header

Is It Summer Yet?

Josh McFadden

Josh McFadden

Columns

Josh McFadden

This issue is scheduled to arrive at your centers right around NAVIGATOR in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Once this huge event wraps up, many of you will undoubtedly think about taking advantage of nicer weather for weekend getaways, family trips, or outdoor excursions.

So we’ve put together some informative, fun articles we feel fit nicely with this time of year.

As people get outside more, their chances of encountering wild animals increases, as does the potential for trouble. Managing Editor Audrey Fraizer tackles some of these issues in her Medical CDE titled “Beauty and Beast,” where she discusses the protocols that address some results of coming in contact with animals.

Spring and summer are the perfect seasons for sightseeing, but vacations aren’t without possible hazards. I’ve written a feature about a fictitious family that embarks on a cross-country trip, only to find trouble at every turn. The feature brings up several possible scenarios in which the Priority Dispatch® protocols would be used for a vacationing family.

This issue also includes a Fire CDE. Staying with our outdoors theme, I’ve written about high-angle rescues, specifically how the protocol handles situations where mountaineers and hikers get trapped on cliffs and in crevasses.

Our second feature is an in-depth look at the troubling rise in opioid use and abuse. Audrey has some compelling information to share about the dangers of painkillers and how addiction to these prescription drugs is ruining and even taking lives.

One of our Your Space articles introduces you to a trio of comm. center members in the Twin Cities of Minnesota (USA). Another Your Space piece about a former dispatcher in Kansas will put a smile on your face. This article relates the tale of Lindsay Prater, whose loss of hearing forced her to step away from her job. To provide help, OnStar awarded Prater a grant of $20,000.

The March/April Journal also has some of our favorite regular columns: Lean In and From the EMD Side. Director of Academics, Research & Communications Isabel Gardett also contributes a Research Column about how EMDs are able to more effectively identify strokes than on-scene paramedics.

As always, we favor you with a profile of one of our ACEs, in this case Allina EMS in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. Plus, we highlight Joint Emergency Services Control Centre (JESCC), Guernsey, U.K., and Maine's Emergency Services Bureau (E9-1-1, which recently starting using the Fire Priority Dispatch System (FPDS®)).

Last but not least, when you plan your spring or summer vacation, do you ever think about watching ambulance racing? This unique spectator activity is a fixture at Cedar Lake Speedway in Richmond, Wisconsin (USA), owned by Allina EMS Director Chuck Kaufman. We talk all about it in our Case Exit story.

As you can see, we’ve got a little bit of everything in store for you.