Improving Professional Working Relationships in Emergency Medical Services

Emergency medical services (EMS) providers are placed in any number of situations on a daily basis, often with no two calls being alike. Providers must constantly maintain their composure as they try to restore some semblance of order in the midst of what is often very chaotic. Navigating congested traffic while driving lights and sirens to the scene, making critical decisions within seconds, and rendering patient care without haste are just a few of the things that keep stress levels high.

All of these things are important parts of providing efficient emergency care to the critically ill and injured. Probably one of the most important things an EMS provider does on a daily basis though is communication with others. Communication with dispatch allows providers to find the incident scene, communication with medical direction allows appropriate emergency care to be delivered, and communication with the nursing staff and physicians at the emergency department typically allows for a smooth transfer of patient care.

While good communication sounds pretty simple, experience has shown that there can be a breakdown in communication at any number of levels throughout the course of an incident, and unfortunately when this happens patient care may suffer. One factor that may lead to that breakdown in communication is poor interprofessional and interagency working relationships. Firefighters, law enforcement officers, emergency dispatchers, nurses, physicians, hospital clerical staff, and other EMS providers are just some examples of the types of people encountered by EMS providers on a daily basis. Striving to develop good working relationships with all of these groups of people can go a long way toward not only improving the EMS providers' ability to communicate and do their job, but also toward improving the overall quality and morale of the EMS workplace.

While the concept sounds simple, it is important for providers to realize that developing these working relationships does not happen overnight. It takes time and effort on the part of the EMS provider in order for these positive working relationships to become a reality. While it would be impossible to cover every scenario EMS providers might encounter when communicating and interacting with others, the purpose of this article is to provide suggestions for EMS providers on ways to improve both interprofessional and interagency working relationships with those persons and agencies that EMS providers most commonly interact with.

Due to the nature of EMS, providers probably interact with members of the emergency department (ED) staff and other public safety personnel more than any other group(s) of people. In many cases this interaction is positive, however, there are certainly more than a handful of times when this interaction does not go well. One way to improve or enhance relations between the ER staff and the EMS provider is to simply get to know members of the ED staff. The ED is typically a very busy place, and often times ED nurses and physicians barely have time to take a full report from the EMS provider before having to move on to their next patient. If it does not interfere with the EMS providers' job duties and/or ED policy, it may be possible for EMS providers to agree to help out the ED staff during these busy times by assisting with patient care (ie, assisting with cardiac arrest, splint application prior to interfacility transport, taking vital signs, etc.) or simply running errands within the hospital such as taking recently drawn blood to the lab for processing. When the ED isn't quite so busy, EMS providers should take advantage of the opportunity to spend some time interacting with the ED staff, rather than just "dumping" their patient, completing necessary paperwork, and returning to station. Learning who people are and what they do, asking questions to improve one's own knowledge and skills, taking the time to explain what goes on in the world of EMS, and even talking about things unrelated to emergency medicine and healthcare can go a long way toward gaining respect and developing positive working relationships with the ED staff.