You Must Respect Mah Authoritah!

Over at EMS Blogs, they're having quite the little debate on proper nomenclature for us guys what drive the big white taxi.

Captain Chair Confessions thinks we've got bigger fish to fry than what name we're called, and tells the rest of EMS to get over it.

EMS Outside Agitator thinks our battle for respect from the public and other healthcare professions must necessarily begin with what we allow them to call us. As my girlfriend is fond of saying, "Acceptance is teaching," and EOA*  thinks that acceptance of being called an ambulance driver teaches the public that that is all we are.

And Dr. Evil Medic 51 doesn't really care, he just knows that he didn't go to medical school paramedic school for twelve years two years just to be called Mister Evil an ambulance driver.

I've already made my position on the matter quite clear:

In short, be a professional caregiver, with emphasis on the care.

Believe me, they’ll come to see you as far more than just an ambulance driver.

And if you demonstrate with your medical care that you are indeed a professional worthy of respect, the other medical professionals will treat you that way, regardless of the patch on your shoulder or the number of initials after your name.

If people who should know better still call you an ambulance driver, it is because they choose to remain ignorant or disdainful. Arguing with such assholes only gives them the power to make you look like an asshole, too.

If folks can't grasp that, then I'm quite happy to continue having the most hated blog name in the EMS blogosphere.

 

 

 

*Ed. Note: The man needs a nickname, and EOA just fits: it's old school, shorter to say, and no longer actively used on the field.

 

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