PULSE Magazine | April 2019 Issue

UNDERSTANDING and HONORING our COMMUNICATION MEDICS cont.

JC Ferguson, Commander 8 yrs.

1. What drove you to purse a dispatch career? Nothing! I was seeking a position in the organization but wasn’t certified as a paramedic which was required at the time to be a field medic. I applied to communications to begin working while pursuing further certification. I ended up loving the high speed cognitive challenge of 911 call taking and dispatching. 2. Tell me about a day in the life of a 911 dispatcher It’s like chess on crack. You have all these pieces to move around (get units to incidents) but every time you make a move, the conditions change. To do this well, it takes constant evaluation of a multitude of factors in order to make the most efficient and reasonable choices to ensure the right help gets to the right places in the quickest and safest manner possible.

3. What would you like the public to know about the work you do? I’d like the public to know that we’re here to help, and part of that help includes balancing their emergency against other emergencies in the system. But regardless of where their priority falls, they will get excellent care and instructions on what to do from our Medics.

4. How do you decompress after a difficult call? I decompress by taking a break and spending some time in the center gym.

5. What misconceptions about being a dispatcher would you like to clarify? A common misconception is that dispatchers just gather information and send resources. This is an over simplification of a process that requires rapid behavior modifica- tion, knowledge of triage, and the ability to simultaneously process information from multiple sources. And while we may be able to “find” you, that process can take time and is still lacking absolute accuracy. Always know where you are!

6. Any other information you wish to include about being a dispatcher. Public Safety dispatch is a unique world where psychology, multi-tasking, and life/death situations merge and are applied or realized in a matter of seconds to minutes. Few other jobs involve this range of skills/needs in such a short time frame.

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