Keeping you on the pulse of what’s happening inside the EMS community. Catch up with Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson weekly as they discuss EMS life through good-natured banter and expert perspectives. Their vehicle for delivering the news and know how is that of two medics sitting on the truck between calls. Their mission is to make all listeners, EMS insiders.
Episodes
Friday Jun 09, 2023
Friday Jun 09, 2023
In this week's episode of Inside EMS, Cohosts Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson share their messages on professionalism, career development and asking questions with the graduating classes of EMTs.
Memorable quotes from this episode
- “You don’t know everything there is to know about EMS – so you need to be able to ask the question why.”
- “EMS is a very egotistical business – it’s the egotism that prevents us from asking why”
- “You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable … you have to challenge yourself; you have to reach.”
- “We train people to be decisive in their actions and their throughs and to think fast – what we don’t always teach them is that the wisdom of EMS has to come with some years behind you and you have to develop some introspection.”
- “People are using [EMS] to get to the fire department, people are using it to get to medical school, people are using It to get to nursing, and that’s great – but don’t waste your time while you’re here …. That has to start with professional development.”
Together, they discuss:
- Choosing your hard
- How to guide and motivate the next generation of EMS provider
- How EMT classes graduate two kinds of people (and why it’s a good sign if you’re terrified)
- Looking ahead and developing the goals you need to advance as an EMS leader
- Learning from your mistakes
- The value of teachable moments
- An exercise in assessing your skills mastery
- Is EMS a career or a stepping stone?
Additional resources on career mastery and growth
Friday Jun 02, 2023
Friday Jun 02, 2023
This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.
In this EMS Week episode of Inside EMS, Cohosts Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson welcome Brian K. Hathaway, president/CEO of Spirit EMS, in Greenville, Ohio, who offers a free EMT training program. Hathaway shares his perspective on how EMS education has changed, and the creative ways Spirit is attracting, engaging and retaining recruits – from 2-year agreements, to giving away a car during training.
Together, they discuss:
- Why Hathaway is the Oprah Winfrey of EMT education
- How to engage and motivate the workforce
- What Hathaway is looking for when he evaluates student patient assessments
- How we deliver education to the newer generation
Memorable quotes from this episode
“As we educate in the classroom and make sure that people are comfortable and confident in their skills, and we’re making sure that we’re doing that good head-to-toe assessment on the patients – that that’s the ultimate important thing.”
“Memorizing 43 things on a skills sheet to make sure that we’ve touched everything is not necessarily applicable to every patient that we’re taking care of.”
“My concern is we’ve got to get people involved and we’ve got to continue to change with the times or it’s going to be a competition when I’m in the nursing home 25-30 years from now as to who’s going to get out of bed and respond to the call if we don’t do something now.”
Additional resources
What skills should we test?
A simple framework for an EMT skills competency portfolio
Whatever will we do without the skill sheets?
NREMT is discontinuing the ALS psychomotor exam. That’s a good thing, if you let it be
About our Guest
Brian K. Hathaway is president/CEO of Spirit EMS, in Greenville, Ohio. Brian has been actively involved in Fire/EMS since 1996. Aside from his duties as an owner of Spirit, Brian is a 27-year veteran of the Union City Fire Department and continues to work part-time as a 911 dispatcher at the Darke County Sheriff's Office where he has worked since 1999. Brian is a certified Advanced EMT, EMS continuing education instructor, volunteer firefighter, Certified Ambulance Coder, Certified Ambulance Compliance Officer and Certified Emergency Medical Dispatcher. Brian serves as education chairman and is a board member of the Ohio Ambulance and Medical Transportation Association, a member of the Four County Career Center advisory board, a member of the Darke County Chamber of Commerce, and attends the EUM Church in Greenville. Brian enjoys spending time with his wife Audrey as well as their daughter Naomi.
