Walt Disney World is one of my favorite places. I was fortunate to go there several times as a kid. Most recently I went to WDW for the 2009 National Association of EMS Educators symposium and I went back in the Fall of 2010 for a week with my family. The NAEMSE symposium is returning to WDW in August 2012 and I am planning another visit with my family in January 2013 to run the Disney Half Marathon and Marathon (appropriately called the Goofy).

Since we have been recently we have had friends and family ask us for our Walt Disney World vacation tips. Below is my list of tips, but I know many of you have tips as well that I can share and even apply on my upcoming trips. Please share your tips in the comments.

1. Order Disney vacation planning DVD.
2. Plan to stay in the park at one of the Disney hotels so you can take advantage of the free airport shuttle, extended hours for park guests, and free bus transportation between the hotels and the theme parks.
3. Do the Disney meal plan. We signed up for the  one snack, one quick service meal, and one sit down meal per day and had more food than we could eat.
4. Keep an eye out for promotions that include a free or reduced cost Disney meal plan.
5. I see no need for a rental car if you are going to stay at Disney for the duration of your vacation.
6. We stay at the “moderate” hotels. If I can afford it next time I will stay at a deluxe resort on the monorail line to cut travel time to the theme parks.
7. We didn’t have a need for a park hopper pass. Our kids are young and there is plenty to do in a day at a single theme park.
8. Character meals, which can be reserved with the Disney dining plan, are a blast. Our favorites were at the Land in Epcot, the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom, and the Cinderalla buffet at the Polynesian.
9. Fly Southwest because bags fly free.
10. Bring one bag of breakfast and snack foods. Use this same bag for bringing souvenirs home.
11. Try to be up and going early enough to be at a park when it opens – the rope drop is fun.
12. Use the fast pass to maximize ride time and minimize wait time.
13. Plan your park visits based on which parks have extended hours for WDW hotel guests.
14. Just like anything in life, wear comfortable shoes.
15. Let Disney photographers take lots of photos of your family/group.
16. You can bring snacks and water bottles into the park.
17. We left the park each day to return to our hotel to nap, swim, and recharge.
18. The fire works at each theme park are well worth it. Check the schedule and stake out a good viewing spot.
19. EMS professionals that use Twitter make sure to connect with @JEFF_EMT before your visit. Jeff is an EMT for Reedy Creek Emergency Services, a fantastic host, and a huge Disney. Give him a shout out before you go.
20. Look for tips from Disney bloggers. Lots of people visit Disney way more often than I have and have more tips and vacation planning advice.

Meeting a friend at a Disney character meal

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This month I tried to gather up posts on the theme of “collections” since the first post I wanted to share was Rogue Medic’s collection of podcasts and blogs. He has curated an excellent collection of blogs and podcasts to keep up with EMS and emergency medicine research.

You can eat better in 2012. Fire Engineering has a great article that connects nutrition with line of duty deaths. Learn how several New York State fire departments are changing their destiny through healthful cooking.

The Social Medic reminds us that “Basics” always matter. He points out that EMT Basics make up 2/3 of the EMS workforce, but too often conferences, CE, and more are focused on advanced providers. How are you going to make sure the basics matter in 2012?

In January I have been involved in many conversations about the importance of paramedics having a college degree. My friend Trevor, an expert in leadership and organizational behavior, reminds us that a degree doesn’t make one a leader. If leadership is not about the degree then what is it about?

Everyday EMS Athlete Brandon Mulnix is a minimalist shoe ultra marathon runner. He has just started a field trial of a minimalist work boot. I know people that collect shoes. Brandon collects shoes that are barely shoes, at least not in that same manner I define shoes.

The Edumedic accepted the 12 ‘n 12 Everyday EMS reading challenge and has posted the first of twelve book reviews. He started his challenge with one of my favorites, the Non-Conformist’s Guide to EMS Success.

Steve Whitehead, author of the Non-Conformist’s Guide to EMS Success ran a nice post about why we should all belong to NAEMT (Introducing the NAEMT). I belong. Do you? You should.

The Unwired Medic attended the Consumer Electronics Shows and picked lots of great products that have application to EMS. Read his collection of products and events at CES Day 1, CES Day 2, and CES Day 3.

