Emergency Medical Services

Article by Andrea Claiborne, Gage Stotesberry, and Nina Oliver

Published in Spring of 2023

The World of EMS

What is Emergency Medical Service (EMS)? Some only know EMS as the people who take you to the hospital, but there’s much more to it than that. EMS, also known as ambulance or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent prehospital treatment for serious illnesses and injuries and transport to definitive care. This job is far more complex than it appears. It’s worth considering common misconceptions, mental health pertaining to EMS workers, and how citizens can help make EMS jobs easier. Let's take a deep dive into the world of EMS. 

In Hopewell, our EMS are also firefighters, and both professions are victims of popular misconceptions from media representations of a job that most people never do. The most common misconception of firefighters/EMS is that they don’t do anything between calls besides sitting down smoking cigars, playing video games, and watching TV. This is not true, they tend to be pretty productive when off the firetruck/ambulance, according to the Training Captain Adam Schuknecht, of Hopewell City Fire. In reality, they train for their certifications which they have to receive every three years. Most of the time they are training, cleaning, and doing a bunch of paperwork. 

Mental health is an important subject, especially in the medical field. Captain Ben Gomes, Hopewell city Fire Marshall is passionate about mental health and how he can help make a change. “I expect we lose more to suicide than fires,” Gomes said. This is especially true working as an EMS worker. They have to take care of victims/patients, deal with disrespectful people, and they are minutes from life-or-death decisions every day at work. According to Schuknecht, mental health has been pushed in the last five years in the EMS field. Mental health in the medical field is a topic that should have more awareness brought to it. 

There are several things citizens can do to make work easier for those in EMS. Their top recommendation is to practice and plan fire escapes, and basic safety procedures. Things like checking smoke detectors monthly can have a strong positive impact. People can better cooperate with dispatch operators by staying calm and polite. It also helps to have an address and landmarks to help direct them. A number of EMS scenarios can be avoided if you are paying attention to your surroundings, your loved ones, and yourself at all times. This advice is strongly advised because more than 50% of the calls reported are accidents resulting in traumatic injuries.

A few more quick tips are: Stay hydrated, drive safely, and check on loved ones. ALWAYS stay calm and try your best to cooperate. When violent altercations/situations occur do not hesitate to call Emergency Medical Services. ALWAYS contact and involve the police for your safety and others. Lastly, try to have sympathy. You have to show respect for the workers who are trying to save you and whomever else. “If someone’s [explicit] with me, I’ll be [explicit] with them… I do it to reset their minds,” Gomes mentioned. We are all human and we all bleed the same and feel the same emotions. Take into consideration that EMS risks their lives to save yours. “People call me on the worst days of their lives,” Gomes explained in our interview.

“SEMPER PARATUS” is Hopewell’s Fire and EMS motto; it means “always ready.” Joining this profession, you have to be ready for anything, you have to be prepared and on your toes when you go out into your community. Every day there is something new for EMS workers, from doing paperwork all day, then the next day they will be on their way to putting out fires, and saving people’s lives. It can get challenging but remember there are people who count on you to help them. That's why they do the work they do, and they deserve our respect for it.