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FAQs regarding DT4EMS’ EVE
Q. What is DT4EMS’ EVE?
A. DT4EMS’ is the company and Escaping Violent Encounters (EVE) is the course line. EVE originally called Defensive Tactics for EMS is a course created in 1996 and taught for CEU’s since 1997. EVE is a course designed specifically for those working in the emergency medical setting be it EMS/Fire or Emergency Department staff. EVE is not some form or modified police style (control) or martial arts (fighting/finishing) course. What started with pre-hospital EMS is now for EMS (Everyone in Medical Services)
Q. Why should we train our staff in EVE?
A. Statistically speaking, your staff is at a high risk of being involved in a violent encounter during their career. You want them to respond appropriately when faced with that violent encounter. Since DT4EMS’ EVE spends a great deal of time defining the difference between a patient and an attacker, staff is less likely to treat patients as attackers and vice versa.
Q. Are you teaching our people to fight?
A. No. There is confusion at times regarding the differences of “fighting” and self-defense. Some martial arts systems teach “fighting” as a form of self-defense and focus on disabling an attacker as the answer or the “win”. In our EVE programs, we focus on prevention, de-escalation and escape if needed. We are teaching 
recognition, avoidance, prevention and escape with the use of force is a last resort. We do not teach any aggressive techniques that can be used punitively.
Q. Do you teach complicated techniques that are hard to remember?
A. No. We teach tactics to prevent the use of force but teach simple techniques of escape should the tactics not be available due to the dynamics of a situation. Our techniques are easy to learn, remember and use because they are designed to have a simplistic principle based approach to learning a skill. The students then “find” the solution to their problem. It causes retention to be much higher. Since we use principles in our skills, size and strength are not the issue. The skills can be used by all students regardless of size or sex.
Q. How do we keep our employees from “trying out” their newly acquired skills?
A. In our DT4EMS’ EVE course, we cover Assault Response Guidelines/Use of Force Levels that teach appropriate (reasonable) times to use force. We also cover laws pertaining to when force is justified. If a person uses force outside of these guidelines, they could face the same criminal charges as any other citizen. We believe that with proper training, you will not have personnel resorting to the “knee in the throat” to control an uncooperative patient or the O2 Bottle as the only means of self-defense.
Q. What style of martial arts are you teaching?
A. DT4EMS’ EVE is not a martial arts class. It does utilize techniques that have proven successful which focus on escape, from several arts including Judo, Karate, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Kali-Silat. In DT4EMS’ EVE there is a focus on principle based learning. When a person had an understanding of a principle, various techniques appear.
Q. What if we had our local police department send an officer to train us in self-defense?
A. While good in theory, there is a concern with having a police officer train medical staff. Understand police officers train in the “Mechanics of Arrest and Control”. The police focus on taking “control” of a person usually using some sort of “pain-compliance” technique. Officers also have various tools on their belt for if empty hand pain-compliance fails. Since EMS must have consent to touch a person, it makes the techniques required/chosen different from that of the average law enforcement officer. Also, EMS providers do not carry all of the extra tools a police officer does to control the person that does not want to be controlled. EMS, Fire and emergency department personnel need escape skills. Police officers do not have a duty to retreat. EMS personnel do. Just keep that in mind if you chose to have a police officer teach your defensive tactics.
DT4EMS was created by Kip Teitsort a Paramedic/ Police Officer, and championed by Dr. Aaron Newton M.D. to help with the ever growing reports of assaults in the field. The courses offered are designed to have real-world application and be liability conscious. We stay away from the “Feel Good” type of techniques that fail in the field. Read what participants have had to say…
RELATED: Want to Know About DT4EMS’ EVE? Look Here First
Q. Why is the company name DT4EMS?
A. DT4EMS is the company. Defensive because nothing we teach is aggressive. Tactics because there is more to self-defense than physical techniques. 4 due to the four separate areas of training we address. Each violent encounter, or on the job use-of-force (restraints) for that matter, requires more than only defending with physical skills. The four areas we train are for the Mind, Street, Media and the Courtroom. Each area must be prepared for appropriately. Finally EMS because that was where the company originated. What started for pre-hospital now for EMS (Everyone in Medical Services). Our courses were designed from the healthcare perspective. Now EVE is taught in hospitals, fire departments and colleges across the country.
DT4EMS’ EVE is unique. No other program is like ours. Many of our certified instructors (Nurses, Paramedics, EMTs, Firefighters) were previously trained and some were even instructors in various
“other” courses offered to medicine prior to their introduction to EVE.
