Doing things right

     The commitment to do things right in our profession involves a personal commitment from all of us. With patients whose expectations for care are often driven by what they see on television, it's up to each and every one of us to do our jobs properly. As we all know, the gap between what is shown on TV and real medicine is huge. I would venture to guess that most of our patients really don't know good prehospital care from marginal or bad care.

     If I hire a bricklayer to build a fireplace mantle, I have to make a leap of faith and assume he will do his job right, since I don't know anything whatsoever about bricklaying. Every time a citizen dials 9-1-1, they make a leap of faith that we will do things right. When we choose to sidestep good medicine for any reason, we have betrayed the public's trust in us. Given that, I believe that leaves us with just one choice, and it's the same choice that Scotty made with his BBQ; Do things right.

     Until next month...