Thank you for your service | Gratitude in EMS
“Thank you for your service” has to be the biggest joke in public safety. People say that stupid phrase to us all the time and we in turn use it against each other, but here’s a question for you. When was the last time you were thankful to serve?
It doesn’t feel that long ago that I was green, wide eyed, and enamored with the very title of EMT. I remember receiving my card in the mail with my name in bold print and the letters E.M.T right below it and repeating that phrase to myself over and over again. “Chad Davis, EMT.” I told everyone who would listen. I was so grateful for the title that I was willing to do it for free just for the opportunity to wear it on my chest. But the bills had to be paid and I applied for a dead-end ambulance transport job and was grateful for the opportunity when I received the offer of employment. I could not believe someone would pay me to do this. One day, I was working that dead-end ambulance transport job and received a call for a fire department job, telling me to report on Monday, in only 3 days. I typed my resignation up on the spot and just before I hit send, a coworker cautioned me. “They won’t hire you back without a two-week notice.” I didn’t care. The gratitude had worn off.
“It’s like being called up to the major leagues, man. You don’t ask them to wait.” I hit the button and 17 years later, still have no regrets.
Fast forward 6 months. I graduated the academy and received the full compliment of monogrammed uniforms and equpment. “Chad Davis, Firefighter.” Turnout gear with my name on it. Engraved par tags, and a personalized locker. I had arrived and couldn’t imagine anything else I would rather be doing.
Artist Credit: Daniel Sundahl
In those first shifts, I begged to change trucks to respond to a gunshot wound. A captain obliged me and replaced an elated veteran who went back to the table to read his newspaper. I thought that was odd. Why would you not want to go to this?
3 years later, I relived those same awestruck moments as I read the words “Chad Davis, Paramedic” on my hot off the press paramedic card, 18 years later, as I received an offer standing in the airport less than 24 hours after an interview for a captain’s job, and then once again this year when I received the author’s copy of my first book with my words and my name across the front, Burnt Out: A Paramedic’s Memoir, by Chad Davis. If you’re not catching the trend, I’m a sucker for personalization.
It’s the strangest thing. Every one of us has experienced the same excitement when offered a new job or receiving a new license or certification. And, inversely, everyone has sat around the fire station or rescue squad table griping about some perceived fire or ambulance service sleight or injustice. Firefighters and EMTs are artists when it comes to complaining. As the saying goes, “There’s two things that (Insert title) hate. Change, and the way things are.” And “If they ain’t mad, they ain’t happy.”
Why do we forget so quickly the childlike excitement that we felt when we were offered the opportunity to do this job, or the gratitude we felt when someone saw enough value in us to induct us into the brotherhood? We all begin as idealistic creatures but most of us quickly lose perspective of our reasons for doing this job. Most of us. There are a few among us who refrain from engaging in the complaining, who never seem to fall into the trap. You remember them by name because there are so few of them. Every single one of us has at least one face in mind, and without exception, that is the person that everyone likes; that nobody has anything negative to say about.
There’s good science behind this. Studies have shown that those who are more gratuitous are happier, and those who keep gratitude journals experience more satisfaction in their lives than those who do not. In one study conducted by Berkeley University, which focused on people struggling with mental health, one control group was assigned to write gratuitous letters. A second control group was asked to express aggravations or irritations, and third group was asked to do nothing. It was revealed that those who practiced gratitude towards others saw an improvement in their own mental health at 4 and 12 weeks after the exercise concluded. On the flip side, those who did nothing, or expressed aggravations or irritations reported no improvement or worsened mental health. This study was pivotal because most previous gratitude studies focused on people who were already mentally healthy. This one showed that gratitude can bring one back from mental low points and provide sustained benefit. There are a lot of studies that support expressing gratitude as a means of improving mental health. There is a clear link between gratitude, happiness, mental and physical wellness, and stress resilience, particularly in healthcare. It is where you place your focus that matters.
“Gratitude helps us cope with stressful experiences by reminding us of what is positive in our lives in the midst of—or even as a result of—suffering,” says Joel Wong, Direct of Counseling Psychology at Indiana University, Bloomington.
The alarming thing is that for every person we identified who does not partake in the round table complaining, there are hundreds more that do. Our jobs, by their very nature, are negative, so it is no wonder that we are burnt out, tired, and angry. There are no end to the problems in our field. I am not saying to not complain, but when you do, do so with purpose. Are you talking to someone who can solve the problem? Have you presented a solution to the problem? Are you exacerbating the problem by engaging? Don’t get bogged down in the negativity and lose your focus on what brought you here to begin with. When you sit around that table and the complaints begin, think back to how you felt when you received that job offer and a shirt with your name on it and ask yourself if the problem at hand is so bad that you would rather be working in another field? And if not, maybe make the decision to get up and walk away, or perhaps make an entry into your gratitude journal. Just as negativity is contagious, so is gratitude but the latter contributes something positive to the workplace and to your own wellbeing, while the former drags everyone around down.
It is easy to believe that happiness begets gratitude, but in fact it is just the opposite. You have probably heard someone say “If I ever get rich, I will give to charity.” You were probably talking to someone who has never been charitable and wouldn’t be if they were rich either. The same applies to gratitude and happiness. Generosity and gratitude are mindsets that you choose and are not dependent upon any other variables. Those that practice them when wealth and/or happiness are in short supply are far more likely to create both wealth and happiness. There are a million little things to be grateful for even when there are so many things not to be. So look around. Where do you fall on the gratitude scale? Where does your organization fall? If your workplace is not quite up to par, then maybe you could be a catalyst for change.
There are many problems that we can’t solve, but rather than complaining about them, why not take the time to appreciate those around you, or take notice of something that someone else put effort into and thank them for it. Gratitude is a muscle, and the more you exercise it, the easier it gets. It’s good for you, and it’s good for everyone else too.