It’s EMS WEEK 2020! It sure doesn’t feel like it, though. Usually as we are approaching this week, we’re talking about crew breakfasts, the EMS week banquet, service recognition events, team-building, and other fun events. Instead, our discussions are focused on things like PPE utilization, COVID alert rates, disease spread, and community fatality rates. Much of the work that ACEP and NAEMT have done in preparing for EMS Week this year has basically been to support all of us in EMS in continuing to do the job that we love so much in the face of such a strange and challenging pandemic, rather than their traditional roles of cheer-leading and boosting morale during this week.

This week is normally one of celebration and joy, and instead, it’s transformed into one of reflection, appreciation, education, preparation, and consolation. A time to check on each other, make sure that our brothers and sisters have the resources they need to keep doing the job we’re doing safely and effectively, and that we are well enough, both mentally and physically, to continue serving the communities that we love. So if you know or love an EMT or Paramedic, take a moment to thank them for being a part of this crazy group of pre-hospital medical practitioners, but maybe also give them this week to have some quiet time to reflect and check in on their brothers and sisters – it’s not our usual time of loud celebration, and if you see that reflected on our faces this week, that’s ok, too.