In the midst of the NFL playoffs and at the height of Tebowmania many EMS bloggers wrote on the topic, “If Tim Tebow was a Paramedic.” At Medic Madness you can find a collection of all of the Tebow as a Paramedic posts.

With EMS Today a month away this post on 20 Ways to Connect After Conference from Christa Miller’s Blog.

Lifehacker shared a great collection of free online education courses in all of the big academic areas.

Finally, Mark Glencorse bid farewell to EMS earlier this month. You might be able to take Mark out the ambulance, but he will always be a paramedic. I appreciate his efforts as a tireless advocate for paramedics and promoting the possibilities to learn from one another. Thanks Mark.

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A reader asked, “Do you maintain a calendar of EMS conferences?”

That sounds like a huge project to build and maintain a calendar. To find upcoming EMS conferences I would do the following:

1. Check for an EMS conference calendar at the big 3 EMS media websites – EMS1.com, EMSWorld.com, and JEMS.com.

2. Search Facebook for EMS Conference Pages.

3. Narrow your search to a time and general place, such as “EMS Conference and Wisconsin.”

4. Create a Google Alert with the search query “EMS Conference”.

5. Ask your social network for conference suggestions.

Are you planning an EMS conference? Let the details and a link in the post comments and send me a press release I can share with Everyday EMS Tips readers.

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In November I attended the American Ambulance Association (AAA) conference in Las Vegas. The conference was the first I have attended, to my knowledge, that had a conference app. Available for free download in the iTunes store and Android market the app was a guide to the conference, the sessions, and the vendors.

I suspect the app, which was an adaptation of the conference program, is a service offered to conferences. The features in the app

AAA App Home Screen

didn’t seem to reflect any specific knowledge of the conference attendees or our needs. Because of some of the errors in the app vendor listings I also wonder if the app was a proof of concept or a low cost item outsourced by the conference planners without careful inspection of the app contents.

Some of the features of the app:

• 6 primary navigation choices
• Easy to navigate between screens
• Ability to build a personal schedule during the conference
• List of vendors
• Links to the vendor websites

Features that would make this app more useful:

• Social features that would allow me to share my schedule
• Buttons to share conference session info to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+
• RSS feed for the conference hashtag
• Photo album of photos taken and tagged by conference attendees
• Social check-ins and special offers for app users
• App updates to help me plan for the 2012 conference

AAA App Nav

I like  the idea of a conference app. How do you make a conference app valuable to attendees, presenters, and vendors?

I would encourage conferences to build an app that attendees would learn about before the conference, have a reason and a chance to use before the conference, and continue to engage with attendees through the app after the conference.

Have you used a conference app? Which features were useful? 

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I have had many opportunities to be on conference program committees. A common committee responsibility is to review and score conference presentation applications. Having read hundreds of conference presentation proposals I would encourage you to follow these tips:

1. Know the conference attendees. Submit clinical topics to conferences primarily attended by clinicians. Submit educator topics for educator conferences.

2. Spell check, grammar check, and proofread. If the session title doesn’t match the description of the session I assume you are too lazy to proofread your application. I have no interest in your slides. Three or more grammar errors or typos in a 100 word session description is a total fail.

3. Clever session titles that match with the conference theme and or location. Use your imagination and show some creativity when naming your session. Help it stand out from the crowd. Carry this creativity through to the actual presentation design and delivery.

4. Actually describe the presentation. When asked to describe the presentation in 150 to 200 words actually describe the presentation with sentences. A list of bullet points or an outline usually doesn’t transfer well to the computer based scoring systems and usually don’t show significant thought given to the proposal.

5. Under promise and over deliver. Many 90 minute conference proposals promise just the opposite by describing a session that could be a semester long college course. Instead of covering everything about student assessment focus on a specific niche like multiple choice question construction or preceptor evaluation of students.

6. Turn off the CAPS lock. There is a good chance your submission will either be copied into a database or entered directly into a database. Regardless, I won’t see any of the fancy formatting you may have applied. All I see is plain text. Your best bet is to go for neutral emotional response. CAPS lock will always trigger a negative emotion without me even reading what you wrote.

