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Legend has it that, during the rebuilding of St. Paul鈥檚 after the Great Fire of London, the architect Christopher Wren noticed three bricklayers with very different demeanors. When asked what he was doing, the slowest said, 鈥淐an鈥檛 you see? I鈥檓 laying bricks.鈥� The middle one said, 鈥淚鈥檓 making a nice, straight wall.鈥� The third, by far the most engaged and diligent, happily answered, 鈥淚鈥檓 building a great cathedral to the glory of the Almighty!鈥�
It鈥檚 important to feel that we matter. When we understand that our actions form part of a larger whole, we feel a connection to something more significant than the individual task at hand.
The sense of a higher purpose driving EMS responders is clear; we know because we ask them all the time. And whether someone鈥檚 answer leads with 鈥渉elping people鈥�, 鈥渓ooking after my community鈥� or 鈥渇eeling that my work makes a difference鈥�, no one ever describes their job in purely unemotive terms.
Unlike Wren鈥檚 historical laborers, today, people are mostly free to choose how they spend their working lives. They鈥檙e in it to make the biggest difference they can, and that鈥檚 what we concentrate on helping them achieve.
It鈥檚 the way we encourage our clients to think too.
EVEN AT ITS MOST FUTURE-FACING, EMS IS STILL A PEOPLE BUSINESS
EMS clearly has people at its heart, but there鈥檚 no doubt technology is having a huge impact across healthcare. We now have access to much more real-time data, from ambulances, wearables, equipment and medicines. When even a defibrillator sends its own signals to update location and charging status, it can sometimes feel as if the balance has shifted away from people and towards automation.
Nothing could be further from the truth. People remain, as they always will, at the heart of EMS. Our job is to help them make the most of technology; to provide them with solutions that are seamless and instinctive to use and become indispensable partners in getting the job done and supporting the sense of higher purpose so critical to job satisfaction.
That鈥檚 why we interrogate what matters to your people, working alongside them in the field to understand the big things to the nuances that our technology needs to address. What does a device need to feel like to use in the field? Whose fingers will be operating it, in what conditions, and will they be wearing gloves? How demanding will the working environment be 鈥� will the ambient temperature be high, or will devices need to work in fridges or freezers 鈥� are dust, liquid, or other hazards present?
A tablet, say, needs to be rugged enough so your paramedics can focus on the people they鈥檙e assisting rather than protecting the equipment, but not so chunky that it鈥檚 hard to hold in one smaller-fingered hand. Above all, its function needs to make instant sense to the person using it, because that鈥檚 the first thing they鈥檒l ask. Does this actually help me perform better, or is it another thing to remember to use?
INTUITIVE AS STANDARD
When did you last look at the instruction manual for a mobile phone? Exactly. We鈥檝e come to expect our tech to understand us, rather than the other way around.
Anything we develop is clear in its purpose and logical to use, requiring minimal training. Indeed, genuinely people-centered design is making old-school training obsolete.
When a device clearly benefits both responder and patient 鈥� in keeping with the higher purpose 鈥� in-field usage naturally follows. The people at the sharp end of EMS are smart, capable and adaptable. If something has evidently been thought through from their perspective, it鈥檒l get used 鈥� and pay for itself in morale as much as efficiency.
Those who choose EMS as a career are in it because it has meaning. We take similar pride in our work, too, with the goal of augmenting your team鈥檚 human capabilities with devices that become trusted partners in getting the job done.
About the author
is a global manufacturer of vehicle intelligence for emergency service fleets. Its Fleet Performance Optimization Technology and Services help emergency fleets improve overall performance, put an end to manual vehicle data collection, minimize liability risk, and meet global standards of efficiency. Visit acetech.com/vehicle-intelligence for more information.