With EMS Week just around the corner, May 18-24, here are some tips for leading fun and successful station tours for the public. For more EMS Week ideas visit EMSResponder.com/EMSWeek. - Editor

You show up for your shift and your supervisor advises you that your partner has called in sick. But not to worry, there is a group of children coming by the station for a tour and they need someone to speak to them about and show them the ambulance. Your first instinct may be to run and hide, but with some preparation, you will be ready for the unexpected ambulance "show and tell" and give a great tour.

Your first step is to do your research.

What is the history of EMS? Do a Google search and you will get plenty of great information. How about in your area? Who had the first EMS service?

What types of calls does your service run? How many a day? Month?

Use pictures in your presentation. Ask around, do any of your co-workers have old pictures of themselves or of old rigs? Find pictures of old ambulances to show how we have changed from horse drawn carriages to funeral homes to what you have now.

Next, start explaining the equipment you carry and show how to use it.

As you are demonstrating its use, tell the children when we would use it and why.

Example; as you are showing your traction splint, tell the children that the femur is the longest and strongest bone in the body. See if anyone knows how much force it would take to break your femur and ways it could be fractured. Check with your hospital to see if they have any old x-rays of a fractured femur to show the kids. What other types of splints do you carry? Show how to use them as well. If the group you are speaking to is a scout troop, ask them how they would splint a fracture if they did not have any commercial equipment.

What other equipment do we have that could help make this an exciting tour? Get another volunteer and show how we immobilize and speak to the children about spinal cord injury and causes of spinal cord injury. Depending on the age of the children, explain the different types of paralysis. Check with a neurologist to see if you can borrow a model of the spinal cord and spine.

Another piece of equipment I like to show is the cardiac monitor. Show the children how to take a pulse and blood pressure and let one take yours! Explain to the children what we look for when we use our monitors and why we would use this piece of equipment.

No ambulance tour would be complete without mentioning 911!

I think every child over the age of 5 knows how to call 911. But many do not know what to say when they have an emergency. Get 2 phones and play dispatcher and have one your willing volunteers call 911. Just be sure to give them the script so they will know what to say. Then you can have the other kids critique the call. At one school, we have started getting children to write down their address, cross street, phone number, subdivision, and house description. We laminate it and put a magnet on the back and have the kids put it on their refrigerator. And since many families only have cell phones now, everyone must know this information.

Here are some other tips to help you have fun and give a successful tour:

• Make sure all of your equipment is clean and ready to use.
• Keep a "tour" box readily available. This should have your x-rays, models, and any pictures you may have.
• Encourage the crew members that enjoy doing these presentations. Show and Tell are not for everyone and those who do not enjoy it will not represent your company well.
• Have fun and remember... one of these kids may be picking you up one of these days!!

Lisa Valadie, EMT-P, is a paramedic, a child passenger safety seat technician instructor and winner of the 2005 EMS Magazine EMT/Paramedic of the Year Award.