Thursday May 25, 2023
Thursday May 25, 2023
Educating the public about when it is appropriate to call EMS – and how quickly we should get there
This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.
In this EMS Week episode of Inside EMS, Cohosts Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson dive into where emergency care begins, and how community paramedicine launched a paradigm shift years in the making. They discuss how EMS did a fine job of educating the community about the obstacles and dangers of the job during COVID-19, but need to capitalize on and maintain that momentum moving forward.
Memorable quotes from this episode:
- “Community paramedicine has everything to do with EMS week.”
- “Advocacy is what this is all about, and we as a profession have kind of fallen down on the job for quite a while on educating the public about the capabilities of EMS, and the obstacles and hardships that we face, and that’s what EMS Week is all about.”
- “We need to leverage our advocacy and teach the real first responders, the public, about what’s appropriate to call EMS for and what they can do to crowdsource that urgent care.”
Chris and Kelly discuss:
- How emergency care begins at dispatch and nurse triage of 911
- ET3 and the telehealth model
- Kelly’s experience with treatment-in-place and alternate destinations
- Response time standards
Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Contact the Inside EMS team at theshow@ems1.com to share ideas, suggestions and feedback, or if you’d like to join us as a guest.
Friday May 19, 2023
Friday May 19, 2023
This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.
In this episode of Inside EMS, Kelly Grayson rejoins Cohost Chris Cebollero to discuss his recent medical scare and to celebrate 10 years of Inside EMS.
Kelly recently suffered a massive pulmonary embolus, which severely compromised blood flow to nearly 100% of both his lungs.
Though he admits delaying care was not the brightest decision at the time, he now knows how close he came to losing his life, and is committed to taking his health seriously – both mental and physical.
Notable quotes from this episode
“Be good patients and don’t be stupid. We are the world’s worst at taking care of ourselves.”
“It slapped me upside the face on April 14 that it’s time to start walking the walk about your own health.“
“Even if you have the capacity to rationalize, and the capacity to be clinically analytic during your own medical emergency, ultimately, all it’s going to do is give you piece of mind when you die that you knew what killed you.”
Read more about Kelly’s medical scare:
- ‘Is this what dying feels like?’
A wake-up call and a plea: Don’t be stubborn about your health - After the wakeup call: First steps of a wellness journey
“The problem with people testing their limits is that they often find them.”
Friday May 12, 2023
Friday May 12, 2023
This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.
In this episode of Inside EMS, Host Chris Cebollero is joined by Firefighter/Paramedic Steve Whitehead, NREMT-P, and scholar-practitioner Nick Nudell, PhD(c).
Real-life friends, Whitehead and Nudell bring forth an EMS debate in which they find themselves on opposite sides: the importance of reporting mechanism of injury.
In paramedic school, they teach us to take what we see at the scene and bring that into the hospital – to take photos, describe the damage to the vehicle, etc., Chris notes. But, does it matter?
Chris listens to their perspectives as they state their case, and then makes his decision. Listen in and let us know your thoughts: is reporting mechanism of injury important?
Memorable quotes from this episode
“This is one of the few things in EMS in which we need to own. Because if we make a mistake and we evaluate the mechanism of injury wrong, no one else can fix that for us.” — Steve Whitehead
“For all except the most unusual mechanisms of injury, the photo is likely worthless.” — Steve Whitehead
“The critical things that the trauma surgeons are really trying to get at in that moment when the patient arrives is – is their airway patent, are they breathing, is their blood circulating – they are going to the ABCs, just like we do.” — Nick Nudell
ABOUT OUR GUESTS
Steve Whitehead
Steve Whitehead, NREMT-P, is an EMS instructor with the South Metro Fire Rescue Authority in Lone Tree, Colorado, and the creator of the blog The EMT Spot. He is a primary instructor for South Metro's EMT program and a lifelong student of emergency medicine. Reach him through his blog at steve@theemtspot.com.
