Tag Archives: Greg Friese

Joining Medical Author Chat

December 14, 2012 8:29 pm | Leave a Comment |

A while back I told readers about my opportunity to meet EMS celebrities at this year’s EMS Expo in New Orleans.  One of those celebrities was Greg Friese.  I’ve been a stalker big fan of his for a while now, and I had a ton of questions for him.  Among the questions were…

“How do you maintain so many websites and podcasts?”

“How are you able to consistently create a high volume of quality online content?”

“How many years without sleep must someone endure to achieve your level of success?”

He did answer the first two questions in depth, and I’m proud to say that I now understand the ways of an e-Jedi.  I just can’t share them with you.  He swore me to secrecy, and Greg also has the power to perform a Darth Vader Force Choke through any device with an internet connection.

In response to the third question, he admitted that it had actually been about five years since he’s slept, as evidenced by his hallmark baritone voice.  Turns out he sounded more like Adam Levine before getting into e-Learning.  We later had a conversation about how to decrease his workload so that he could begin sleeping at least once a month.  The solution we settled on was to find him a co-host for the popular Medical Author Chat podcast.  We launched a nationwide search for a co-host, and identified several exemplary candidates.  Unfortunately, none of them were interested in providing their services at the salary we offered, which was… okay, so there isn’t a salary for a podcast co-host.

So in the interest of allowing Greg to sleep occasionally and the lack of a qualified co-host willing to work for free, yours truly will be joining Medical Author Chat as a co-host.  We kicked things off this week with our first show together.  So surf yourself on over there and check out the interview with Matthew Sias, author of Silent Siren: Memoirs of a Life-Saving Mortician.

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Meeting EMS Celebrities, Kirkwood & Friese

November 1, 2012 10:12 pm | 3 Comments |

There is a Japanese proverb that states, “Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.”  I can say that it is absolutely true, and never more so than when I sat down for dinner with two of my EMS heroes on different evenings at EMS World Expo 2012.

Skip Kirkwood is the Chief of Wake County EMS in North Carolina, and the current president of the National EMS Management Association.  His EMS resume spans about 40 years, with accomplishments too numerous to list here.  He taught the preconference session “Developing and Managing the Emergency Medical Services Field Training and Evaluation Program.”  I took the two-day course and it was amazing, but I’ll save that for another post.  We had dinner at a great little restaurant called Cochon, which I highly recommend if you’re in New Orleans’ Warehouse District.

I’ve been learning from Skip’s articles and podcasts for several years now.  Saying that he has a wealth of knowledge about EMS management is an understatement.  If you ever have a chance to sit down with him, take notes.  Take lots of notes!

A few of my favorites from Skip…

Greg Friese is the Director of Education for CentreLearn Solutions LLC, the author of EveryDayEMSTips.com, a contributor to EMSEducast.com, and a recipient of the Innovators in EMS 2010 Award.

Greg inspired me to start blogging, and introduced me to Dave Konig when I was ready to launch my site.  His podcast with Rob Theriault and Bill Toon also gave me weekly inspiration when I first started in EMS education.

My favorite’s from Greg…

 

Skip & Greg, you guys are awesome!  Thank you for your advice and inspiration, and thank you for your contributions to EMS.

 

 

 

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EMS Book Review: “Paramedic: On the Front Lines of Medicine” by Peter Canning

June 3, 2012 4:54 pm | 1 Comment |

Continuing on the 12 n ’12 Reading Challenge for EMS Professionals, my EMS book for May was Paramedic: On the Front Lines of Medicine by Peter Canning.  The book takes readers through the up’s and down’s of the first several years of Canning’s EMS career.  As a former political speech writer turned paramedic, Canning is the quintessential medical author.  However, these talents don’t offer much protection on the streets.  Though he came into EMS with more education and life experience than many young medics, he finds that he isn’t immune from the trials of internships and earning the respect of his peers.

