A Couple Questions With: John Sammons
· Short bio, please:
o I have been in EMS since 1999, starting as an EMT in a small town in southern New Jersey. Since then, I have been an EMT, paramedic, instructor, municipal and volunteer firefighter, and emergency department technician. I have served as a BLS supervisor, preceptor, field training officer, advanced practice paramedic*, relief district chief, recruit academy instructor and initial education instructor. I am also a participant in the 2022/2023 cohort of the NAEMT Lighthouse Leadership Program.
· What is your current role?
o I am a field training officer and paramedic for Wake County EMS in Raleigh, NC. I also serve on our employee-led health and safety committee, our peer review committee and serve as a relief district chief.
· Tell me how you got started, where did your interest in EMS come from?
o Growing up my mom was sick, she had non-alcoholic cirrhosis and hepatitis that led her to have two liver transplants. One was in 1989 and the other in 1991, we spent a long time in the hospital in Philadelphia. As a kid I was fascinated with medicine, making the determination that I was going to become a doctor and make sure nobody had to suffer like I watched my mom suffer. As I got older, I realized maybe medical school wasn’t for me. I started with the Civil Air Patrol in my teens, got involved with ground search and rescue, and had friends in EMS. It sounded so cool, the lights and sirens, the trauma and excitement! As soon as I got my driver’s license, I drove down to the local rescue squad and started volunteering. The rest, as they say, is history.
· How do you think your time in emergency medicine has changed your view of the world?
o This is tough, because at 18 years old, sitting at the nurse’s desk in the ER where I worked, one of the nurses told me I was much too young to be so cynical. Mary Beth wasn’t wrong. I think now that I’m older emergency medicine has made me appreciate what I have more, and appreciate how quickly everything can change. One minute you’re here, the next you’re not. It also made me realize that my reality is not the same reality that everyone else has. I am fortunate in life, and over the years I have recognized that not everyone else is as fortunate.
· What do you wish you knew on your first day? What advice would you have for a new provider?
o I was 17 when I started, so I already knew everything on my first day, or so I thought. For a new provider, just know that you are not going to know everything on your first day. You will never stop learning, and you should never stop learning. Truly listen, don’t ask questions just to get to the next question, listen to what your patient says, they’ll usually tell you what is wrong if you pay attention. Be kind, we only know our patients for a short period of time, we don’t know their story. Don’t judge, just care.
· What advice would you have for someone interested in taking a leadership position?
o Front-line supervisors, district chiefs, battalion chiefs, whatever your agency calls them, just take care of your people. EMS is inherently stressful; your presence should not unnecessarily add to that stress for your people. Respect is not demanded, it is earned, if you show up every day and put the work in for your crews, the rest will follow. Be humble, be approachable, be consistent, don’t micromanage. Be the positive example, not the cautionary tale.
· Where do you see EMS in 10 years?
o We will always do emergencies, but we will bolster our medical services in the next ten years. As a profession we must move away from the “you call, we haul, that’s all” model to a “you call, we evaluate, provide options and come up with a patient lead plan that is in the best interest of the patient that may not be the ER” model. We are already seeing it happen, and that will hopefully only improve over the next decade. We will also see continued growth in educational standards, research, pay and professional standards.
· What is your favorite funny EMS story to tell at parties?
o I worked an early truck, we used to get in at 0530 to do shift change. We barely changed crews when we got an obstetrical call. It was myself, my paramedic partner, and a paramedic student, who was pumped that he might deliver a baby. Call notes indicated that the baby was coming, like now, and sure enough when we got there, momma did all the work (as usual) and was holding her happy, healthy full-term newborn on the bathroom floor. I noticed that my partner pretty quickly got a pen and paper out of his pockets when we arrived, but didn’t think anything of it. My student cut the cord, dad didn’t want to, and he evaluated mom. Baby boy got wrapped up, and I took him. Everyone was stable, so we were hanging out for a bit waiting for the placenta to be delivered. It was one of the best and most fun scenes I have ever been on, everyone was excited about the new baby and joking about delivering the baby at home, unexpectedly. There was discussion about maybe changing the expected name of the baby to reflect his surprise entry into the world, discussion of who was cleaning up the mess, and debate about the security deposit. Finally the baby’s father turns to us, between laughs, and says: “I like you guys, you guys are great, and that says something cause I don’t like many people, hell, I used to rob people for a living.” I was still holding the baby, because I will always hold a baby, when I realized my partner hadn’t held the baby yet, I didn’t want to be a baby hog after all so I asked him if he wanted to hold him. With a half panicked and half shocked face, he excitedly exclaimed that he still had his pen and paper in each of his hands, and you can’t hold a baby if you have a pen and paper in your hands.
*An APP, or advanced practice paramedic, is a position within Wake County EMS that focuses on mobile integrated health. They have three primary goals: reduce, respond, and redirect. They attempt to reduce 911 utilization by our familiar faces by aligning them with resources and getting to the root of the problem. They respond to high acuity calls to assist crews and act as a clinical resource. Finally, they redirect patients experiencing a mental health crisis or struggling with substance use disorder to an appropriate mental health or rehabilitation center.
