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 Mar 10, 2023
Friday Mar 10, 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 the 10-year anniversary episode of the Inside EMS podcast, Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson discuss the shortage of EMTs, the imperfections of the onboarding process, and the importance of having good leaders in demanding jobs.
Join Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson as they celebrate 10 years of the Inside EMS podcast by taking a hard look at the desperate search for more EMTs. With more EMS professionals nationally registered now than ever before, the duo dissects why those statistics don’t match up with the number of EMTs currently working.
Our hosts take a close look at EMS leaders and their impact on new EMTs. Plus, they cover specific ways that we can improve the onboarding process to better prepare EMS professionals, and how the sink or swim method is harming new EMTs.
LISTEN IN WHILE WE DISCUSS:
- The lack of preparation in onboarding new EMTs.
- Is there really a shortage in EMS?
- Why is it so important to pair new EMTs with good mentors?
- The negative impact of hazing in EMS.
- How to take care of yourself while maintaining a successful EMS career.
CAN’T-MISS MOMENTS
- “What we have is a shortage of people who are willing to work under horrible conditions for chump change and be unappreciated.”
- “We spend an inordinate amount of time recruiting adrenaline junkies and trying to teach them to be hand holders when we should be recruiting hand holders and teaching them how to function in a crisis.”
- “We need to teach new EMTs to keep that soft chewy center and retain that compassion for as long as they possibly can.”
Resources mentioned on the show
- Article: “Top 10 Ways to Ruin a Good EMT” written by Kelly Grayson
- Book: “Ultimate Leadership: 10 Rules for Success” written by Chris Cebollero
Connect with us
- Listen to this episode of the Inside EMS podcast and look out for new episodes every Friday
- Contact us at theshow@EMS1.com
- Review the show on Apple Podcasts and leave us some feedback
Friday Feb 17, 2023
Friday Feb 17, 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.
Host Kelly Grayson gets vulnerable on the podcast, as he shares his experiences with PTSD, resiliency and how best to deal with hidden emotions. Asked to be a guest author in a recent anthology on coping with traumatic stress, Kelly's contributed chapter in "But Not Broken" focused on a particular call that caused him to struggle for years and how he worked through it.
Our co-hosts also explore how the act of writiung or journaling can have therapeutic benefits for first responders who are grappling with traumatic stress, as Kelly shares his tips for dealing with feelings through the written word.
"Any of us can suffer from PTSD ... and as the saying goes, it's not what's wrong with you, it's what's happened to you," Kelly says.
Have an idea for an episode? Send an email to theshow@ems1.com.
Friday Feb 10, 2023
Friday Feb 10, 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.
Inside EMS hosts Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson open this week's episode with the news of the death of Paramedic Pete Reed, a former Marine who was recently killed in Ukraine when his ambulance was shelled by Russian forces as he was helping to evacuate civilians out of the city of Bakhmut.
"I have tremendous respect for those who don't have a legal requirement to render aid but give of themselves, and in this case, Pete Reed paid the ultimate sacrifice," says Grayson.
Our co-hosts also discuss a county in New York that is offering a 10% property tax exemption for volunteer providers and firefighters, as well as the sentencing details for a man who stabbed an on-duty EMS captain.
"We see a lot of our peers who are getting assaulted and getting hurt on the job. Where is the justice for those people?" asks Chris Cebollero.
Listen to the latest episode and subscribe to get next week's episode automatically in your feed.
Top quotes
"Ten years from now, this work that you do still shows up on your work history and what will it say about you as you go forward and you go on to the next phase in your career?" — Chris Cebollero
"That's why we have this podcast. This is something we do to extend our advocacy and our passion for our profession beyond the guy in the other seat in the truck and beyond the classroom. It's a way to leave our mark and leave our profession a little better than we found it by spreading the message and getting advocacy out there to a broader range of people." — Kelly Grayson
Monday Feb 06, 2023
Monday Feb 06, 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.
This special episode of Inside EMS is a crossover post from FireRescue1's new Better Every Shift Podcast. Hosted by Madison (Wisconsin) Firefighter Aaron Zamzow and FireRescue1 Editor-in-Chief Janelle Foskett, the show brings kitchen table conversations to the airwaves, always focused on solutions, positivity and the realities of station life.
Follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
This episode of the Better Every Shift podcast is extra super because Zam and Janelle are talking all things Super Bowl with Glendale (Arizona) Captain Ashley Losch, digging into the fire and EMS preparations, training and coordination for this year’s big game. Captain Losch details the many moving parts of “Super Season,” what they’ve learned from the past two Super Bowls the city has hosted, plus how the Damar Hamlin incident prompted additional questions.
Plus, we get into all this:
- The big messaging change for this year
- Maintaining citywide staffing during the big game
- The tabletop exercise that had 150 agencies represented
What else …
- Hot seat sneak peek: Best Super Bowl halftime shows of all time
- Don’t miss: How the super-wealthy deal with Super Bowl travel
- Episode power quote: “It’s about connection, it’s about coming together for a common goal, making sure that people are safe, making sure that everyone has a good time, everyone goes home with good memories, and the sheer amount of people that are coming together to make sure that happens is really incredible.”
Resources we mentioned on the show
Connect with us!
Email bettereveryshift@firerescue1.com to share your feedback, and if you enjoy the show, take a moment to rate and review Better Every Shift on Apple Podcasts.
Friday Feb 03, 2023
Friday Feb 03, 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.
