Google+ is Google’s foray into social networking and how to use it for business is the topic of Google+ for Business by marketing expert and social media evangelist Chris Brogan. In the book, which I read on my Kindle Fire, Chris overviews Google+ with a focus on business. Considering the challenge of writing a book during the infancy of the social network I thought the book capably reviewed the features of Google+ while teaching principles that are applicable to any social network.

Be Friendly

Chris writes, “People do business with people they like.” To succeed with social network it is paramount to be friendly, personable, and share content that matters to your audience. Finding the right mix of business and personal probably depends a lot on the industry, audience, and product.

Key Points

The points that Chris reinforced with examples and interviews throughout the book were:

• Share links, videos, articles, and updates that are interesting and relevant to your audience
• Listen to the conversation about your market and product
• Add value to the conversation with insights and expertise

Have a Set of Rules of Engagement

Chris advocates for a set of rules of engagement for employees that are going to be using Google+ and other social networks for business. “Rules of

Engagement” is another way of having a policy. I recently wrote on the whether the rules of engagement should permit fire and EMS personnel to post photos in uniform or with department vehicles or equipment.

The rules of engagement will vary for your industry or organization and should trend towards sharing, connecting, and focusing efforts. I am regularly fine tuning my personal rules of engagement for social media usage. After reading I have renewed focus for my online activities. I want to ensure my online identity matches with my self-identity. I see myself as a content creator, educator, paramedic, and marathon runner. I want to ensure that is the identity my online connections are seeing as well.

Are you on Google+? I would be glad to add you to my EMS Circle. 

Links

• Greg Friese on Google+
• Chris Brogan Google Plus
• More books for the Everyday EMS Reader

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I read a fair number of EMS blogs and a common theme is …. “sorry it has been so long since I have posted.”

If you are struggling for a blog post consider writing one of these post types:

1. List post – write your top 3 patient assessment tips, 3 lessons you have learned as an EMT, 3 ways a first responder can help with any patient, 3 tools you take on every call, 3 things in your pockets, 3 books you have read. Get the idea… make a list. Write a blurb about each item. This post is a list post.

2. How To – explain to readers how to complete a specific task. The more narrow the task the easier it is to write a post. How to do a patient assessment is a tough post to write. How to splint an injured ankle is much easier to write.

3. Relate A to B – relate one of your non EMS interests to EMS. I often write about my passion for running and can relate metaphors of running to being an EMS professional. What do you do outside of EMS that you can share with your readers.

Finally, don’t forget the review post. Write a review of a book, app, event, class, movie, etc. How to write an app review.

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EMS: the Job of Your Lifeby Devin Kerins is a series of stories from the streets of northern New Jersey. The stories are from the author’s own experience, as well as stories told to him by other EMTs and Paramedics in the surrounding area.

EMS Version of Reader’s Digest

Most of the stories are short – just a few paragraphs – so this book can be read in bursts. Since there is not a narrative arc from start to finish this book could be read over many weeks or months or a reader could bounce around to chapters of interest.

Accomplished His Goal

One of the author’s primary goal was to help readers, especially friends of EMS or strangers to EMS, better understand the challenges, stresses, and rewards of EMS. I think he accomplished that goal with the many vignettes of the good and bad of being a volunteer or paid EMT in an urban area.

EMS in the Northeast

I have read several books now about EMS life in and around New York City. I am really struck by the bravado and the sentiments towards some groups of patients in these books. It might be my midwestern and small town sensibilities, but I can’t imagine experiencing let alone wanting to share some of the stories in this book and several other big city EMS books. Some readers might grimace at some of the stories in EMS: the Job of Your Life while others might wish to give the author and his co-workers a high five.

How About You?

Have you read EMS: the Job of Your Life or the sequel, EMS2: the Job of Your Life?

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One of our goals at Everyday EMS Tips is to become the best location for EMS professionals to learn out about the best apps for Smartphones (iPhone, Droid, Blackberry). If you are using an app that you think is essential for EMS students or EMS professionals email me a review and I will share it with Everyday EMS Tips readers.

Use a structure like this for your review:

Paragraph 1: Introduce the app – name, function, and features

Paragraph 2: talk about what you like about the app

Paragraph 3: describe features that would make the app more useful to you

Paragraph 4: tell readers where to find the app – include hyperlinks

Paragraph 5: write a few sentences about yourself and the work you do

Note on screenshots: the ideal is to send me links to locations where images are already posted.

