Its a girl!

No, there wasn’t a human baby delivered recently. I’m referring to the cow that today’s partner had on that call.

It wasn’t a big deal. Some dude passed out while he was driving, likely attributed to his blood sugar being 27. Then he hit a tree.

Trees usually win. But this was a sapling.

Much less damage than expected from the dispatch. But what else is new?

But seriously, how can we possibly do our job if we are pinging off the walls faster than a table tennis ball coming off the paddle of a Korean Olympic gold medalist?

Getting flustered and losing control is probably one of the worst things we can do as providers. Our patients and citizens expect a certain level of calmness when we enter a scene. After all, they are having an emergency (perceived or actual) and they expect us to know exactly what to do to mitigate the situation.

When we can’t control ourselves, how are we supposed to control the emergency?

Whenever I am lucky enough to stand in front of a group of eager, bright-eyed EMT students on their first day in class, I start my first lecture with the same sentence each time: “Be the duck.”

Imagine if you will, a beautiful duck swimming across a pond on a spring day. The duck is graceful and calm, and appears relaxed, but is moving towards some part of the pond with a sense of alacrity. But underneath the water, that duck’s feet are paddling as fast as they can go.

Be the duck.