Nick Nudell
Scholar-practitioner Nick Nudell, PhD(c), is the manager of trauma research services for UCHealth, in Loveland, Colorado; and the president of the American Paramedic Association. He has more than 24 years of data science, public policy and paramedicine experience at all levels, including as a hospital and ambulance-based clinician, educator, consultant, regulator, program manager, executive and researcher.
His research interests include innovative governance models and improving health system design to reduce systemic healthcare disparities through mixed methods research concentrated on system design and implementation. He is an advocate for social justice and health equity, interested in discovering the most appropriate resources to provide for a person's needs, in suitable locations, at the right time.
Additionally, through his clinical practice, he has gained significant real-world field and academic experience with behavioral health and substance use disorders that contribute to his health equity and social justice scholarship.
Friday May 05, 2023
Friday May 05, 2023
Jon Lee joins the podcast to discuss following the evidence and pharmacology research insights
This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.
In this episode, one of Chris Cebollero’s favorite authors, Jonathan Lee, joins Chris for a discussion of his most recent article, a research analysis examining the benefits of midazolam vs. morphine.
While morphine is the go-to drug when it comes to cardiac events, once you look at the research, there are some red flags, Lee notes.
Lee’s analysis focused on
- The in-hospital mortality had no significant difference between midazolam versus morphine
- The frequency of serious adverse events in using morphine versus
Listen in to the discussion.
Resources mentioned in this episode
About our guest
Jonathan Lee is a critical care paramedic with Ornge in Toronto, Canada, with over 25 years of experience in 911, critical care, aeromedical and pediatric critical care transport. Jonathan’s teaching experience includes classroom, clinical and field education as well as curriculum development and design across a number of health professions.
He is currently delivering KinderMedic, a program he developed to improve the confidence and competence of prehospital providers caring for acutely ill children. In addition to his clinical practice, he is also adjunct faculty in the Paramedic Program at Georgian College. Jonathan is a freelance author and has been invited to speak across North America and Europe on topics such as pediatrics, analgesia and stress.
Jonathan has previously served on committees for professional organizations including the Ontario Paramedic Association and NAEMT. He is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Critical Care from Cardiff University. Jonathan can be contacted via Twitter and LinkedIn.
Rate and review Inside EMS
Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Contact the Inside EMS team at theshow@ems1.com to share ideas, suggestions and feedback, or if you’d like to join us as a guest.
Catch a new episode every Friday on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, PodBean, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Spotify, and RSS feed.
Friday Apr 28, 2023
Friday Apr 28, 2023
This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.
In this episode of Inside EMS, cohost Chris Cebollero reflects on his time in the military and the privilege of serving in the military’s Honor Guard. Chris explains the significance of the 13 folds of the American flag and the honor felt in folding the flag that would be given to a family member of a fallen servicemember.
Chris is joined by Folds of Honor’s Senior Vice President of Outreach, Luke Sherman. Sherman is a past chairman and now senior member with the Board of Directors for the National Tactical Officers Association; a 29 year veteran of the Tulsa Police Department; and owner and principal with Aegis CPG, a Tulsa-based security consulting company.
Sherman shares how the Folds of Honor scholarship program will now benefit first responders, including paramedics and EMTS.
Lt. Col. Dan Rooney started Folds of Honor after his second tour of duty in Iraq. As a fighter pilot in the Oklahoma Air National Guard, he became painfully aware of the realities families face when a loved one in uniform is fallen or disabled.
On his return flight home, the pilot announced the plane carried the remains of Corporal Brock Bucklin on board. Lt. Col. Rooney watched as Corporal Bucklin’s twin brother walked somberly alongside the flag-covered casket to meet his family on the tarmac.
Lt. Col. Rooney committed to meeting sacrifice with hope through Folds of Honor, providing life-changing scholarships to the spouses and children of America’s fallen or disabled servicemembers. Folds of honor has awarded more than 44,000 educational scholarships totalling about $200M since 2007
And now, the mission expands to the families of America’s first responders.