What are your conference submission tips?

Participants in 2011 NAEMSE Symposium Session presented by Kyle Bates and Greg Friese

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A few weeks ago I received my evaluations from participants in my two sessions at EMS World Expo 2011. I presented two sessions:

• Trends in Online Emergency Responder Education (view the slides)
• Using Social Media to Market your EMS Agency (view the slides)

EMS World Expo 2011

The evaluation scores and comments are about what I expected. I thought I would share the responses to the question “Are there any sessions or topics you would like to see added for for future events?” as this might inspire you to submit for EMS World Expo 2012 in New Orleans, LA.

Trends in Online Emergency Responder Education attendees wrote:

• Is online training good for your department?
• How to develop an online training session (framework)
• Would like to see a session that actually teaches you/works with student on how to use technology of online EMS education. Tools, tricks, etc.
• More classes on e-learning (all aspects: CE, initial, etc.)
• More EMS Leadership training
• Empact provider course

Using Social Media to Market your EMS Agency attendees wrote:

• How to build your social media presence from scratch
• Hands-on class about how to set up, upload and tag photos
• More social media sessions
• More social media usage topics

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I am convinced that in the workplace any incident of wrong doing – cheating, stealing, etc. – is always witnessed or realized by a co-worker. The part I have never understood is the lengths individuals will go to either pretend what they know is happening is not happening or protect someone that is clearly violating rules, ethics, or individuals. I just don’t get it.

Paramedic Bob Sullivan, at the EMS Patient Perspective, reminded us early in the month about how important it is to Do the Right Thing.

Brandon Otto shared a great set of notes and observations from the Western Massachusetts EMS Conference. As a speaker I would be thrilled to see if an attendees notes matched the key points I was trying to make.

The Rogue Medic uses his impressive skills in medical illustration to explain Why CPR Doesn’t Work for Trauma.

Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, interviews author Sandra Crowe about her book, Since Strangling is Not an Option. Oddly the holidays often remind us and lead to encounters with the most difficult people in our life. Get some tips from Jamie and Sandra.

David Konig, the Social Medic, shares 6 tips for EMS coverage at special events. I want to know if the wrestlers are really hurt of if that is part of the act. Do you know?

BetsyDuck at the Rescue Digest Blog explains how Keynote presentations at EMS conferences helps us know who we are and know about the group we belong to.

Do you know what you want to do after being a paramedic? This EMS1.com article shares 9 Reasons Why Nursing Should be Your Next Career Move.

Remember one of the best places to find blogs by paramedics is Paramedic.Alltop.com.

What were your favorite blog posts from November? What would you like to read more about? 

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Day 2 at the American Ambulance Association tradeshow and conference started with another early morning wake up (curse you time change). I was out the front door of the Hilton by 0530 for another run on Las Vegas Boulevard. As I had the day before I ran a round trip from the Hilton the MGM Grand…about 6.5 miles.

View from the 24th floor of the Las Vegas Hilton

American Ambulance Association 2011

Accidental Trial: No Lights and No Sirens for 48 Hours

That morning I attended the session – “Do Ambulance Response Times Matter?” My simple answer is, “No they don’t matter.”

The presenter reviewed lots of research studies regarding response times for different types of ambulance responses. The upshot was that response times only appear to matter for first responder/BLS response to cardiac arrest with delivery of an AED and chest compressions. Do you agree?

The most interesting aspect of the presentation to me was the presenter’s brief mention of his service’s experience during Super Bowl Week, February, 2011 in Fort Worth. As the Packers and Steelers were preparing for the Super Bowl the Dallas Fort Worth area experienced a significant snow and ice storm. Because of perilous road conditions the MedStar service did all “no red lights and no sirens” for forty eight hours. The presenter shared data that compared the two days of no lights and no sirens with the previous week when red lights and sirens were used. They are preparing to publish their data regarding the difference in response times and patient outcomes in the areas of chest pain, stroke, and trauma alerts. Can you guess what they learned …

Request and Response

A quote that resonated with me. The presenter stated, “There is no such thing as an inappropriate request for 911. There is such a thing as an inappropriate response.”

