Compassion

In my line of work (and most of my readers) we experience and are witness to things that many others don’t and shouldn’t experience. Extreme pain & suffering, life-altering accidents, life changing decisions, and death. Sure, some people will witness these things in their lifetimes, but most of us will experience these things many times in our careers. It is part of the job.

We experience these things without training on how to cope with them.

However, we run more routine calls day in and day out. Maybe some of these calls are memorable for one reason or another, but all in all, they are the calls we rarely remember.

Whether we are on a serious call or what we might consider to NOT be an emergency, we were summoned and must operate to the best of our ability. We must be professional, we must do the right thing, and we must try to mitigate the “emergency” to the best of our ability. While not all calls warrant a smile, when appropriate it doesn’t hurt to smile and be courteous.

What I am getting at is that we must be compassionate…all the time.

Can you name a time that you were set down and taught/explained compassion?

Sure, we are given protocols and regularly scheduled continuing education on what to do…But we aren’t taught compassion. At least I wasn’t…not formal training by my fire department. My parents on the other hand did a great job of raising 4 children…and yes, we learned compassion.

What is compassion anyways?

Compassion is sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. We aren’t taught it, it is an acquired social skill. Don’t linger on the word PITY, compassion isn’t looking down on someone or over-dramatizing others misfortune.

As a matter of fact, many of us aren’t able to learn empathy (the ability to understand and share the feelings of another) or sympathy which is caring and understanding for the suffering of others

Over time, I have seen numerous firefighters and medics develop indifference for people who dial 911 when the they feel it isn’t necessary…this includes the frequent flyers and homeless.

Compassion starts with delivery; How we view our services and what we offer to those in need.

Too often, the bean-counters are simply looking at the bottom line (especially in EMS) which is billing for transports. They need to adjust the delivery to one of compassion and not statistics or income. I know from experience that they don’t need to worry about transports…there will always be transports, and plenty of them.

Don’t take this the wrong way, I am not talking about public image of services or public relations. While those would be great program oriented deliverables, I am talking about a more fundamental element that has been lost, or in some cases never developed in the first place.

I am talking about compassion and empathy we should deliver on each and every call…NOT because of our public image as public servants, but rather the humanity (benevolence) of who we are and what we do.

Compassion can go a long way in both fire and EMS services.

Compassion can help us cope with what we experience whenever we are called out for those calls that hit you in the gut.

Compassion can be the difference between coping and the inability to cope with a bad call.

Recently, I ran another one of those calls that will stick with me for the rest of my career. It was a once or twice in a career type of call. For me, this was the second type of call with different circumstances but a similar unfortunate outcome. In our short, hectic, often chaotic exposure to families and loved ones on calls like this, I have made it a point to focus on compassion when I am able. Whether that compassion is directed towards the patient, the family, or my fellow firefighters, I try to ensure that compassion fits in the equation. This is especially helpful when we discuss the call afterwards…while we decompress and absorb the magnitude of the call and make sure everyone is okay.

On the bad calls, it is easy to use compassion as a form of treatment for others (family). On the easy routine calls, it might be forgotten. We might get hot-headed because of one thing or another.

We have a huge homeless population in our City. Every day, something is said about them. I am guilty as well. However, over the years I have tried to understand homelessness. All too often, we see the homeless who cannot care for themselves because of impairments or addictions. There is so much more to the homeless community than to lump all of them into one group. I have found compassion goes a long way. I don’t know their stories…the best I can do is be compassionate and try to empathize with their current situation.

I have learned a lot about my craft as a firefighter/EMT and about myself as a person in my years on the job. I constantly find room for improvement and implementing changes. Compassion has been one of those things and I think we all have some room for growth.