“I am glad that they have confidence in me.  I do not feel it is warranted.  The call has scared me – reminded me that there are calls ahead where I will stumble and won’t have someone there to get me back on the right track.”

In time, Canning hits his stride and joins the ranks of the urban EMS professional, only to find that there were a lot of topics not covered in his training.  He finds himself challenged both positively and negatively from shift to shift.

“Before leaving I go to wash my hands.  In the men’s room, I look at myself in the mirror.  Who am I?  What are my true feelings?  Why can’t I see this woman for what she is – a scared, poorly educated mother who’s probably had a hard life full of defeats and prejudices against her, who loves her daughter and just wants her to be all right?  Where is my compassion?  My understanding?”

Canning manages to capture both the vivid, tangible details of EMS calls and the dynamic, intangible emotions that prehospital providers encounter.  Through all the chaos in his shift work, Canning eventually finds an inner calm and satisfaction.  His thoughtful reflections are too numerous to list here, but my favorite was this…

“Around six every night it gets very busy.  We clear the hospital and are the only ambulance available in the city, and the dispatcher says to us, “You are covering the world.”  I think I may not be a senator, or the right fielder for the Red Sox, or a rich man, but here I am covering the world.  And no matter who gets sick, whether a poor man in the projects or the governor in his mansion, when they call for help, I will come through the door.”

Canning offers readers some more insight into his EMS writing during this interview on the Medical Author Chat.  If you find Canning’s writing as engaging as I did, then you can also check out his most recent blog entries at Street Watch: Notes of a Paramedic.

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EMS Book Review: “Moments in the Death of a Flesh Mechanic … a healer’s rebirth” by Russ Reina.

May 2, 2012 12:12 pm | 1 Comment |

I’m nearly over a week-long bout with the flu, but my brain is still not out of the cold medicine fog.  Though lying in bed afforded me time to catch up on a lot of reading, I learned that I should refrain from blogging while doped-up.  This is actually the second version of my April book review.  The highly-medicated first version read like a toddler trying to describe a M. Night Shyamalan plot twist.  So here we go with the book review, a week later, sans NyQuil.

My recommended read for April is Moments in the Death of a Flesh Mechanic … a healer’s rebirth by Russ Reina. Once you get past the distasteful imagery of an EMS professional being labeled a “flesh mechanic,” you’re in for an incredible read.  Reina offers his readers much more than simple street gore implied in the title.  He is a genuinely talented writer with the ability to display all the thoughts, movements, and emotions of EMS in simple, yet powerful, passages. Here is one of my favorites;

“I was eyes, ears, and hands and just a feeling in the center of my chest of pure internal silence. Suspended in time and moving in a vacuum, I didn’t have a name or a job; I was movement choreographed by something much greater than myself.”

Reina explores the emotions we encounter as EMS professionals more thoroughly than most writers, and encourages his readers to do the same.  He asserts that to become true healers for our patients and our peers, we must be willing to embrace our own humanity.  Otherwise, we become cold, protocol-driven flesh mechanics. This compelling work is a must-read for any provider who has ever wondered why getting over “the bad ones” became easier with time.

You can pick up your own copy of the book at Reina’s website, RussReina.com.  Greg Friese also did a great interview with Reina about the book, which you can find posted over at Medical Author Chat.  Last, but not least, Reina is still writing about EMS over at the EMS Outside Agitator blog.

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Conference Review: ICE Spring Break Conference (Part 1)

April 16, 2012 10:11 pm | 1 Comment |

Every year, the Missouri Ambulance Association and the Missouri Emergency Medical Services Association host the ICE Spring Break Conference at the beautiful Lake of the Ozarks.  “ICE” stands for “Instructors-Coordinators-Examiners-Managers-EMS Providers” according to the brochure.  Something seemed odd with that acronym, but this is my first year at the conference so I decided to just smile and nod.  Perhaps someone will fill me in later.

