Do You Care Enough to ICARE?

In many ways, Chris Le Baudour is just like many other professional EMS educators. He is a dedicated and passionate instructor who takes his job of training and educating competent EMS providers very seriously. He works hard on assuring mastery of skills and making sure the students know what they need to know to provide quality prehospital care. In other ways, however, Chris is quite unique. Each time he seats a new class, he immediately begins working on creating a "learning community" in his classroom.

Just as all of the students have common goals, i.e., pass the class, pass the credentialing examination and get a job, Chris has a goal of wanting them as a group to share and benefit from the classroom experience. To that end, one day he assigns the class a project. He wants them to make a list of words that describe the essential attributes of a quality EMS provider. As Chris shared this remarkable story with me, he told me how the class jumped in with fervor, diligently discussing and brainstorming and trying to distill the essence of what makes us in a handful of words. In the end, the group narrowed it down to just five words, but the best part was yet to come. Some class member shuffled the words and realized that the first letters of the words spelled out ICARE. Now, let's look at the words themselves as well as what they represent:

INTEGRITY: The quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards.
This is the most important quality I believe EMS providers must embrace. We routinely see patients who, for one reason or another, are mentally impaired. Whether they are unconscious, intoxicated, traumatized or hypoxic to the point that they are incapable of making good choices, we must be there to make those choices for them. We must be trustworthy, ethical and conscientious in every aspect of patient care. Just as we protect their personal belongings, we need to protect our patients' privacy. When it is all said and done, we must continually strive to do anything and everything within our capabilities to do what is in the best interest of our patients. If there is any single element of the practice of prehospital medicine that must stand true and fast, it is that we must be people of integrity.

COMPASSION: Sympathy for the suffering of others, often including a desire to help.
Medicine has two distinctly different facets: art and science. Technology and pharmacologic therapeutics represent two of the many elements of the science of medicine. These elements are hard, fast and measurable. On the other side of the equation is the art of medicine, or what might better be termed the heart of medicine--something that is virtually immeasurable. But while the art of medicine may be difficult to quantify, it is still an integral and essential part of our craft, and just as we are charged with using science and technology to the best of our abilities for the benefit of our patients, so we are also charged to treat them with care and compassion.

Sad as it is, we see people at some of the worst times of their lives. Whether it be devastating head trauma, a sudden cardiac arrest, that crippling stroke in the middle of the night or possibly a lethal overdose, we see the suffering of humanity on a daily basis. How can we possibly be compassionate in our care if we don't connect or don't feel for those we care for? Arguably, we cannot.

ACCOUNTABILITY: Being responsible to someone else or others.
Another critical element of the practice of prehospital medicine is that of accountability. While EMS providers almost always work as a team, we are credentialed as individuals. As such, we are personally accountable for our own actions, specifically for the care we provide to others as part of our work in medicine.