Tag Archives: community

Academia, Culture, Emergency Management, Emergency Medical Services, Health Care, Public Health, Society

Volunteerism

Living in such a small community as I do, there is little need for grassroots organizations to assist in the health and welfare of the community. Most of the organizations that are available in my community are business-based, healthcare focused institutions.

Day-Kimball Hospital (http://www.daykimball.org) is the center of healthcare and wellness in Northeastern Connecticut. Partnering with the community, Day-Kimball Hospital provides a host of services through its many facilities to provide outreach programs which help to make a healthier community. Employment and volunteer opportunities are available within the hospital for those with a desire to help promote health and wellness within the community.

There are two other local agencies, United Services (http://www.unitedservicesct.org) and Quinebaug Valley Youth and Family Services, which have partnered to provide a community-centered approach to the psychological welfare of adults, adolescents, youths, and their families. United Services, Inc. also provides employee assistance programs to workers of participating local businesses. Providing psychiatric consultation services for addiction and recovery, family violence, and family structure support, these agencies promote social change as both entities themselves and through their contact with members of our community.

The town of Killingly, Connecticut, also offers a Little League program where children can learn to play baseball and softball while learning the values of sportsmanship, loyalty, courage, and commitment. This program helps to promote social change through encouraging positive mentor relationships at a young and impressionable age. Little League is also an outlet where interested parties can help through sponsorships, umpiring, coaching, or just attending games and showing support for the program and the kids.

I have volunteered most of my life through the volunteer fire departments in my area, and I still do. I am an active member of the South Killingly Fire Department where I serve as a mentor and instructor in Emergency Medical Services. As an experienced paramedic, the least that I can do for my community is to ensure that those who will come after me are trained appropriately and to a high standard. Though my full-time job requires me to provide the same service in the same area, I enjoy a different role with South Killingly Fire Department which allows me the freedom to help others in a different manner than usual within the same occupational field.

Volunteering with others instills teamwork, dedication, and other core values that lend especially well to the promotion of positive social change. I am glad to help.

Emergency Management, Emergency Medical Services, Technology

Professional Networks – The Internet, EMS, & Social Media

In the emergency medical service arena, there are a number of online networks designed to provide support for EMS personnel. Most of these networks are listservs or discussion groups aimed at bolstering education and best current practices.

I first started in EMS as a route to become a firefighter, but after working for a short time as an EMT, I decided that I enjoyed the practice of medicine much more than fire suppression. It was about this time that I formed a goal to be the best that I could be in this industry. There is an inherent problem with this: most in EMS feel that they are the best at what they do. I had to figure out a benchmark to compare myself to.

Searching the internet, I found a small group of EMTs, paramedics and physicians who promoted teaching as learning. This group also debated best practices constantly. Most importantly, all were welcome to contribute. Partaking in many discussions over the years has broadened my knowledge and has made me keenly aware of many of the problems facing EMS that I was going to have to deal with. This group has helped me to grow as an EMT, motivated me through my education as a paramedic and instilled in me some of the virtues of being an effective educator and a mentor within the EMS community. This same group has helped turn inexperienced and insecure providers into authors, consultants, researchers, managers, and educators. These truly were the best and the brightest in the field. Many of group participants were only known to me by their email address or the initials with which they signed their posts, but now, after meeting and forming in-person relationships, I count many of them among my friends and colleagues.

This only outlines one of my professional networks. I truly understand the value of professional networking, and I have promoted this within the educational environment in the past. Networking among colleagues, whether professionally or academically, encourages teamwork and collaboration. It also encourages a healthy competitive nature in the participants which translates to more overall growth. In the academic arena, students are able to rely on other students’ expertise in some areas while, at the same time, providing expertise in others.

The new online social networking venues (LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, et al.) appear to be replacing the listservs of old. These applications provide the user a broader, more personal sense of their social and professional network. Opening one’s self up to your colleagues in this manner can only encourage more personal growth and professionalism.