A Life Under the Lights – Reflecting on 50 Years of Emergency Services
EMS has surely evolved since the early days of EMS infancy in the ’60s/’70s. From those early days, I never envisioned how we would come. We’ve gone from Cadillac ambulances to delivering emergency medicine and mobile health care….From being scolded for taking a set of vital signs to being expected to read a 12-Lead ECG and call a STEMI alert…From driving fast to the hospital to providing medical treatment in homes. We’ve come a long way.
I’ve worked with some amazing people. New EMT and Paramedic graduates are smarter and better prepared to enter the occupation than ever. We now share information at the speed of the internet and are evolving even faster. Just take a look at FOAM (Free Open Access Medical education) on the internet. Some incredibly bright/talented people are taking our occupation to the next level again. There are more career opportunities than ever for EMTs and Paramedics. A generation of EMTs and Paramedics I helped train are now retired, and their children are entering. We are in good hands, and the future is bright. While ambulances have changed and prehospital medicine has evolved, the essence of what we do hasn’t. People call for us at their worst moments, and we respond quickly, work to resolve their crises, and provide compassionate care. While evolution has been constant, the basic values many of our early leaders taught us have remained constant. The basic values that were the foundation at the beginning of modern EMS are as important today as they were 50 years ago.