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Do you know what Coca Cola is? Do you know what a pilot does? Do you know what a doctor, police officer or firefighter do? Do you know what an Emergency Medical Technician – Basic with IV does? Well, you might because you are reading this magazine, but I bet if you are reading this in an airport or doctor’s office, the people around you might not. EMS is an industry plagued with an identity problem. We don’t have a brand or an identity that is easy to describe. Even EMS is hard to explain. What is EMS, my family will ask. Emergency Medical Services does not adequately describe what we do all the time, but it is close and we have agreed on this seemingly innocuous term.
If we really want to get respect and get recognized we need a brand. From Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand)
“Brand is the image of the product in the market. Some people distinguish the psychological aspect of a brand from the experiential aspect. The experiential aspect consists of the sum of all points of contact with the brand and is known as the brand experience. The psychological aspect, sometimes referred to as the brand image, is a symbolic construct created within the minds of people and consists of all the information and expectations associated with a product or service.”
Hair on the neck and eyebrows raise when people, like the EMS Skeptic, start saying we should all be called the same thing. Within the profession we have egos that would never allow us to change our name. However, our profession is ripe for a brand. We need something that the newscasters can say, “fire fighters and _________ responded to this call today.” After September 11th we all complained that we were labeled “other emergency workers.” What was the response from our industry? Let’s change the names to EMT, AEMT, and Paramedic and confuse everyone more, even our profession.
I wonder if everyone had to call a nurse by the real title whether the profession would be as far ahead. Here is how I see the conversation going:
“Hi, I am Sally your BSN.”
“Is that a nurse?” I would ask.
She would reply, “ Well, yes I am a nurse but not like the other nurses. I have a 4-year degree, and it means that I can go further in my career. I can do the same thing as other nurses, but I am different and proud because I have earned this title of BSN.”
I would then ask, “But you are a nurse right?”
“Yes!” she would reply begrudgingly.
Nursing is not plagued with the brand issues we have. Whether they are certified or licensed as LPN, RN, and BSN, they are all nurses. Within the profession they can distinguish between each level, but to the world they are nurses. Oh, and probably the biggest point, they all have nurse in the title.
What the EMS Skeptic proposes is that we change our titles. Everyone is a paramedic (please notice the lower case “p”). I know this will hurt the sensitivities of some paramedics. Get over it, accept it or leave the profession. It is time that we move our industry forward. Canada did it for goodness sake, why can’t we?
Recently, the International Roundtable on Community Paramedicine voted to ask all countries and areas of the world to start changing the name of EMS personnel to paramedic. Here is what they recommended:
- Primary Care Paramedic = EMT or EMT–Basic
- Intermediate Care Paramedic = AEMT or EMT–Intermediate
- Advanced Care Paramedic = Paramedic or EMT–Paramedic
- Community Paramedic = Community Paramedic
- Critical Care Paramedic = Critical Care Paramedic
Did you see a trend in those names? Let your state leaders know that Colorado should lead the charge and do it now. Change is hard, but the time is right.
-The Skeptic
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EMS Skeptic 