Submit an app review now

If you want your smartphone app for EMS professionals reviewed by one of app review team members check out the guidelines here. We post press releases on Saturday if you would like to submit a press release email it to Greg Friese

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About the Book

In November of 2004 Roy Hallums, a retired US Navy Commander, working as a contractor in Iraq was kidnapped from his office. He spent the next 311 days as a hostage. Buried Alive is Roy’s story of his time in captivity and how he made it through the experience alive. For example, he used the daily prayers of his captors and regular overflights of Coalition Forces helicopter flights Roy was able to stay oriented to time and his relative location. With tremendous resolve and focus Roy survived numerous beatings, near starvation, and almost total sensory deprivation.

In addition to telling his own story Roy uses interviews and diaries of his family to tell the story of what they experienced. Obviously his unknown whereabouts and health was troubling to his family. Roy uses their accounts to tell how they managed the experience and their efforts to help find and rescue Roy.

He also has interviewed the members of the US Hostage Working Group, FBI, and Special Forces to describe how his kidnapping was investigated and the clues that led to a daring rescue by US Special Forces. The combination of narrative from three vantage points kept me turning the pages quickly. Roy was successfully rescued, in relative good mental and physical health, after 311 days in captivity. I am amazed at his resolve and honored to have read his story.

Could I survive?
My natural inclination when reading any story of true survival is to wonder how I would handle the same or similar situation? Could I stay in the moment to make decisions that could save my life? How would I tolerate sustained deprivation from food, water, light, and human contact? What level of pain from beatings, insect infestations, and living in my own filth would cause me to break?

I hope I never have to answer those questions as a hostage, but knowing that it is possible is reassuring to me. Roy’s story led me to reflect on the importance of all that I have each day and how thankful I am for time with my wife and children. Life is tenuous and can change rapidly.

Iraq War Vantage Points
Buried Alive is the second book I have read in 2010 written from the perspective of a single individual experiencing the Iraq War (the other was Saber’s Edge). Previously most of my reading has been at the strategic level from journalists, policy makers, and elected officials. The first person view point humanizes the conflict and the tremendous impact it is having on the soldiers and contractors that have been on the front lines of this conflict. I am grateful to them and their families.


Note: I wrote this review as a member of the Booksneeze Blog Reviewer team. This is an Everyday EMS Tips book review. If you want your book or product reviewed check out the guidelines here.

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This is a guest post by Andrew Spencer, AREMT-I, MIRHC. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

A new app for iPhone with more than 1500 medications for less than the price of a large cup of good coffee?

I was skeptical at first but having carried printed copies of the latest formularies, copies of the BNF, MIMS, USP-NF, and others for so many years I decided that £1.19 ($1.99) wasn’t too much to pay to give a try.

Despite taking up very little space, just 0.6MB, it contains a wealth of useful information.

The medications are broken down into 3 main categories:

1. NREMT Drugs

2. Common Home Meds

3. Medication Classes

NREMT Drugs
There are 111 of the most common emergency medications, from Abciximab to Ziprasidone, each with Drug Classes, Trade Names, Therapeutic Action/Pharmacodynamics, Emergency Use, Pharmacokinetics, Contraindications and Precautions, Adverse/Side Effects, Interactions, and Prehospital Considerations.

Common Home Meds
There are 1473 of the most common home medications with their classes.

Unlike a printed volume or many computer based references this app checks for updates and corrections every time you launch it. This means that you will not need to pay for the next edition / version, a great help as some are released every 3 to 6 months at a cost of £15 to £40 ($25 to $65) each.

It may not have the range of a printed or computer based formulary but with it’s light weight price and heavy weight content not only will this app act as an aid memoir but will be an excellent aid to learning for a students and for those newly on the road.

I think that I may now, finally, be able leave those bulky formulary publications on the wagon or even back at base.

Andrew has been a medic for over 25 years, as a nurse, Royal Navy medic, EMT, and educator. He is a member of the College of Emergency Medicine and the Faculty of PreHospital Care of The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He is also a member of NAEMT and NAEMSE  He has worked in many and varied environments including industrial, private services, and close protection.

