers tackle the five biggest challenges facing emergency services today By Steven Knight, Ph.D. As leaders, we both desire and have an obligation to leave our organizations and people better off than when we started in our roles. But clearly not all leaders succeed at achieving this goal, despite best…

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Being a reliable and engaged community partner takes your EMS organization to lead agency status and makes you the authority when it comes to community health care By Thomas L. Little Every EMS service has many opportunities to build and maintain community support. Providing top-notch patient care is a priority, but public education and outreach pay big…

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As the EMS adage goes, “If you’ve seen one EMS system, you’ve seen one EMS system.” While that statement reflects the diversity of EMS systems across the United States, it also creates the false sense that every EMS system is entirely different and that EMS leaders can’t learn from each other. Clearly that is not the case. As we see in the premiere edition of the EMS Trend Report, EMS systems across the country share many traits. On the other hand, significant differences do exist in everything from clinical care to salaries to operational benchmarks to hiring requirements.

This report is part of a continuing leadership series developed for Best Practices in Emergency Services. It shows leaders of emergency medical services (EMS) and fire departments how the concept of organizational agility can be applied in their agencies. Organizational agility originated in the context of flexible manufacturing and later emerged as a business model in service industries and healthcare. Researchers from diverse disciplines approach organizational agility from a variety of perspectives. Most agree that when organizations are not agile, they become less effective and “fragile,” or susceptible to factors that can impair their ability to survive.

EMS leaders need to focus on continually improving quality, efficiency and innovation to add value as health care undergoes dramatic changes By Roxanne Shanks Health care policy seems to be in constant change with little clarity on where it is headed. Several policy changes being considered in Washington, from repeal of Obamacare to other, less…

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Engaging millennials is about more than simply welcoming a new generation to the workplace; it’s about accepting a seismic shift in how we view careers, technology and innovation By Jay Fitch, PhD Our profession has become preoccupied with millennials over the last few years. The number of magazine articles, conferences, books and blog posts dedicated…

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