I’m here for three days taking part in several classes and doing my best to offer up some color commentary.  If you’re the Twitter-ing type, you can also follow the hashish-tag, #ICEconference.

Preconference: NAEMT Safety Course
Taz Meyer & Jim Fingerhut

Call me a nerd, but I was pretty excited to take this course for three reasons.  My boss was equally happy to send me due to his general belief that my very presence on scene is a safety concern.  In retrospect, I can admit that my “rollerskating paramedics” plan for saving time on scene was a bad idea.

First, safety is a huge concern for EMS managers.  Our brothers and sisters in fire and law enforcement certainly encounter their share of hazards.  But overall, EMS has higher rates of missed time and medical evaluations than both fire and police.¹ Whether it’s back-filling shifts for injured employees or the sticker shock of your updated work comp modifier, if you’re a manager it’s on your radar.

Second, I know a couple of guys who contributed to the development of this course.  Greg Friese had a hand in the physical conditioning topics and audio/visual aid development.  By the way, Greg, I loved the “Nobody Flying the Plane” slide!  Another friend of mine, Kip Teitsort, wrote a ton of solid material on patient, practitioner, and bystander safety for the curriculum.  Knowing that a couple of my friends worked on this course made me feel like part of the “in” crowd.  That feeling will probably fade when I go to the conference mixer later, but I’ll enjoy it for now.

I found this slide very interesting. Although firefighters and police officers have higher "occupational fatalities," EMS has the highest "transportation-related fatalities."

Third, it’s a lot of information I can put to use immediately.  I’ve developed an interesting characteristic over the years that I didn’t have as an EMS Newbie.  I call it Spidey-sense, but most biologists would call it, “self-preservation instinct.”  This valuable quality is generally lacking in toddlers, bull riders, and many of the patients we transport after 1:00 AM.  It’s the ability to predict and avoid incidents that are likely to be un-good for everyone in splattering distance.  Field experience can’t be bestowed in an 8 hour course, but simple exercises and tactics to keep us safe can go a long way toward self-preservation.  My field experiences regarding scene safety have taught me a lot, but I love courses like this for new information on the topic.

If you haven’t taken the time to check out the curriculum, take a minute to check it out.  From the NAEMT website: “NAEMT’s EMS Safety course aims to promote a culture of EMS safety and to help reduce the number and intensity of injuries incurred by EMS practitioners in carrying out their work. It helps increase students’ awareness and understanding of EMS safety standards and practices and develop their ability to effectively implement them. EMS Safety is the first national and most comprehensive education program of its kind that teaches techniques on how to best achieve safety on the job.”²

On the whole, this offering of NAEMT’s EMS Safety course was great.  I give a lot of credit to Taz Meyer and Jim Fingerhut of St. Charles County Ambulance District (SCCAD) for their polished delivery.  SCCAD employees and apparatus can be seen throughout the manual, so they were intimately familiar with the materials.  The course manual is straightforward without much theoretical fluff, and the audio/visual aids are dynamic.  Best of all, there are relatively few barriers to entry for instructors wanting to deliver this course in-house.  Unlike many classes that require providers to go through another instructor course before teaching, NAEMT Safety Course participants can go straight on to delivering the course after passing the provider course.

Just as listening to an anesthesiologist’s lecture won’t make us airway superheroes, attending this safety course won’t make us safer.  EMS providers become better at managing airways by attending great training, having access to the best equipment, and creating a culture of high performance.  We, as an industry, will become safer when providers accept personal responsibility for creating a safety culture.  This same idea is the final slide in the course…
“The Next Steps are YOURS.”

References
1.  Suyama, Joe, Jon Rittenberger, P. Daniel Patterson, and David Hostler. “Comparison of Public Safety Provider Injury Rates.” Prehospital Emergency Care 13.4 (2009): 451-55.
2. “EMS Safety.” NAEMT. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. <http://www.naemt.org/education/EMSSafety/EMSSafety.aspx>.

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