When I was a freshman in college, I was given a peer adviser, whose job it was to check in one me throughout the year and help with class selection/advice. So, why not apply this to my campus EMS squad? The way this would work is by having probationary members paired up with senior members who run the calls. Each week the advisee and adviser meet to discuss the probationary member's progress on calls, address questions the new member may have, and to assess how best to help the new member continue to improve. This would enhance our quality of care exponentially. Just imagine, new members and old members exchanging knowledge on issues and learning from each other. The probationary members would feel more confident and our senior members could increase teamwork on scenes, feeling confident in the probationary member's skills and knowledge base.
My goals for my EMS squad are to create a higher quality of care for our patients, make better EMTs/FRs, increase teamwork on scenes, and instill a sense of accomplishment and pride in what we do. This is just one way.
Great idea. We tried that for a while, although it has died out over the past year or two. Think about making a distinction between informal peer advisors (we called them BEMCoBuddies), and formal FTOs and preceptors.
ReplyDelete