Would you like your EMS product, service, book, or event reviewed for EverydayEMSTips readers? View our product review guidelines.

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With 2009 officially in the books, patient care reports clearing the billing process, and start of year tasks completed this might be the time that employee reviews are being conducted. In my experience employees are reviewed either at the end of the calendar year or on their service anniversary. I just had my employee review and have been thinking about my experiences as a supervisor and employee over the years.

When preparing for and conducting employee reviews these are Everyday EMS tips and techniques I have found useful:

1. Make notes throughout the year about employees that you can use as specific examples of the good and the bad during the actual review.

2. Ask co-workers of the employee, other managers, and subordinates for feedback. One supervisor I had would send an email each month of the employees up for review and request feedback from co-workers. EMS professionals rarely work with direct observation from their supervisor. The manager needs feedback about our performance that might be more descriptive or nuanced that what can be expressed in patient care report or billing form.

If you get this request I suggest always responding. It is gratifying for your co-workers to hear kind things from their colleagues. It may also be an important opportunity for your supervisor to identify a problem early.

3. Reviews are not meant for big surprises. If I have failed I need to know it soon and with immediate corrective actions. Don’t wait until January to discuss a performance issue that began in July. Feedback needs to be timely and relevant for it to be feedback.

4. Focus on specifics and planning for growth. Most of us have enough self-awareness to generally know what is coming in a review. Use the time together for planning accomplishments for the year ahead in 2010. Look forward instead of backward during a review. Maybe even change the title to “Preview.”

5. Make it about one person. The person sitting in front of you during the review. Discuss how they performed relative to expectations not to their co-workers. This is time for the employee; not the performance of other people that may or may not have any impact on the employee.

6. Maybe it is time to say goodbye. I have been in the midst of preparing reviews for several employees when I have realized it is time to part ways with the employee. There is never a good time to send someone packing. But in every case that I found myself asking “should we terminate this person?” the answer was always “yes and we probably should have a long time ago.” Although I am a fan (and several time recipient of second chances) tigers don’t change their stripes. The review might be the best time to look ahead and realize the employee is no longer on the same path as your organization. Once that decision is made I am a big fan of making it happen as soon as possible while honoring what ever termination work rules might exist.

What are your thoughts on conducting reviews?

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Annual Review

I recently had my annual performance review for my part-time paramedic job. The reviewer was gracious and had thoughtful feedback about my performance during the past year. I continue to meet the shift and training requirements for part-time staff and didn’t have any mistakes or errors that either were not already corrected or worthy of discussing in the evaluations.

I appreciated the reviewer’s encouragement to deepen my involvement in the organization and contribute as there are many opportunities for all employees to help the organization achieve excellence.

Rating Scale

Like almost every evaluation I was rated on several categories on this scale:

• Poor
• Fair
• Satisfactory
• Good
• Excellent

I received ratings at the level I would have self-rated myself. I was not surprised with any of the categories ratings. Given the opportunity I would have rated my performance from fair to good, depending on the category. I would not have given myself any excellent ratings and agreed with the reviewer that excellent ratings should be a rarity and a goal for all but the most exceptional performances.

When using a word or number rating scale it is most useful to define what each of the terms means in specific and concrete examples. I might define poor or excellent different than a co-worker. I also think anyone that receives a “poor” rating should know about that rating well before it is annual review time and related to a specific incident or incidents.

Striving for Excellence

Similarly, any employee that has an exceptional incident, something that is truly worth of an “excellent” on an evaluation, should be told of that in a manner that is timely and concrete.

At one job my supervisor continually stressed the importance of a continual quest for excellence. From the top down we used the philosophical approach of “Kaizen” in a quest for excellence. Our goal was zero accidents. By breaking down our operations into different segments we looked for opportunities for improvement in each segment. Kaizen at the micro level led to excellence at the macro level.

Free Text Comments

As an employee I am always most interested in the reviewer’s free text comments about my performance and encouragements for improvement. Just like the narrative of a patient care report comments on an evaluation are the heart of the experience. My reviewer encouraged me to contribute ideas, suggestions, and resources toward’s the organizations continuing quest for excellence. I am glad to assist because there quest for excellence is my quest for excellence.

How do you define excellence?

Will you know excellence when you see it?

Wikipedia article about Kaizen.

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