Samantha Sejut with Sheboygan County Emergency Communications Center in Wisconsin (USA) believes in the power of recognition. She began working with Sheboygan County in 2017, which meant she was present in 2018 for the implementation of the Medical Priority Dispatch System™ (MPDS®). When Sejut was promoted to EMD Supervisor in 2022, she knew she wanted to prioritize coming up with new and engaging ways to recognize all of the hard work the Emergency Dispatchers perform every day.
She started small. On the dispatch floor there’s a TV near the clock that everyone calls “the EMD TV,” and her predecessor, Supervisor Holly Parker, started running a monthly PowerPoint on it, recognizing Emergency Dispatchers who had handled difficult calls well and then highlighting the three people with the highest compliance scores who would then win a king-sized candy bar.
“We did that for a good year before doing anything else,” Sejut said. “You have to push through with your people. Dispatchers are resistant to change—and being recognized.”
The monthly PowerPoint is sent out in an email to all EMDs and includes a quiz. Sejut took it one step further by giving prizes for completed quizzes.
In the spirit of teamwork, Sejut and the EMD-Q Committee brought 2023 to a close by organizing an “End of Year EMD Contest,” where EMDs were divided into teams to work on a truly intricate puzzle. This contest had everything—crosswords, test cases, word searches, and, of course, CDEs. One of the activities was “An EMD Mystery,” which included three scenarios called “Werewolves in Sheboygan,” “The Fortune Teller,” and “Always Check Your Candy.” Each team was assigned a scenario, and then each team member received one clue via email. Much like emergency dispatching itself, they had to communicate about their separate pieces to be able to solve the whole puzzle. When all the clues were put together, they created a story that could be entered into ProQA® to receive a final code.
The winning team received a cash prize of $50 per person and an extra day of paid time off.
“Our Q’s have been pivotal in changing the culture around recognition and participation in our center,” Sejut said. They have Q’s from every shift, rotation, and seniority level, which makes a huge difference in performance.
Prizes for the festivities come largely from donations made by local businesses or people within the center itself. Dr. Steven Zils, Sheboygan County’s medical director, contributed some prizes using discretionary funds he set aside for this specific cause. Sejut has slowly built up relationships with local business owners over the past few years and is sure to recognize them on social media pages when they donate.
The EMDs at Sheboygan County also love dressing up. Their center’s dress code is fairly strict as far as what they can wear to their shifts (they only just got approved to be able to wear jeans), so being able to dress up for their Spirit Week in late October is a real treat. Last year, the 
EMDs were given the prompt to dress up like their favorite EMD Protocol. There were two winners—Tracy Lisowe who dressed up as MPDS Protocol 27: Stab/Gunshot/Penetrating Trauma by coming in with a fake ax in her head and Ardis Kaat, who artfully portrayed Protocol 16: Eye Problems/Injuries!
In a more formal vein, Sheboygan County has an internal lifesaver recognition program to celebrate EMDs who get hands-on-chest with a patient who was revived or had their pulse restored. It’s internal rather than external to respect the privacy of patients who later pass in the ICU, and each EMD receives a nameplate that goes up on the official plaque. Sejut is proud to report that they are onto their second plaque since the first one was recently filled up with saved lives.
“A couple years ago, no one was submitting calls,” she said. “But if you keep reminding people that we’re doing something good together, they’ll get on board.”
The monthly PowerPoint on the EMD TV is still around, too, and is a hit with new employees who get a thrill from seeing their name publicly highlighted for excellent work.
What’s on deck for National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week 2024? You’ll have to keep an eye on Sheboygan County’s Facebook profile to find out. Last year there was a weeklong dispatch-specific bingo challenge with prizes being given to the first 10 EMDs to get a bingo. And if EMDs aren’t lucky enough to get a bingo quickly, there are raffle-style drawings as well.
When asked what advice she would give to centers just starting out on their journey to give more recognition to Emergency Dispatchers, Sejut said, “Start small.” That’s where she began, and now her center’s compliance levels are higher—and more stable—than they’ve ever been.
