The Best Job Ever by Troy Shaffer @ EMS Flight Safety Network

EMS Flight Safety Network, the people who keep air medical safe, releases its 5th Anniversary breast cancer awareness “Fly LIke A Girl” design on October 1, 2017. Further information can be found at http://flightsafetynet.com.

Announcing The “Fly Like A Girl” Breast Cancer Awareness 5th Anniversary Design

EMS Flight Safety Network is scheduled to release its 2017 breast cancer awareness design on Sunday, October 1st. Every year since 2012, EMS Flight Safety Network has released a new breast cancer awareness design, which fans and consumers within Emergency Medical Services, Air Medical, Fire and Police services anxiously await each year. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Fly-Like-A-Girl breast cancer awareness campaign.

Here are five little known facts about the 2017 Fly-Like-A-Girl design:

The idea for creating the Fly-Like-A-Girl Breast Cancer Awareness T-shirts and Hoodies came about after a local paramedic lost her battle with breast cancer. Everyone who knew this paramedic, loved this paramedic. She was a great mother, sister, daughter, educator and caregiver. At the request of her family, her name remains anonymous, but her memory honors all who continue the fight against breast cancer. Each year, a new Fly-Like-A-Girl design symbolizes the continued fight. The Fly-Like-A-Girl campaign brings attention and awareness to a treatable and curable disease when discovered in early stages. EMS and air medical crews understand the benefits of early detection and diagnosis better than most. As professional caregivers, they see first-hand the lives early detection saves.

A new design is released every year with input from the EMS Flight Safety Network community, a network of professionals that boasts a followership in excess of 216,000 members. EMS Flight Safety Network is the people who keep air medical safe. The community is large in numbers, but still maintains a family-like focus and concern for fellow EMS, Fire, Police and air medical professionals. The annual Fly-Like-A-Girl breast cancer awareness campaign is just one example.

The Fly-Like-A-Girl designs almost didn’t see the light of day. EMS Flight Safety Network almost dissolved in 2009, a year after the air medical industry experienced the highest accident record in its history. A team focus beyond flight nurses, flight medics and EMS pilots (EMS flight crews) is what kept it alive. EMS Flight Safety Network grew bigger than the aircrews who staff the helicopters and airplanes. It now includes EMTs, paramedics, nurses, firefighters, registered respiratory therapists, dispatchers, mechanics, pilots, flight communication specialists, hospital security, trauma doctors, specialty transport teams, as well as the family and friends who support these professionals. This extended family of caregivers and lifesavers is the reason EMS Flight Safety Network continues today.

EMS Flight Safety Network is different than other businesses and services in the Emergency Medical Services space. The Fly-Like-A-Girl breast cancer awareness design is the only breast cancer awareness design made especially for EMS, rescue services and the people who support these professionals.

The Fly-Like-A Girl Breast Cancer Awareness T-shirts and Hoodies will be released as part of EMS Flight Safety Network’s greater plans to get everyone to “Fly-Like-A-Girl.” It’s hoped this goal will be achieved by 2025.

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Let’s be honest.

We all want an awesome mentor.

Someone to take us by the hand and show us a better way.

Someone to save us time, money and frustration. How awesome would that be, right?

Here’s the thing.

If you’re good at what you do, sooner or later the day will come when someone – an employee, co-worker, student or acquaintance – comes to you for advice.

Someone who is looking for a mentor, and to them, you fit the bill perfectly.

Is mentoring worth the effort?

In a word, yes.

But, it’s a very personal decision. You must decide how much value mentoring has to you.

After watching hundreds of professional flight crews mentor wannabe flight crews, I can tell you with certainty it’s a pretty great experience for all involved. A lot of times the mentor benefits as much or more than the mentee.

Why?

Because the feeling you get when someone tells you they’re “living their dream” thanks to your help, is pretty incredible. It’s right up there with someone thanking you for saving their life.

If you’re EMS, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

So how do you do it? And how do you get good at it?

How do you become the amazing mentor you would want to have for yourself?

Here are 10 tips to get you started:

It kind of goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyways.

Being a mentor is about being a giver. And it’s also about giving for the right reasons.

Know your priorities up front. Are you mentoring for the right reasons? If your only motivation is yourself, stop. Mentoring isn’t about you.

Don’t trap someone and force your personal story upon them.

Mentoring is about helping others for the right reasons. Give more than you get.

Think how shallow your life would be if all you did was work. If your biggest source of happiness was work.

Think how much you would be missing. I know from personal experience it’s not fulfilling. You can read 10 Warning Signs of Aviation Induced Divorce Syndrome (AIDS)here.

The point is to give advice beyond work. Get to know the whole person. Find out their hopes, dreams, plans and schemes beyond work.

If you help a person advance their EMS or Air medical career and they’re still unhappy, how much did your really help them?

Set expectations together in the very beginning.

Until you know exactly what a person wants to achieve, and how they hope to achieve it, you really can’t help them.

