Rome wasn't built in a Day!!!

Rome wasn't built in a day...that is just one of the comments you hear when you start to get impatient about something that you want to have happen.  Now, if you are like me you hate that comment.  Well good for them, but I want my ice cream now!  Ok, enough of me complaining, time for the rest of the story (gotta love Paul Harvey). 

Now Rome may not have been build in a day, but you know that they were trying their best to make it happen.  The ruling party, the architects, and the builders were all doing their best to make it what they wanted it to be, and they did it in a timely fashion, which is no different then we should be operating on a daily basis as well.  Now, we may not all be building Rome, but we are still building the Fire and EMS services here in our country, and across the globe. 

Every day, our Police, Fire, and EMS personnel wake up in the morning to report to their agency and work.  Some providers may work the night shift while others swing shifts, some work long weeks, some short...really we work all the time.  During that team our agency's leadership comes in and works their rotation and continues the operational activities to keep our services going in the right direction.  Day in and day out, our paramedics, emts, lawyers, finance, administrators, assistants, logistics, and fleet operations personnel work to build the fire and EMS service into the operation that we wish it to be. 

Now, when Rome was first being created, first building up to the lavish place it became, do you think the people knew what was going to become of your land?  The answer simply put was NO!  They may have had a vision, but really to know how things would come out, not really.  Why do we think it is going to be that same way in the field of Fire and EMS as well.  Now, the fire service has a much greater history then does EMS.  EMS really is still an infant when compared to Police and Fire, but none-the-less the vision for the future continues to evolve. 

So where is Police, Fire and EMS really going?  Back on shift tomorrow morning, but when you get on shift tomorrow morning aspire to come up with one thing to make the profession better.  How many of the products that we have today came from providers developing them to make the job easier.  Police officers have collapsible night sticks that take up less room, firefighters have tools like the TNT tool that was developed by a firefighter because he wanted to carry all the tools in one, and EMS has the EZ-IO that was developed by a flight medic to make the process of IO insertion easier.  Now, I am not telling you to come up with a shortcut to make your job easier at the expense of your customer (i.e. perpetrator, fire victim, or patient), but something that will benefit the end user, and that of yourself.

Every agency has a plan for the future, some more elaborate than others, but where do you see yourself in their 5-year plan.  More specifically, what do you see in your strategic plan?  Do you want to receive a key promotion you see because you know that somebody is coming up for retirement, or promotion themselves...have you completed all the requirements, have you positioned yourself to be their heir apparent?  Have you marketed yourself correctly.  Rome wasn't built in a day, but they knew what they were working hard today, and they knew what they were going to do tomorrow. 

Can you build your Rome?

Take care and Stay Safe!
The Combomedic


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