Get ’Em When They’re Young

Everyone knows there’s no quick fix for the EMS personnel shortage. The problem is complex, with two vital components contributing: A lack of inspiring role models for youngsters to create interest and passion in something worthwhile, and, of course, money, money, money. I don’t know how to solve the latter, but I do have some thoughts on the former.

Young docs and medics who accomplished miracle saves in Vietnam returned home to find the same old scoop and run paradigm in place for the civilian population, working in the same old ineffective way. In relatively short order, these “pioneers” of EMS funded and organized new systems, put them in place and made them work. They forever changed the way EMS is practiced, and they inspired an entire generation of kids who grew up to work in EMS as volunteers or paid personnel. A lot of Johnny and Roy wanna-bes are still riding the EMS vehicles and still clinging to their ideals of how great it is to be in EMS!

Now it’s time to do it again. The whole point of adults teaching good values and providing positive role modeling for children in their early years is to set patterns that will help the children to lead healthy lives while contributing to society. They learn how to function within the small circle of the family and the larger one of the world outside; to set and achieve goals; to test their intellects and experience their emotions. Some of our very early images are the ones that stay with us the longest and influence us the most throughout our lives.

I wish to suggest strongly that you modern heroes can make EMS an integral part of the lives of your community’s children, laying the early groundwork for their later participation in and support of the profession while you educate them in the here-and-now of EMS as it applies to their current world. Today’s youngsters don’t have many inspiring heroes: It’s a dark time out there as our society grapples with cultural differences and economic forces unknown in earlier, simpler times. A lot of children are getting lost in the cracks of modern demands that break their parents’ minds, bodies and spirits, leaving them unable to cope with their kids, let alone provide good role modeling.

Hundreds of thousands of bright, talented kids have no idea at all of the work they want to do as they graduate from high schools, colleges and universities across the country. Surely, among all of this raw talent are many who would fit with EMS like they were made for each other. I urge you to get to know the administrators of your local schools—all of them, even those that feature curriculums for the “developmentally challenged” and those kids who, currently, can’t live inside society’s rules. As they mature and change, positive growth may occur, and some of these folks may turn out to be the perfect candidates to replace you. You are the only ones who know EMS inside and out, who can sell the steak as well as the sizzle, and who can give the kids hands-on real-life experiences that will help them to feel intelligent, useful and competent. If they do enter the profession as adults, it will merely be the icing on the cake!