DT4EMS’ EVE is not like any “class” out there for healthcare. Other classes have confused medical staff’s need to prevent/escape a violent encounter with the police need to “control” an aggressive attacker.
Since medicine had no culture of safety when regarding violence or the use-of-force in restraints, we learned techniques (via osmosis) from our brethren law enforcement because we thought it was the right thing to do.
However, since medicine works on “consent” and police work on “custody/control” ….the tactics/techniques must be different, because the goal is very different.
EVE is about achieving a much needed safety culture change in emergency medicine. By using proven tactics and techniques that focus on the prevention tactics- primarily and moves into the escape-techniques if needed.
*Important* we maintain a positive attitude toward Police, other Fire, EMS agencies and ED staff. It is our stance at DT4EMS, LLC the more cooperative training that takes place, the safer for all involved. There is a lack of communication and understanding between agencies and the use-of-force. DT4EMS seeks to fix that.
* We do not make light of or joke about ANY use of force incidents, be it assaults on staff or how staff uses force (restraint methods- manual or chemical). The use of force is a serious matter and the overall lack of training in emergency medicine regarding “reasonable” use of force has had dire consequences. See the blog post JADED.
When you read any of the blog posts you will see we have a different “tone” to what we share. Our goal is provider safety first… something we were told in school but somehow forgot. This seems to be because more time was spent on defining Patient Abandonment during core curriculum. So now DT4EMS has to de-train personnel on the what a “patient” is an is not when it comes to violence.
View how often assaults occur on the job by visiting our “Assault On Staff Log” updated regularly with news reports of violence directed at staff. DT4EMS’ EVE courses are more than just a class. Our Escaping Violent Encounter programs create a safety culture change through behavior modification.
Our training is based on using Good Customer Service at the root of all course content. We train in using proven verbal skills before, during and after an incident. Our courses teach the use of physical force as a last resort, but use real-world skills to free you or your staff from actual physical assaults should they occur.
Our courses take a four pronged approach, with training in four specific areas: Mental, Physical, Media and Courtroom.
- The mental training teaches the provider the difference between a patient and an attacker. This is important because you want your staff treating a patient who’s confused or has an altered mental status for medical reasons differently than an intoxicated or drugged attacker in a similar situation. A lack of training leaves the provider responding primally, like a caveman.
- The actual physical skills leave the provider with a realistic belief in their skill level. DT4EMS allows them to understand what it takes to escape violent encounters. Our experience in training is that the more a person trains, the less they use physical skills.
- Training for the media age is important because so many people have access to photo and video equipment. We train your staff to appear at all times non-threatening with verbal skills and body language. There are no closed-fist techniques taught in our courses.
- Finally we train for the legal process that will occur after a violent encounter. This includes documentation skills and proper reporting to supervisors and law enforcement.
Why DT4EMS?
You want to train with a recognized Subject Matter Expert in the area of Escaping Violent Encounters for EMS/Fire and Healthcare. Several portions of our material was given to the NAEMT for their recognized EMS Safety Course. For a list of topics submitted by DT4EMS used within the NAEMT Safety Course click HERE. The founder has also worked with the National EMS Management Association as an SME on training staff for violence.
It has become a reality in the Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Services, Firefighter on the medical scene and Hospital Emergency Department environments that providers of emergency care are more frequently becoming the victims of assault from patients, family members of patients and bystanders. A regular part of their training is how to recognize an unsafe scene or environment. But what happens when emergency personnel find themselves in a situation where an assault upon them is imminent? What training is provided by employers and providers to their employees and volunteers on how to deal with that situation? If a provider deals with a situation by striking someone in an inappropriate manner because of improper training what happens then…… Read about what people say here!
DT4EMS’ Escaping Violent Encounters for EMS/Fire, ( EVE4EMS/Fire ) is for Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Service Providers and EVE4Healthcare Professionals for the in-hospital setting. Our program was created by experienced providers. It is a Workplace Violence Prevention and response program that teaches providers to prevent, avoid (de-escalate) and escape an imminent assault. Our DT4EMS EVE courses provide training in Verbal Skills, Assault Response Levels, Legal, Moral and Ethical Self-Defense as well as documentation training to provide protection after any use of force. It is important for providers to receive appropriate, mission specific, training in self-defense to keep them from reverting to caveman style techniques in a violent encounter that could result in civil and/or criminal liability.
If your current training does not cover all four areas, then your training is not designed for the complicated arena of the healthcare provider. Stop by and read what EMS professionals have said about our courses here : References/Testimonials