In this CCC post I am referencing the image below, and the statement I made about it on social media:
While we can’t change what happens to us, or around us, we can change how we deal with whatever it is.
We spend so much time focusing on others, we oftentimes neglect the most important person… Oneself.
Starts with the one in the mirror
One can’t help the many, if ill or injured themselves.
Personal safety is just that…Personal. It is perfectly acceptable to place your safety at the same level, if not above, that of any patient you care for.
The goal should be, to see the same healthy person in the mirror at the end of your shift, you did when you started.
I doubt people realize how much it means to me when I hear the message of culture change is starting to take hold. Each person reached makes a world of difference, to them, and me.
I was so happy to receive a private message with the image I created and what the person had to say about it. Recognizing the sensitivity of the subject, I oftentimes keep the person, as in this case anonymous. That doesn’t change the fact this more proof of the validity of our message.
What is so very important about this brief conversation is what the person notices in the field of emergency medicine. Couple that with what most of our posts in the Chronicles of a Culture Changer are about and you will see how the very things pointed out below, are addressed over and over in previous posts on our page.
It is fantastic when someone recognizes what we do, and how we try and fix underlying problem with culture change.
Here is the conversation, about the above image/post, minus identifiers:
Person: This is probably one of the hardest concepts for a medic to understand – we are wired to care for others. Others before self. Add to it the constant push from administration to get it done, whatever it takes. We forget that we count to. Thank you for the reminder! I think we need to read your post at the start of each shift. Be well*name removed*
Me: Thanks for taking the time to read it. I never know which message with strike a chord… I just keep plugging away, hoping one will stick 🙂
Person: I think more stick than you know. There has to be a change in the culture of EMS – though many providers agree with what you are saying they have to move past the belief that somehow publicly agreeing makes them appear weak. As close as we can get, there is still the fear of not pulling your weight. No one wants to be the weak link on the team and they want there team mates to trust them. Just keep on keeping on! Its being talked about and slowly steadily it’s changing. But I think you nailed it with the Winnie the Pooh and this post. Maybe the first step is to get the field providers to truly understand they are worth it. I’m still working on that, after 20 years it is defiantly a foreign concept but change is possible and necessary. The fact that you got into *edited for anonymity* is amazing. Never thought I would see that day. Though I no longer work there, the bonds formed there are strong and the *edited for anonymity* alums were ecstatic the new guard were going to be better prepared and protected.
Stuff like the message above is the reason I can keep going. Each time I feel exhausted, someone comes up, at the very moment it was needed, to fire me back up. If one would just take the time to see what we have posted over the years, and what we have taught in class for years… they would see we address the very thing brought up. Why? Because we have witnessed it over, and over. We have also witnessed change.
Remember to practice SYWYSO- Saving Yours, While You Save Others!