Paperwork And Meaningless Comments

Grrr....nothing makes me madder than organizations that self inflict paperwork on themselves for unimportant reasons, but don't communicate on the important stuff except for meaningless comments about how much someone "means to an organization." Again and again, I hear "thank you for being here. We're excited to have you," but again and again it just aint so.

You can see it in the hallways of the people you work with in your organization I bet.

"Thanks for showing up to work (on time)," but no effort is in place to deal with those who don't.  Managers who dilute their own comments by not acting on what they say is important just gives incentives to those performers who see that doing just enough is considered great, so why put forth great effort, when "just enough" is all you need?

To the first part, why do organizations go out of there way to make sure you document things that have zero to do with anything? It isn't billing, it isn't patient care, it isn't anything. Meanwhile you have to constantly guess whether or not you even know your current protocols because major changes occur without anyone informing anybody. Excuse me, when did this drug get added and why didn't we get a basic e-mail? Is our communication really that bad?

On the other, I hate to be needy, but when you say I will get back to you, gosh darn it, I expect you to. This is not complicated, nor should it be. I know you expect me to get back with you, but really is it a two way street or not because I am a little offended. Pick up the phone or type out an e-mail. You know how to do it when you need a shift covered.  We talk about being adults, but when people can not handle their own schedule because it rotates or they have another job or they can't focus or...whatever, you lose the ability to complain about anyone else.

I remember a lecture on Critical Incident Stress Management by Vickey Taylor who was talking about this business and how we wanted big incidents and they may be the cause of significant stress, but how the day to day grind and the goofiness would get to you every time if you let it. I guess it is getting to me. Glad I have downtime coming.  Grrr...

Your human resources are your most important natural resource

I find myself writing about this regularly it seems, but maybe it is because so many people don't seem to get the lesson.

A few years ago, in the August of 2011, I was invited to the Arkansas EMT Association's annual conference in Hot Springs, Arkansas to present an all day session on leadership.  During this time, I used a lesson I learned from General Colin Powell which was about attention to your people.

The crux of his comments were that you had to pay attention to your people.  In a brain based economy, the most important thing you have is not tools or technology, but your people and their critical thinking ability.  This reminds me of a former boss I had when i was doing natural resources policy in Virginia who said our most important natural resources are our human resources.  I don't know General Powell, but in the latter case, she meant it and it was clear every day that her focus was on her people.  Not just a handshake, cup of coffee, or a hello, but a genuine, "what is going on?"

It brings me to the other point General Powell was making about leadership and people which was when folks don't bring their problems to you it is usually for two reasons.

1. Your people think you are incompetent and can't fix them, or
2. Your people don't think you care...and you can't fix them.

Both are problematic for the leader who needs his or her team to function well in an increasingly competitive environment because at that point the team doesn't think you can lead.

It seems appropriate to remember that the guy with the most cool toys or technology is only the guy with the most cool toys and technology, but if his staff isn't buying into the message otherwise or not "getting it" there should be a siren going off.  Especially when you are in public safety.

We all know of organizations where there are cliques - in the firehouse, in the rescue squad, even the patrol room - but when it negatively affects service delivery, it might be time to look at those apples poisoning the bunch.  Do they pick and choose what rules to follow?  Do they hide assets from other team members?  These are the things that should be raising alarms and demand a response.

Things are usually harder to stop the longer they go, so the question becomes do you handle problems when they are small or wait until they are big?

Stay safe!

When The Tables Turn...

Do you remember this video from a few weeks ago?

That's right, it's a California Highway Patrol officer arresting a firefighter on the scene of a working accident.  Do you remember the firefighter's crime?  That's right, he would not move his apparatus from the lane which was providing scene protection to the incident.

Fast forward to yesterday, when I learn that two CHP officers lost their lives responding to a multivehicle accident.  While they weren't on the accident yet, but were responding to it and swrved, losing control of their vehicle, for me the lessons are the same.

Both fire side and police side would do well to remember where they are killed.  The highway.  In 2013, police officers died 47 times in incidents involving automobiles either during pursuit, being struck on the side of the road, etc.  Fire side has similar statistics.  Firefighters don't die in burning buildings, or when they do, it isn't the combustion, but the heart attack that gets them.

What is my point?  Well, crazy idea here...get on the same team before bad things happen.  The incident outside of Chula Vista is totally inappropriate.  I get there are multiple people who could be in command, but when someone is actively caring for a patient, help them get it done, so they can get out of the way and help you move traffic.

This is the kind of stupidity that seems to mark the modern police force though.

Does anyone remember a little incident a few years back called 9/11?  While the attack on the Pentagon could have fallen into any number of command hands that morning, an FBI agent who showed up, Christopher Combs decided instead of taking command of an enormous fire and patient population he was probably undertrained for instead he would find the fire incident commander and ask "what do you need?"

Amazing how quickly a potential problem is defused when we offer help instead of waving our badges around?  To my police colleagues, let me tell you if I may, I have zero desire to be on the side of the road any longer than I have to, but the big red truck keeps us both safe.

Sometimes that isn't even good enough as I was lucky or unlucky enough to be on a scene where a drunk went around the big red truck only to hit a helicopter a few years back because he "didn't know why it was flying so low."

It is stupid that a fatality and an arrest is needed to make Rodney King's point.  We're all in public safety.  Can't we all just get along?

Responding To Our Own

Yesterday, my colleague and friend, Bryan Bledsoe, noticed a horrible thing.  A paramedic who he had met somewhere along the line and who had friended him on Facebook posted that it was "time to meet his maker."

First, I am not sure how Dr. Bledsoe can keep up with 4800 friends on Facebook, but to see this and react is import.  How often do we not?

Instead, his community and family were able to be contacted, this provider was able to be found and we were able to hopefully not only save a life, but hopefully reach into this guy's soul and re-direct him about the great contributions he has made to society so that he can once again help other persons in distress.

Once again the picture is worth a thousand words. Paul Combs' comment on Facebook to his friend and mentor is poignant and reminds me of the series of responders I have seen take their own lives over the years.

One guy who suffered from manic-depressive behavior was one of the reasons I wrote one of my lectures, One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, as a way to show other responders about various psychiatric conditions through movies we watch everyday. Everyone loved this guy when he was manic as he would show up well before the 7:00 shift start time and have every truck checked and was well on his way on station assignments as the rest of us were pulling up. He of course suffered through the darkness too yelling at a BLS ambulance who warned us our lightbar was out on the way to a call to assist them on a seizure patient. The other ambulance of course didn't get on the county radio to embarrass him about the lightbar; indeed his lightbar was engaged per the switch, but it had an electrical short, but this was some of the fear in him that he responded as he did.

Similarly, his outburst when a nurse questioned his use of a non rebreather on a patient who was not oxygenating well instead of a nasal cannula was to hit himself in the head with a oxygen D cylinder. Some of us call that crazy when we respond to these calls on the street, but it isn't crazy, it's pain and he felt it every time a hint existed that he wasn't accepted.

In similar ways, a smart, young, and beautiful girl headed to medical school who worked as an ER tech at a Level I Trauma Center committed suicide by starting an IV and giving herself Etomidate and Succinylcholine.

These examples and many others exist for responders who take their own life. The question is how do we respond to our own, how do we better ensure our partner is there next shift and the one after that and so forth? I think some of it has to do with turning down the volume of some of our conversations. I think some of it probably means we drop some of the sarcasm which is like a thousand little daggers - each comment just another slice into the skin.

I don't know for who Paul Combs grieves, if anyone specifically, but I understand it and offer a hand of friendship and support to him.