Overview
The Official Guide to EMS Blogging by Dave Konig
One of the biggest challenges facing the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is being able to communicate with the public about what EMS is and what we can or cannot do. For years we have relied heavily on the media to help educate the public about our services. Sometimes they got it right, but most times there were half-truths or missing facts in the story.
Now media itself is seemingly under the gun. Whereas newsrooms used to have hundreds of employees, their staffing is being reduced as print circulation, radio listening, and television views are being replaced by online publications, podcasts, and online video. If they weren't able to accurately tell our story when they were at full staff, what makes us think that they can tell it now with their own manpower shortages?
Communicating with and educating the public about EMS is something that we need to accept and own ourselves. We need to tell our own story, to communicate our own value, and place ourselves in the minds of the public as we want to be seen.
Blogging provides us an easy way to do just that. Blogging allows us to tell our own story to our communities so we can effectively communicate our value. It provides us the opportunity to educate the public on both what we can do and on things that will help us better serve them when they need us. It also provides us the opportunity to educate one another about the differences in our systems and share ideas on how to improve our critical service.
This book lays out the basics geared for the Emergency Medical Services Blogger and what they should know including Disclosures and Disclaimers, the pitfalls of HIPAA, and what to write once you actually have your blog up.
