What Do Local Emergency Services Workers Wish People Knew about Their Jobs?

On Feb. 5, a panel of local volunteer EMS professionals and firefighters connected virtually to discuss Michael Perry’s Population: 485 – one of the featured books for the 2022 Door County Reads.

David Siegel, author of Forces of Change: Events That Led to the Development of the Green Bay Fire Department, moderated the discussion of themes of the book, relating them to the panelists’ personal experiences. For the penultimate question, Siegel asked, “What do you wish people knew about your job?” Here are a few responses from panel members.

Ann Jensen
Full time, Door County Emergency Services

I’ve noticed it more this past summer than ever before: people not pulling over and yielding to emergency vehicles. It’s really, really bad, and people think they can pull halfway over, going down the road, and continue driving and they’re halfway off the road. It’s so incredibly dangerous, not just to them but to us as well. If they pull over, get caught and get pulled over in front of us – that the yielding is a courtesy thing. But it’s a safety factor for everybody involved, and I just really wish people would be more cognizant of that because it’s already stressful driving an emergency vehicle – that makes it that much worse. So I wish people would just understand we’re asking you to safely pull over when you can and stop your vehicle until we get by.

Paul Swanson
Assistant fire chief, Washington Island

One of the things when this panel discussion first came up was the word “volunteer.” What does that mean, right? I’m totally okay with people calling us volunteers, but I’ve always looked at this as a job. Whether you’re what you’re paid or how much you are paid or whatever, this is a job. The things you have to know today, both in EMS and fire, the classes you have to take, the certifications, and then the training after that and the experience, I just wish people knew, you know, what we go through to do this job. The other thing, I think, especially in the last few years, is I just wish people would concentrate on being nice.

Erika DeFere
Paramedic lieutenant, Door County EMS

One thing I wish people knew about our job – especially since there are so many rescue 911 TV shows that portray EMS and fire – that everybody is always running into scenes and calls. We are specifically trained to not run to things. So just because we are not running doesn’t mean that it’s not an emergency. By walking there with purpose, we get there safely and efficiently into your house, or wherever you are, to take care of you. But we don’t run.

You can watch the full panel here>>