This week, Inside EMS host Chris Cebollero is joined by Chief Gary Ludwig to discuss killing of Tyre Nichols, which led to the firing of five Memphis police officers and three members of the Memphis Fire Department. Ludwig previously served as the deputy chief of the department for 10 years, running their EMS program.
Chief Ludwig discusses professionalism, how a “normalization of deviance” may account for the lack of concern for bad behavior, and leadership’s role in keeping our workforce safe. The pair round out the episode by discussing whether it’s time for EMS to start wearing body cameras during patient care or at other times during a call.
Top takeaways
“The cameras are rolling and people know the cameras are rolling and this is still the behavior.” — Chris Cebollero
“We behave on these cameras inappropriately, and nothing happens to us. You go on the next call, there’s cameras there – body cams, security cameras, Ring doorbells – there’s cameras everywhere. We behave inappropriately and there’s no consequences, even though it was captured on camera, so it becomes normalized.” — Chief Ludwig
Friday Jan 27, 2023
Friday Jan 27, 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.
As the industry waits for more details in the case involving two Illinois EMTs charged with murder in the death of a patient, cohosts Kelly Grayson and Chris Cebollero discuss the lack of compassion show by the providers and the scourge of apathy that plagues EMS. The conversation explores how EMS leaders can help keep industry personnel on a more professional path.
Top takeaways
"Members of the workforce will stay for low pay if they are treated well, or good pay if they are not treated well, but they won’t stay for both.” — Kelly Grayson
"We must define our own professionalism, and every call we go on now has the opportunity to become a national news event. It is not 'if' but 'when.'" — Chris Cebollero
Additional resources
- Malpractice or murder: When do EMS providers cross the line from negligence to a crime?
- Video: Is deeply disturbing patient care murder?
- Listen: 'How does this happen?' – Wolfberg and Wirth weigh in on EMT murder charges
- You've seen the video; now what? 14 action steps for EMS leaders to root out bad behavior
- You’ve seen the footage – Now what? Part 2: 15 steps for providers to compassionate care
- Prone positioning: Therapy or apathy?
Friday Jan 20, 2023
Friday Jan 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.
In this episode of Inside EMS, Host Chris Cebollero discusses goal setting for a successful 2023. Chris breaks down the top 5 golden rules for making your goals and resolutions a reality.
Chris notes, “success does not happen by chance, you have to create the opportunities that will create your success.”
Listen for more on:
- Developing a motivating value statement
- Using the SMART method of developing goals
- The importance of developing an action plan
- Ensuring you are sticking to the plan you developed
This is a great show to outline a blueprint for your success in 2023.
Friday Jan 13, 2023
Friday Jan 13, 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 the first episode of the 10th year in EMS, Cohost Chris Cebollero is joined by the legal powerhouse of Page, Wolfberg & Wirth’s EMS Attorneys Doug Wolfberg, Esq.; and Steve Wirth, Esq. to discuss the case everyone is talking about.
An Illinois prosecutor has filed virtually unprecedented first-degree murder charges against two EMS providers over the death of a patient in their care. Wolfberg and Wirth broke down the points of the case and the lessons for EMS in an EMS1 article, "Malpractice or murder: When do EMS providers cross the line from negligence to a crime?"
In this episode, Wolfberg and Wirth share their first impressions of the case and the body camera footage of the incident.
Wolfberg noted what hit him was the “callous, cold, very detached, aggressive demeanor of the providers.” “You get into EMS because you care for people – how do you get to the point to what we saw in the video – that’s really where I keep coming back to,” Wolfberg said.
Wirth added, “it wasn’t until I looked at the video that I felt outraged – outraged is the word that comes to my mind – how could a human being deal with another human being in this fashion – basically treat another human being as an inanimate object.” He asked, “how does this happen … because we can’t allow this to happen; we can’t.”
Are first-degree murder charges warranted in this case? See how EMS1 listeners are weighing in.
Friday Dec 30, 2022
Friday Dec 30, 2022
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.
Our co-hosts bid farewell to 2022 by counting down the most talked about and debated stories from this year's slate of Inside EMS episodes. Join Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson as they discuss EMS-police relations, patients' gender identity requests, legal conundrums and more.
Related resources
Check out the stories referenced in our episode:
- Video: N.Y. officer on desk duty after handcuffing EMT in hospital
- 2 medics' credentials suspended after Texas patient dies in transport
- Mother's lawsuit: 23-year-old dies in ED area after Conn. hospital ignores him for 7 hours
- 2 Mich. firefighters suspended over delayed response to EMS call
- Air ambulance pilot refused to fly in dangerous conditions; feds say company retaliated
Friday Dec 16, 2022
Friday Dec 16, 2022
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.
This week, Cohost Kelly Grayson is joined by guest Host Greg Friese, MS, NRP, editorial director for Lexipol, and the pair discuss the traits of a great EMS book. Grayson and Friese, both fans of the genre of EMS literature, discuss the importance of clinical accuracy, a narrative arc that connects the patient responses, and author point of view. They also dive into whether the EMT or paramedic author needs to both experience and convey personal transformation through the narrative. Listen closely as Grayson and Friese shout out some of their favorite EMS authors and books.
What's your favorite book by an EMT or paramedic? How did that book influence your education and career in EMS? Listen to the full conversation and add your comments on the topic below.
Kelly Grayson is the author of "Perspectives, Volume I: An Emergency Medicine and Public Safety Anthology", and the follow-up, Perspectives, Volume 2.