Additional resources
Learn more about supporting Folds of Honor’s mission to help fund educational opportunities for military and first responder families, or to apply for a scholarship at FoldsOfHonor.org.
Thursday Apr 20, 2023
Thursday Apr 20, 2023
This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.
According to Bureau of Labor statistics, for healthcare workers, assault is the most common source of nonfatal injury or illness requiring time off of work.
In this episode of Inside EMS, Host Chris Cebollero is joined by Jason Brooks, BAS, EMT-P, I/C, to discuss the rising frequency of assaults against EMS providers.
Brooks owns and operates DT4EMS, LLC, providing defensive tactics for escaping, mitigating and surviving violent attacks. He has been in the EMS profession for over 25 years, serving as a firefighter, paramedic, paramedic educator and EMS administrator. He has spent nearly a decade studying the issue of violence in healthcare.
Together, they discuss:
- Personal defense and de-escalation training
- When to de-escalate domestic violence cases
- What to do when verbal de-escalation fails
- 4 rules of physicial and mental defense
- When to leave the scene
Notable quotes from Jason Brooks
If you’re being threatened, you need to make the decision, “is this safe for me to stay here?”
“It's not patient abandonment to leave a scene that's unsafe.”
“There's no law out there that says that you have to sit there and be abused, be assaulted, etc. If it's unsafe, we need to know that care can end.”
“If it gets to the point where it's escalated so quickly, if you have to leave equipment behind for your safety, leave it.”
Additional resources
- Special coverage: Protecting EMS providers from violence
- Preventing violence against EMS personnel
- Research Analysis: Preventing downstream consequences of EMS assaults
Rate and review the Inside EMS podcast
Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Contact the Inside EMS team at theshow@ems1.com to share ideas, suggestions and feedback, or if you’d like to join us as a guest.
Friday Apr 07, 2023
Friday Apr 07, 2023
This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.
In this episode of Inside EMS, host Kelly Grayson welcomes Nancy Magee, volunteer EMS consultant, and
Rom Duckworth, fire captain and paramedic EMS coordinator for the Ridgefield (Connecticut) Fire Department and the founder of the New England Center for Rescue and Emergency Medicine.
As a NAEMT board member, Rom recently attended the EMS advocacy event, EMS on the Hill, along with Nancy, who attended to represent the interests of rural EMS providers.
Rom shared, “Bottom line, the experience was great, some parts a little frustrating, but I feel like we were fighting the good fight overall and it was a learning experience for me and I think an eye opening experience for a lot of the other people who were down there trying to fight for a little bit more money, a little bit more protection and a little bit more rights for EMS providers.”
Nancy and Rom recount their experiences and what they learned in Washington, including:
- What the representatives asked of legislators
- Why it’s important to be specific in grant funding
- The elephant in the room (hint, it’s fee-for-service)
- Where the money goes
Connect with us
Email theshow@ems1.com to share your feedback!
Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.
Wednesday Apr 05, 2023
Wednesday Apr 05, 2023
While EMS is uniquely rewarding, it is also uniquely challenging, with physical, mental and emotional impacts. During the inaugural First Responder Wellness Week, our dynamic duo, Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson, hosted a special live edition of Inside EMS.
In this edition, our cohosts, joined by EMS One-Stop podcast host Rob Lawrence, welcome Global Medical Response's Ed Racht, MD; and Rhonda Kelly, who manage one of, if not the biggest EMS wellness programs in existence. Listen in to learn how wellness programs are essential to creating resilient responders, and what's working to support members' health, emotional wellness and coping strategies for career longevity.
WHAT ATTENDEES LIKED FROM THIS PRESENTATION
"Great ideas and options to assist providers when they need help and to encourage them to ask for help."
"Good practical ideas to implement."
"It was very informative on information that we as an industry are using to move ahead with responder wellness."