Caught on Camera: Stand and Deliver Award Recipient Promotes Effective Communication Through Provider Recordings

The Stand and Deliver program, developed in 2019 as an opportunity for EMS educators to expand their professional acumen, recently awarded Rebecca Carmody the 2023 Stand and Deliver award for presenting “EMS: Caught on Camera.” Carmody, a training instructor at the Clark County Fire Department in Nevada, had previously participated in the program back in 2022.

Leaving A Legacy

The sixth generation of a fire family, Rebecca developed a passion for emergency medical services and has continued her family’s tradition of service as a paramedic for the past 23 years. Driven by her pursuit of top-notch EMS education, she embarked on a journey towards becoming an EMS instructor 10 years ago and worked to provide the kind of instruction she’d like to take herself.

“Paramedicine was always my love, but now instruction has become my primary focus,” Carmody explains. “I really wanted to emulate those really good instructors that I enjoyed that put in a ton of work before each class and I left feeling like I learned something new or had touched on something important. That became my mission, to make the kind of classes I want to take.”

In Clark County, she’s spent the past four years providing education for the agency’s 1,000 providers.

The Beginning of a Mindset Shift

Rebecca‘s favorite topics for EMS education development are related to new technologies, tools to improve patient care, and, most recently, approaching traditional topics in a new way. In her current agency, she’s encouraged provider to shift their mindset on cardiac arrest from load and go to stay and play using the “science of why.” She recognized that EMS providers were uncomfortable staying on the scene to treat cardiac arrest patients due to their initial education on cardiac arrest including rapid transport to the hospital for “definitive care.” Sharing the science and data from the American Heart Association and other fire departments, she demonstrated the reason for the change and inspired a shift in provider perspective and patient treatment by her agency. Clark County Fire Department later updated the cardiac arrest education to include their data to highlight agency progress in these patient encounters. This mindset is what inspired Rebecca to develop “EMS: Caught on Camera.”

Educating on Communications

While taking FEMA-sponsored Public Information Officer (PIO) training, she recognized that this training is not only applicable to PIO officers but could be used by EMS providers. During continuing education training and emergency responses, she observed that providers' task-oriented focus often resulted in limited eye contact with patients, hindering the opportunity to establish rapport, build trust, and ultimately enhance the overall patient experience.

“When do we teach kindness and empathy and tone of voice and how important eye contact is to someone who we want their trust?” she questioned.

Rebecca adapted the PIO training into a course for the Clark County Fire Department’s training program. She began by recording crews during training evolutions with mock patients to show what their tone, body language, and limited eye contact with the patient might look like to patients and families. The course also includes case reviews of incidents where EMS providers were recorded in public during patient encounters, an overview of legal expectations of privacy in public and private, and a discussion on the pros and cons of the use of cameras.

“What the cameras did for us is let people see how badly a scene can look when providers are not aware that there are cameras there or they are just not aware of their own presentation,” she explains.

What Do You Want Them to Say?

EMS leaders commonly explain what providers shouldn’t do rather than clearly defining expectations for communication standards with patients and their families. Before encountering media, personnel, or citizens filming at an emergency scene, EMS agency leaders should thoroughly review their state or regional policies on such situations and establish clear expectations for every EMT and paramedic's response.

“If no one ever talks about it then they’re caught off guard and that’s unfair to new providers out there without any sort of training for the world we live in,” Carmody says.

Agencies should adopt a blanket statement for all providers and staff and this statement should be practiced ahead of time so providers can recall it during an event. These scenarios and associated communication expectations should be included in continuing education or competencies with robust debriefing and feedback to providers including video playback of the training.

Advice for Aspiring Educators

Rebecca shares that she had seen Stand and Deliver advertised and happened upon the application while looking for clinical education courses at the EMS World Expo in 2022. Her coworkers encouraged her to enter the competition, and while she made it to the final four finalists, she did not win. These same coworkers encouraged her to enter again for the 2023 Stand and Deliver competition and helped her during the competition.

“They were amazing support,” she says. “They really wanted to see me succeed and they were awesome.”

Even though she lost in 2022, Rebecca encourages curious up-and-coming educators to take a chance in the competition. She shares that she gained so much from the judges giving immediate feedback and then receiving the written feedback after the competition that helped her improve as an educator in general.

Come see Rebecca present “EMS: Caught on Camera” at the EMS World Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, and enter the Stand and Deliver competition yourself. Maybe you’ll be the next winner.