Retraining the public about when and what is an appropriate reason to call 911. The public will continue to call 911, as we have trained them to do. What we can change more easily is the resources we send to the call for help. I have to believe, that because of increasing resource constraints, it will be more and more difficult to send two or more paramedics to every 911 request.

More Tradeshow

Most of my day was spent at the CentreLearn booth in the exhibit hall. I always enjoy talking to our customers about how they are using CentreLearn and answering questions about how to better use CentreLearn.

CentreLearn Booth

I also had some downtime to visit with my friends at Aladtec, makers of EMS Manager and Fire Manager. We discussed some interesting ideas for tradeshow giveaways and how to enjoy Las Vegas.

I also was alerted that one of my videos about safety and risk management is embedded in the eCore EMS scheduling software demo. The eCore operations manager spent the first day trying to remember where he had seen me before. The second day he realized he had seen me in every product demo he had ever delivered. I am honored for the additional views of those videos.

eCore Software Demo featuring Everyday EMS Tips Video

This is a Stryker stretcher in a Flack ambulance. There was some tittering at the conference about a red Stryker cot.

Does a Stryker cot need to be yellow?

Amazing Dinner
After the tradeshow break down I headed to the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino for dinner at the Milos restaurant. We were treated to an amazing meal that started with an egg plant and zucchini appetizer and was followed by two varieties of out of this world grilled Mediterranean fish. The meal was capped with a flourless chocolate cake that simply melted in my mouth with each bite. It was one of the best meals I have had in a long time. I will definitely be going back to Milos.

This image does not accurately show how amazing this dinner was

Does this look better?

Our fish being plated

Best cake ever!

Red Eye Flight Home

I left Las Vegas on the red eye flight to Detroit for a connection back to Wisconsin. I was surprised to have a great three hour nap … most likely made possible by a single Nyquil gel tablet. Just enough to dry me out, take the edge of a lingering ear ache, and help me sleep.

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As I read trade publications, attend conferences, and receive announcements about EMT and Paramedic continuing education programs there are some clear “Hot Topics.”

Hot Topics of Today

These topics are sure to be on every conference program and regularly featured in national magazines today and probably for the next couple of years.

1. End Tidal Capnography

2. Airway Management

3. 12-Lead ECG

4. STEMI

5. EMS Personnel Safety

6. WMD/HazMat (although this topic seems to be fading from its pinnacle in the 3 to 5 years after 9/11)

Hot Topics of the Future

EMS is changing. What we do and what we get paid to do are likely to change in the next 5 to 10 years. Acquiring knowledge and expertise in these niches will likely open doors for you as a conference presenter and EMS publication author.

1. Wound Care

2. Long-Term Care of Diabetes, Heart Failure, Hypertension, COPD, Renal Failure

3. EMS Finance

4. Stroke and Cardiac Arrest Centers of Excellence (like today’s system for trauma)

5. Community Paramedicine

6. Field Imaging of Internal Bleeding and Brain Swelling

Tim Phalen presenting at EMS World Expo 2011

What trends do you see for Hot EMS Topics? 

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Last week I presented at the Ohio Society of Fire Service Instructors Symposium on the topics of online education and social media content creation. I also had a chance to share some general classroom teaching tips. These are my three best:

Columbus Division of Fire training academy lecture hall

1. Start on time and end on time. You can’t always control the start time, but you can control the end time. Ending on time is an important part of honoring your student’s time.

2. Learn the names of all of your students as quickly as possible. For any course longer than four hours learning names is essential for connecting with the audience. On shorter program, such as a conference presentation, I try to arrive early enough to meet a few people in the audience that I can mention by name or call on during the presentation.

3. Ask, “What questions do you have?” to start a discussion/Q and A period instead of asking the discussion killer, “Do you have any questions?” The former is an invitation to ask a question. The latter is a yes or no that doesn’t allow a question to be the response.

Bonus Tip: The teacher is critical. The technology is useful. During my Friday presentations I had several technological mishaps as I was foiled by my computer’s virus checker. Despite all of my efforts I couldn’t implement the audience polling system I had planned to use. I am confident that because I know the material so well that I could be reduced to some sand on the ground and a stick and teach just about anything.

What are your top tips for fire and EMS educators?

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