Defining Professonalism

It is difficult to create a true definition of a terms, when those that define terms cannot agree. As we journey through the world of professionalism in EMs, I would like to share the definition that I base my viewpoints off of.

"Meticulous adherence to undeviating courtesy, honesty and responsibility in one's dealings with customers and associates, plus a level of excellence that goes over and above the commercial considerations and legal requirements." Professionalism is not about your job title or self-proclaimed worth. It is not about self-perception at all. Professionalism is about personal ethics, quality work and a quality attitude."

www.businessdictionary.com

Development of TEMSEA Blog on Professionalism in EMS.

I am in the process of starting a multiple week blog on the topic of Professionalism in EMS. While I was recently asked to speak about this topic, it got me thinking about my level of professionalism, and how do I portray professionalism in my profession.

After this, I began to think about what I do to teach, and bring out professionalism in EMS. Over my decade in the career field, I can honestly say there were times where I didn't reflect professionalism even though I thought I was, and there were times that I reflected the values of professionalism even when I didn't think I was.

Hopefully, this multi-week series will provide some valuable information on professionalism which you can take back to your classrooms, your EMS services, your fire halls, or just to yourself. I will bring you reference material that provides you up-to-date information on professionalism, and some more "dated" materials that provide a historical perspective to EMS. I would love to receive your feedback on the series, and hopefully you will find this effective. I will couple this series with the TEMSEA newsletter, and with the twitter feed.

Hope you have a great day, and as always...Stay Safe.

The Emergency Medical Service Workforce Agenda for the Future

They're little, not little people, but they have big issues: Pediatric Care

Lana Helton-Clark, RN, BSN, CPN, CPEN, EMT-P

Lana has been involved in Emergency Medical Services for 21 years. Lana started her career with the Memphis Fire Department where she spent eight years as a Paramedic Firefighter. During this time she went back to school to complete a Bachelors degree in Nursing. Lana has worked in a variety of settings as nurse over the past fourteen years including Trauma Intensive Care at The Regional Medical Center, CVICU, and adult ED. Lana has been a Pediatric nurse at Le Bonheur for 13 years and serves as a Patient Care Coordinator for the 58 bed ED which serves 75,000 children per year. She is the Supervisor for the EDT program and manages 42 direct reports. Lana has been an active member of TN-TF 1 since 2005 as a Medical Specialist and has participated in three deployments. Lana also serves as a Pediatric consultant for Memphis Fire Department Paramedic program. Other instructional background includes, PALS, ACLS, PEPP, ITLS, and Director for TNCC.

Pulmonary Edema or Pneumonia: The Classic EMS Diagnosis

Steven Kanarian

EMT’s and paramedics respond frequently to calls for difficulty breathing in patients with multiple medical problems. A differential diagnosis of pulmonary edema vs. pneumonia requires an accurate history of present illness, detailed physical exam and an understanding of the physiologic differences of respiratory disease. In this lecture Steven Kanarian will review the elements of a history of present illness physical exam, physiologic problems of pulmonary edema and pneumonia and the key differences in these diseases. This session will improve the field diagnostic abilities of EMTs and paramedics. Both new and experienced providers will have stronger assessment and diagnostic knowledge and skills upon completion of this seminar.

Clinical Applications of Waveform Capnography

Richard Belle, BS, NREMT-P

Richard Belle, a native of New Orleans, LA, began his EMS career in 1996. He has worked throughout south Louisiana as a field medic, new employee preceptor, student preceptor, and flight medic. He has been actively involved in EMS education since 1998. In 2003 he accepted the position of Education Coordinator for Acadian Ambulance’s southeast Louisiana region. He is a cofounder of the National EMS Academy and served as Lead Faculty at the National EMS Academy Houma, LA Campus. Currently, Richard serves as Continuing Education Manager for the Acadian Companies where he is tasked with developing, implementing, and tracking training for the Acadian Companies medical, support, and leadership staff of nearly 3,000 employees. He is also the director of Online NEMSA, an online learning management system and continuing education division of the Acadian Companies.

