EMS Safety Essay

The threat of being struck by a vehicle is a constant danger for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) members. Just in the Edmonton Metro zone EMS members respond to on an average of 350 events per day. Each event involves EMS member entering an ambulance and driving to the event, upon arrival the member exits and retrieves medical kits (side compartment) and stretcher (back of the unit). Which relates to 700 times per day when they are in harms way of being struck by a moving vehicle. This risk is increased considerably when working at dawn, at dusk, in inclement weather, or while working on a vehicle collision.
To decreases the chances of being struck by a vehicle, the majority of EMS member have a uniform which has high-visibility striping on the pants and shirt. While working on a vehicle collisions all EMS personnel are encouraged, by the supervisors, to wear their high-visibility jacket or vest. The compliance is not very high,
The risk of being struck by a vehicle is too high when the visibility of these members is compromised. When it comes to the TEMS members, they have valid reasons for not wearing a high-visibility uniform but the IRP members do not. The supervisor in charge of the Special Operations Teams, Robb Wiggins, stated that he would like all his teams to “look the same” and since the IRP team is relatively new he supplied them with the TEMS uniform. Another reason given was that Calgary IRP members are also without high-visibility markings and “the pants are heavy duty so they resist contagious agents”, which is understandable but does not explain the lack of the safety features. The solution is quite simple, have IRP members wear pants and a shirt with a high-visibility stripe on the side. They can retain their dark crest that way they look similar to other Special Operations Teams but they need high-visibility striping to decrease the chances of being struck by a