Back in the days of the rose colored glasses, before I ever dreamed of any future that did not include a Nobel Prize, I went to college. I had a complete stranger for a roommate in the dorms, and a few weeks before school started, I received some information about her and the opportunity to contact her.
This process turned a completely intimidating theory of a humanoid with weird habits, messy tendencies, and horrible taste in music into a real girl named Susannah with an affinity for country music and deep roots in religion. Perhaps not my kind of girl on the norm, but at least she was no longer a looming, scary archetype of the unknown. SusieQ and I weren’t best friends by any means, but we were comfortable enough for me to hold back her hair the first time she got a hold of some wine coolers.
I work in an agency with a few hundred folks in the field and a fairly normal EMS worthy turnaround rate. I don’t always know who my coworkers are and I suspect the same is true for many of my constituents. I may have more knowledge of many of my colleagues than I did of my college roommate, but SusieQ and I never had to work smoothly together to fight off the Grim Reaper.
Does your agency use any tool for biographical information to brief new partners in advance? Do you prepare a dorm assignment biography in advance? Do you copy the centerfolds’ interviews from Playboy?
If you could know something about your future partner, other than the vague ideas one grasps from others’ gossip and the occasional walk-by greeting in the wash bay, what would you want to know? What would you want them to know about you?
I think I would want to know a few basic things. Their certification level, their comfort level with the job, how long they have been at the agency, where they are from, what they prefer to do to pass the time on shift, and something fun and EMS related.
What do you folks think?
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