Open Airways: Stories from the back of the ambulance
Active vs. Passive Assumptions
Chris LeBaudour
“When you make an active assumption it requires work, it requires action. Human nature is generally a passive approach… Eventually, passive assumptions slip in… It’s a very dangerous period in an EMS person’s career. It’s a very dangerous period.”
Click to listen as Chris LeBaudour explains why some assumptions are better than others.
Chris LeBaudour is an EMS instructor and a prolific writer with several major EMS publications on the market. He is a faculty member in the Department of Public Safety, EMS Division at Santa Rosa Junior College in California, and he is also the Director of Communications for REACH Air Medical Services, an air ambulance provider in the northwest.
Open Airways is a project to capture an oral history for the benefit of the EMS Community. EMS responders share some of the most meaningful cases of their careers, sometimes with humor and always with compassion. We hope that they will help us improve your practice and inspire a new generation of caregivers.
This series is produced by FISDAP with the support of EMSResponder.com. Listen to the latest features here and look for the series archive at openairways.net.
To share your most meaningful case and the lesson it taught you, call FISDAP Open Airways at 1.651.314.7424
chris, I’m a old paramedic(ccp) in the waterloo-cedar falls area of iowa working for a hosp based service. I have quite a few colleagues who are adamantly against family members riding along with the patient to the hospital or on transfers. The rationale includes of course, extra liability risk, they might get in the way, they might become another patient, you can’t listen to music you prefer, you can’t pass gas with impunity, you name it, but mostly I think arrogance and just not wanting to be bothered is real reason. My contention is that compassionate, family-centered care is the best insurance against law suits and that we really have no right to refuse a mother from riding with her infant or a dying husband with his wife when an ambulance responds. In my 30 years doing ambulance work there have been very rare instances that problems have occurred. Obviously, it is not an ideal world and accidents do happen. It is hard to make a hard and fast policy to cover all situations, but I am trying to get my arms around this issue of loved ones riding to the ER, hospice home, or interfacility transfer situations. Can you shed any light on this or direct me to someone who can? Thanks, Craig Gingrich, Cedar Falls, Iowa
I absolutely agree that involving the family and SHOWING compassion is not only the highest level of care, but a strong insurance policy against lawsuits. If a wreck occurs, then it won’t matter if one or two family members are hurt, there will be lawyers involved. We don’t need to be out there helping give EMS a bad rap. If you don’t want the family to ride along, take a hard look at why you are doing this in the first place. I hear McDonalds is hiring!