How I Came to Choose EMS as a Career

Eric M. Simpson

January 21, 2011

How I Came to Choose EMS as a Career

      EMS stands for Emergency Medical Services. I like to think that it stands for me too, because I was "born EMS". They are my initials. My path to EMS came awkwardly though, and with almost as much difficulty as in my writing an essay. Though despite my having a lack of graciousness in creating literature, EMS is what I am currently recognized, respected and appreciated for. Not only does it come to me naturally and I am proficient in that respect, my aim is to progress further in the field of EMS.

     At 19 years-of-age Mama took me to the military recruiting stations, and I discovered medicine. I enlisted and soon became a medic. It was my escape from running a chainsaw at a family logging operation. By "running", I mean that I held onto it as I walked, climbed and sometimes ran, over and between piles of logs.  I had always feared that I would eventually become the recipient of another kind of operation if I continued to risk walking on slippery logs and trimming limbs on the “ramp” (where logs are stacked just before being loaded onto trailers to be hauled off) with that chainsaw.

      Bedpans, bed baths, urinals, and bandages were all part of how I got into the world of EMS.  I came into the realm of handling personal care items such as these secondary to becoming a medic. Sounds attractive, don’t they?  Surely they must have been the lure for me when I enlisted! No?  The part about the bedpans and such does not fully clarify what had really appealed to me when I chose to get into EMS.  EMS was actually another effort to get away from where I was. I was serving in the United States Air Force at the Air Force’s largest medical facility, Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center, in San Antonio, Texas as a Medical Service Specialist on a medical ward. It was nothing to be ashamed of, but I was handling bedpans in their most unappealing moments when the opportunity became available to advance my career.  An EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) class sounded like my ticket to the Emergency Room and maybe on to the ambulance.  I had learned about as much as I, at that time, wanted to know about bedpans (and urinals).  I do not think that I had yet recognized any association between my initials and EMS. I just wanted to get away from the bedpans!     

     After serving as a paramedic for almost 28 years, the last 25 of which has been in Georgia, I am now recognized state-wide by some high-ranking EMS professionals and known by both my initials and presumably even for my medical expertise.  Last summer while driving to class I was signaled by the state’s Acting-EMS Director to stop my vehicle.  I am not too sure if he had initially recognized me, or if it was my prestige plates (EMS EMS) that attracted his attention. Either way, he made my day; he pleaded with me to stay in the field of EMS!  He knew I had quit my previous job working for an ambulance service, and strongly encouraged me to remain in EMS.  I was one happy Macon State College student that morning that also felt recognized, respected and appreciated.

      How I chose to become a paramedic has been a filtering process from which I continue to evolve. EMS was, and still is, a big part of me. Bigger than just being my initials, it is a way of life to me now. Although not as active a participant as I used to be, I have served my local community as a first-responder to local EMS and fire department calls, been a member of our county’s ambulance service, dive team, search and rescue and vehicle extrication teams.  I maintained my profession as an EMT-Paramedic working on the ambulance for over 27 years. Thirty-one years of my life has been devoted largely to medical care, many moments of which could have been shared with my family, had I not volunteered so much of my time away. A typo occurred to me as I prepared this essay, one which largely accounts for my current lapse of participation in my local volunteer services; it is “Papamedic”.  I now invest most of my spare time- when not studying for core nursing classes- in my grandchildren.  I say that only to explain why my professional aim in EMS is now redirected. I am progressing in my classes and evolving towards possibly becoming a registered nurse (RN).  Maybe Papa will one day serve EMS in the emergency room as an RN.

 EMS