Enjoyable Partners

Being a skilled provider or a smart medic doesn’t a good partner make.  So as a follow up to the Skilled-Smart Grid, I wanted to write up a list of attributes that I was looking for in a partner.  They included factors like being nice, being fun, wanting to help people, keeping incident reports to a minimum, and a bunch of other stuff like that.  There were fifteen attributes that I felt made for a good partner.  But the post didn’t read very well and I think the list sucked.  Even though it was way too long*, it wasn’t complete.  So it bothered me.

Until I realized that there are only two factors that make for a good partner: Be a decent, normal human being and understand the Two Rules of EMS.  All of the other factors can be distilled into these two points.

Being a normal human encompasses being a person that your partner wants to sit next to.  Be nice to people.  Explain what you are about to do to a patient before you do it.  Smile.  A good partner isn’t habitually malodorous (understanding that we all have bad days after subpar dietary choices – a point with which I have been known to fail) or cross social boundaries with habitual nose picking.  A decent human doesn’t habitually start fights with patients, bystanders, and other personnel.  Show up to work sober.  Keep your moodiness to a minimum, minimize unproductive bitching, and don’t act like your time is being wasted on every EMS call.  Mostly, I am looking for a generally socially acceptable person.

The Two Rules of EMS, for those who don’t click links and read other articles in the middle of an article, are “Leave people better off” and “Look cool.”  The ability to leave a person better off than when you met them means that you understand that our job is to help people.  This is true whether that person is in cardiac arrest or is lonely.  Set people at ease, relieve their pain, and begin the process of arresting and reversing their disease process. 

This is probably good for a whole post by itself, but I see the two most important questions in EMS as “What is going on?” and “Why are you doing that?”  A trainee gets asked those questions constantly.  A skilled provider asks themselves those questions constantly.  (You can tell a trainee has made progress toward being released from the field training program when they begin to question themselves and give coherent, correct answers.)  By being able to ask yourself those two questions and answer them in a rational and coherent way, you are constantly able to monitor your EMS practice and improve your patient care.  I am looking for a partner with the ability to ask themselves those two questions and answer them in a way that makes sense.

The second rule of EMS, look cool, begins with the fact that I can’t look stupid and cool at the same time.  So a good partner stops me from looking stupid.  If you see me screwing something up, or doing something that makes no sense given the situation as you understand it, tell me.  Do not assume that I am pulling out some next level shit that is beyond your understanding.  If you don’t understand what I’m doing and why I am doing it, I am probably about to look stupid.  Stop me.  This is true for driving as well as for patient care.  The route I take to calls is not magical – if you don’t understand it then I am probably wrong.  In regards to patient care, I work under the same protocols as my partner – there is nothing next level that can be done in an ambulance.  I will do the same for you.  Don’t be afraid to question me and don’t be afraid to be questioned.

That’s it in a nutshell.  I don’t care if a partner doesn’t like the same music that I do, enjoys different food, or much of anything else.  We can negotiate everything else.  Be a normal human, understand that our job is to leave people better off than when we found them, and stop me from looking stupid. 

So contrary to the throw-away line in Turn Signal Idiots when I said that there are four people that I am "comfortable allowing to attend," most of the providers in my agency make for fine partners.  I am really glad that I work in EMS and I am glad to work where I do.

* Still too long, I know.