Stroke: Ischemic v. Hemorrhagic - A General Overview

Adam S. Arthur, MD Dr. Arthur attended the University of Virginia, where he joined the University of Virginia, Department of Neurosurgery, performing research on aneurysms and cerebral vasospasm. He continued this research throughout medical school, obtaining his medical degree from the University of Virginia in 1998. He then did his internship and residency at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. While there he also completed a Masters in Public Health. He is one of a few neurosurgeons in the country to practice in both open cerebrovascular surgery and endovascular neurosurgery. He has a strong interest in managing neurovascular disease in both healthy and very sick patients and is Director of the Neurovascular Center at Methodist University Hospital.

Are you looking forward to an excellent TEMSEA conference in 2011. Right now you can go to www.tnemsea.com and prepare yourself for the excellent program that has been put together. This years conference has return speakers from around the state and some from around the county. In addition to the excellent speakers that have presented for TEMSEA before, the organization has added some outstanding speakers to the program outline.

This year's conference brochure include a retired Lieutenant from FDNY and a founding member of Tennessee Task Force 1.

Furthermore, this year's conference offers a 2-day post conference course from the NAEMSE organization. This two-day postcon program will present advanced EMS educational techniques. The recently rolled out NAEMSE level II instructor course has been receiving great press and returning excellent results!

Go to www.tnemsea.com to receive more information and to nominate your colleagues for award to be presented during the annual banquet. We look forward to seeing you there!!!

Conference 2010

We are now winding down from the 2010 TEMSEA conference held at the Park Vista Hotel in Gatlinburg Tennessee. It was an packed to the gills with terrific speakers from all corners of the United States bringing quality presentations to our educators in preparation for the next academic year.

As we continue to wind down from the 2010 conference period, we must look at the future and see that we are already looking forward to the 2011 conference that is being held on the western end of the state. The 2011 conference will be held at the Hilton in Memphis Tennessee and will continue to build on the experience and excitement with new speakers from local and abroad.

If you go to the www.tnemsea.com website, you will notice that there are already links available to 2010 conference material, to the hotel for the 2011 conference, and links to the awards that will be offered during the 2011 conference in Memphis.

Please take these next months to evaluate your educators and determine where they fall into the awards categories and develop an excellent awards package for the TEMSEA organization to review. As President Sanderson has said "if we don't recognize our people, who will?"

Stay safe!!!

2010 Conference - Scotty Bolleter

As I have mentioned through the previous featured speakers, we have a tremendous amount of outstanding speakers, and this speaker is no different. If you want power, you want pride, and you want passion, then TEMSEA 2010 presents Scotty Bolleter. This year Mr. Bolleter will engage participants with a dramatic new way to integrate social media into the classroom which changing up the normal skill sheets used by the National Registry.

One look at the extensive resume of Mr. Bolleter and educators across the country can see why his lectures are in such high demand. Throughout his career in EMS, Scotty Bolleter has left a stamp of excellence on the path he has taken and led the career field through a variety of advancements. Mr. Bolleter has served as a Paramedic, flight paramedic, supervisor, educator, author, patent holder, and director of education. His passion for the position has led to advancements in intraosseous infusions and education to students across the country.

Scott Bolleter is a well respected Flight Paramedic and internationally recognized speaker. Scotty is currently the Director of Education for San Antonio, Texas AirLife Flight where he focuses on process improvement, education and research. You may recognize Scotty as an original member and patent holder with the Vidacare team (more commonly known as EZ-IO). At Vidacare Scotty held the director of education position and worked extensively to define, improve and advance the science of intra-osseous vascular access. During Scotty’s time in the streets, air, classroom and laboratory he has built his reputation on compassionate patient care and a fierce advocate for emergent medicine. His work in EMS has literally taken him around the world. His publications, presentations and accomplishments are extensive and you can find his work in articles, books and videos throughout the world of emergency medicine Scotty is perhaps best known for his inspiring lectures, moving poetry and “from the heart” speaking style.