It’s important to sit down and go over expectations, especially if you’re just meeting each other or have spent little time together.

This scenario happens often with EMS. For example, a student aspires to become a paramedic and wants your experienced paramedic advice on how to do it.

You might be wondering if they want to work for your company, or if they’re just looking for advice on how to become a paramedic anywhere. It’s the type of thing you want to ask up front.

People are different. As a mentor, you need to adapt your style to what works best for the person seeking your advice. Again, remember that it’s not about you.

It’s about getting results for the person you’re helping.

Remind yourself what worked best for you, or the last person you mentored, may or may not work today.

We see examples of this in EMS Flight Safety Network all the time. What got one person hired as a flight medic a year ago, may or may not help a person who aspires to fly today. They’re two different people and a lot can change in a year.

The greatest of mentors inspire their mentees and become living examples to emulate.

How do they do it?

They do it by exuding a genuine passion for their work. Get excited about EMS and what you do. Passion is contagious.

Remind yourself of why you chose an EMS career. Remind yourself it was a good decision then, and it’s still a great career now.

Share a story that ignites your passion. Your commitment to EMS and why you picked EMS as a career will shine through.

Be open to sharing your mistakes and failures.

It’s hard to do, but it’s important for a lot of reasons.

Your mentoree puts you on a pedestal. Depending on their experience, they may or may not realize you’re as human and mistake prone as the rest of us.

Sharing your failures humanizes you and builds trust. We all know how humbling EMS can be. Help your mentoree by showing them how you’...

Why do so many medical helicopters crash?

It’s a fair question.

One that begs an answer.

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably asked yourself this very question, right?

You’re a smart person, and you know most air medical crews are smart too.

Common sense tells you these professionals are taking every safety precaution possible.

Nobody rational goes to work thinking it’s their last day alive. No flight crews get into medical helicopters unless they believe it’s safe.

Yet...

Medical helicopters keep crashing.

Why?

Before I share the EMS Flight Safety Network opinion on why medical helicopters crash, I want to address some of the arguments (ones I know you’ll hear), about why medical helicopters crash.

It should go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway.

The goal of all discussion regarding medical helicopter crashes is to prevent future crashes. Period.

Sadly, there are places on the internet where other agendas win out. That’s the reason I’m stating the obvious. Understandably, there’s a ton of emotion attached to every EMS helicopter crash.

When highly trained professionals risk their lives to help others, and then lose their lives in the process, it’s tragic and emotional.

No doubt about it.

That’s one of the reasons it’s important to talk about medical helicopter crashes. The best way to honor the memory of lost air medical crews is by taking personal responsibility for making air medical better and safer. Burying your head in the sand will not bring lost crews back to life, or protect future crews.

Answers about why medical helicopters crash are hard to find. Why?

Because truth is a tough demon to fight. It’s much easier to hide behind emotion than to address real issues.

When it comes to answers about why medical helicopters crash, my best advice is to constantly remind yourself that every health system, helicopter company and association has an agenda.

An agenda bigger than any one helicopter crash.

All have biases and preconceived ideas about what’s most important when it comes to medical helicopter safety.

These biases influence how they share information about medical helicopter crashes, and what actions they take to prevent them. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But it is something you definitely want to keep top of mind.

Never forget that your best advocate for crew safety is you.

Don’t be fooled by the “smoke and mirrors” of statistics from government agencies with unlimited budgets, time and people – who coincidentally, NEVER fly on medical helicopters.

If you’re professional air medical crew, wannabe crew or just someone who loves helicopters: remember that if something just plain feels wrong, it doesn’t matter how many people try to convince you it’s a new and better way. It’s still just plain wrong.

It really is that simple.

You’ve probably heard the cliche about opinions and a-holes, right?

Well, there’s some truth to it.

Everyone has an opinion about why medical helicopters crash, but very few of these opinions have any basis in reality. Even fewer opinions come from people who have ever flown in medical helicopters.

This creates some practical challenges.

Think of it this way: you can’t lose weight reading a book about weight loss, right? You have to actually take action and DO the steps required to lose weight. Everyone gets this. But there are still thousands of weight-loss diets and libraries full of books about the best ways to lose weight.

And here’s the kicker: when it’s all said and done – move more, eat less – never really changes when it comes to weight loss.

Information about Medical helicopters works the same way.

You can find all kinds of information about medical helicopter crashes, but very little of that information is practical or useful. Most of the information has nothing to do with why helicopters crash and how to prevent future crashes. It’s typically one of two things:

1. A wolf in sheep’s clothing – meaning it’s “safety information” with the real intent of forwarding a company or association agenda.
2. Big data – reams of statistics and information that unfiltered is virtually useless.

But don’t take my word for it, do your own investigation.

Even a small amount of research will quickly lead you to conflicting information about why medical helicopters continue to crash.

So what’s the solution? Start by knowing and understanding your sources.

The air medical industry likes to point fingers at information availability.

What is information ava...