Scene Safety and Situational Awareness

As an emergency medical technician or paramedic, you are responsible for treating patients on the scene to your scope of practice and getting patients to the hospital quickly and safely. This can be difficult, especially when driving in unfamiliar territory or dealing with traffic congestion. This course will discuss critical elements of driving emergency response vehicles safely and effectively.

Crew Resource Management (CRM) or non-technical skills are the social, cognitive, and personal resource skills that complement a worker's technical skills. Initially developed in the air transport industry, CRM training has been adopted by all branches of the United States military and is being integrated into both the medical and emergency services.

The EMS way tends to be �That is how we have always done it.� This most dangerous statement illustrates to not change anything, do what you are told, and be quiet. Are we still doing things this way and, if so, why? Our world is ever evolving, and things need to change, but that means working out our differences. Let�s talk about the everyday conflict we encounter and make things more "fluid" to let this change take place.

Events involving demonstrations and protests disrupt normal EMS operations and require a coordinated medical response with properly trained and oriented personnel who can move on a moment�s notice and in accordance with a special command and control structure. Planning and capabilities to support Civil Disobedience Units and other law enforcement assets during these special events require a high level of coordination between all public safety entities and the medical system. Traditional EMS training does not account for operating in these dangerous and fast-changing environments and is not generally adequate to support these challenging situations. This course will address these differences and how EMS can support the needs of both law enforcement and the entire community during civil disturbances and unrest.