EMS1 Special: Grayson's Top Ten Rejected Themes for EMS Week

EMS1 Top Ten
May 2010

The EMS1 Top Ten List

Top ten rejected themes for EMS Week 2010

By Kelly Grayson, EMS1.com Columnist

Well, EMS Week is upon us once again, and this year's theme is "Anytime. Anywhere. We'll be there." I think it sends the proper message, honoring our implicit compact with the public; call for an ambulance, an ambulance always comes.

Every year, the American College of Emergency Physicians faces the monumental task of uniting the varied factions of EMS and their particular agendas, and projecting a unified theme to the general public for at least one week of the year. It's quite a bit like herding cats, only that with us, the career cats hate the volunteer cats, the fire cats feel superior to all the other cats, and all of them hate the for-profit cats. And amid all the screeching and hissing and enraged yowling, somehow ACEP manages to come up with a theme everyone can agree with. Hats off to them.

Still, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention some of the other themes ACEP considered, and rejected, for EMS Week 2010:

	EMS: It was cheaper and shorter than barber college This one had potential, particularly among those who think current EMS curricula is too long and arduous, but eventually it was nixed by a faction heretofore unheard from — EMS barbers. Who knew that EMT-B was a prerequisite for admission into barber college?
	Sure, $18k a year is a fair salary for EMTs! After all, it's not like we have your lives in our hands or anything! This one didn't even make it through the first round of voting. "$18k a year!" the volunteer EMTs screeched. "What are we, mercenaries?"
	EMS Week 2010: To hell with cakes and balloons, we'd be happy if you just slowed down and pulled to the right.
	Become an EMT, because none of the local burger joints give discounts to nurses. One of the finalists, until the nursing lobby got wind of it. Now, ENA is advocating a boycott of Burger King, Taco Bell and KFC until its half-price demands are met. On the plus side, we finally identified the nursing mole at ACEP.
	EMS: Making a living off your stupidity since 1966. This one made it to the final round of voting, over the strident objections of injury prevention advocates. It was ultimately rejected not because it sounded too cynical, but because it hit too close to home.
Read the top five rejected EMS Week 2010 Themes at EMS1.com.

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