OK, well week two of the NBC series Trauma doesn’t have me DVR’ing it just yet. But I am not quite ready to give up on it. While I am in agreement on many of the criticisms being circulated online by EMS professionals far and wide. I try and look for small things that may shed a positive light on EMS.

I must admit that the second episode was a fraction better as far as patient care and some of the one liners go. But I think we have to realize that it just is not going to be what we actually do out there in the field. We won’t be looking into a mirror on this show.

The last episode did bring a little part of what we do into light. The show gave a small window into what families can go through after we are long gone. How our actions can effect patient families. Now of course the show showed the EMS characters interacting with families way more than most of us are use to. But it was an attempt to show the other part of a patient’s emergency. Perhaps the part that many of us would prefer to ignore.

I think it is important for us as the real EMS Professionals to remember that patients have families and that a patient outcome whether postive or negative will have a lasting affect on the family or freinds.

So while we can knock the show for being a bit extreme on how it portrays us in EMS and we can pick at patient care inaccuracies. We should look at how the last episode at least presented this view of 911. We should acknowledge how we are a much bigger part in this aspect of the job and try to conduct ourselves in a way that will leave a positive impression of EMS on the patient families.

While I am not sold just yet on this show, I also am not quite ready to give up on the potential that it can have for the EMS profession and how it is percieved by the public.

I know this is crazy and I should be running the other way. Maybe I am looking for that silver lining that is not there. Maybe I just watch it since it is right after Hereos. I say 2 more weeks before I give my final grade. This will give the show a little more time for extra credit.