EMS Leadership Academy 2007: Pre-Conference of the North Country Spring Fling
Evaluation Summary

The EMS Leadership Academy Evaluations Scale:
1−Strongly Agree, 2−Agree, 3−Disagree, 4−Strongly Disagree

Presentations

Managing EMS Providers by Lee Burns, BS, EMT-P, CIC-RF

• 82% of attendees strongly agreed and 18% agreed that the presentation objectives were achieved.
• 85% of attendees strongly agreed and 15% agreed that the information was current.
• 88% of attendees strongly agreed and 12% agreed that the education level was appropriate.
• 82% of attendees strongly agreed and 18% agreed that the teaching method was effective.
• 76% of attendees strongly agreed and 24% agreed that the presentation met his/her educational needs.
• 79% of attendees strongly agreed and 21% agreed that the information was pertinent to his/her practice.

The “Alphabet Soup” of EMS by Joyce Mulleedy, RN, MS, EMT, CIC-RF, EMT-CC

• 76% of attendees strongly agreed and 24% agreed that the presentation objectives were achieved.
• 79% of attendees strongly agreed and 18% agreed and 3% disagreed that the information was current.
• 79% of attendees strongly agreed and 21% agreed that the education level was appropriate.
• 62% of attendees strongly agreed, 35% agreed and 3% disagreed that the teaching method was effective.
• 74% of attendees strongly agreed, 23% agreed and 3% disagreed that the presentation met his/her educational needs.
• 74% of attendees strongly agreed, 23% agreed and 3% disagreed that the information was pertinent to his/her practice.

EMS Recruitment and Retention by Karl Klug, BS, CIC, EMT-CC

• 79% of attendees strongly agreed and 21% agreed that the presentation objectives were achieved.
• 79% of attendees strongly agreed and 21% agreed that the information was current.
• 82% of attendees strongly agreed and 18% agreed that the education level was appropriate.
• 76% of attendees strongly agreed, 21% agreed and 3% disagreed that the teaching method was effective.
• 74% of attendees strongly agreed, 21% agreed and 5% disagreed that the presentation met his/her educational needs.
• 71% of attendees strongly agreed, 21% agreed and 8% disagreed that the information was pertinent to his/her practice.

A Road Trip Through New York State’s EMS Law by Lee Burns, BS, EMT-P, CIC-RF

• 94% of attendees strongly agreed and 6% agreed that the presentation objectives were achieved.
• 97% of attendees strongly agreed and 3% agreed that the information was current.
• 94% of attendees strongly agreed and 6% agreed that the education level was appropriate.
• 88% of attendees strongly agreed and 12% agreed that the teaching method was effective.
• 91% of attendees strongly agreed and 9% agreed that the presentation met his/her educational needs.
• 94% of attendees strongly agreed and 6% agreed that the information was pertinent to his/her practice.

Attendee Comments:
What did you like most about this Course?

• “Interesting, well knowledgeable topic.  It’s nice to have actual EMS providers teach EMS providers. Really good information on handouts, website, etc.  OSHA stuff will be very helpful.”
• “Everything that is important in EMS today was covered from safety to laws.”
• “Lee Burns was great.  She made it interesting.  She is very excited about what she does.  Karl Klug was good too … he gave some good ideas.”
• “Liked or needed?  I needed the OSHA stuff!  I liked lunch!  The learning was wonderful.”
• “I learned a lot.  I feel I walked away more confident in my participation within my organization.  Very informative in all areas of leadership.”
• “Moved along.  Good information.  Lots of time for questions & comments.”
• “Lots of information about laws.”
• “Speakers were excellent, well-informed, comfortable and helpful.”
• “OSHA is a tough subject. No one wants to hear bad job.  Well done.”
• “Everything moved along smoothly.  Presentations were easy to follow and informative.”
• “Everything was great.”
• “Very informative.  A lot of things I haven’t heard before. The instructors/lecturers were all very good.  Nice to hear from different areas.”
• “Information”
• “Very informative on OSHA/PESH.  Good ideas on leadership/management.”
• “I thought that the course itself was wonderful.  However, I think that my most favorite part were the lectures by Ms. Burns.”
• “The OSHA and PESH information was very interesting.”
• “The speakers were excellent & knowledgeable and very friendly.”
• “Instructors were very interesting.”
• “The speakers were informative and are masters of their craft.  I’m truly grateful I had the opportunity to attend these lectures.”
• “Wide Range information.”
• “Valid material.  Up-to-date information, especially OSHA.”
• “Great administrative presentations.  Knowledgeable instructors – very informative.”
• “Topics of interest.  Managing was my favorite.”
• “From Franklin County, we don’t get many chances to take training at this magnitude.  This training was helpful, useful and informative.  I will be leaving here with information that will help me be an effective leader.”

What did you like least?

• “Seemed to have a lot of ‘noise’ interruptions (i.e., staff @ Bonnie Castle kept entering the room without stopping door from slamming.’
• “I found it difficult to concentrate during the OSHA.  Just way too much, but it is all very needed to know.”
• “The Alphabet Soup … I feel most of the stuff we were told to look on the internet.  Not very interesting.  I felt it was very difficult to stay interested in the topic.”
• “Started 3/3 of the things I attended late.  Ran out of cookies.”
• “I liked everything with the seminar itself.  The facilities were too warm and uncomfortable at times.”
• Maybe, switch Karl & Joyce’s presentations.  Karl was good, but after lunch was not a good spot.  Need a more controversial topic to keep from nodding.”
• “Everything was great!”
• “How much work I now have to do.  Need to include strategies for recruitment and retention.”
• “All geared toward volunteers.  In particular, Recruitment/Retention.  All ___ based.  I am a full-time paid Paramedic – sometimes at this conference I feel like ‘less’ because I get paid (there was a short comparison in relation to paid/volunteer services; however, program is still mostly geared toward volunteer or combination service.”
• “Time organization was not done well.”
• “It was cold in the room.”
• “Some of the lectures were a bit longer than they should have been.  In keeping things a bit shorter, more topics could be discussed.”
• “Few breaks.”
• “I didn’t feel that Mulleedy was as current as she should have been.”
• “The amount of time Joyce had.  She needed more.”

What topics would you like to see for future programs?

• “Ped /Cardiac/Medical emergencies.  How to deal with stupid people.”
• “Well, ask me again later.  Still processing all I learned today.”
• “Conflict Resolution and Documentation Terminating.”
• “It’s not leadership, but pediatrics emergency would be great.”
• “More information about laws, regulations, what you need to have, etc.”
• “OSHA information was very informative. Law presentation was extremely well done and brought excellent information.”
• “Media relations.  Heard nothing about this, as a ‘manager’, ‘sponsor’, etc.  You will, at some point, have to work with the media (or at least deal with them).  I think this is an extremely overlooked part of this job, much to the detriment of EMS.”
• “Decreased confidence – brining you out of your shell.  This is just a vague idea.  I think that there are quite a few providers who have the potential to be wonderful … if they can just boost their confidence a bit.”
• “Med-Legal issues. DNR”
• “Scene management. Yearly law updates.”
• “More on management/leadership”

Additional Comments:

• “Great job you guys!”
• “Great information.  Thanks for the ‘Retention’ section and ‘Recruitment’.  It will help the ‘little’ departments to keep the people they have and, hopefully, add more to their department.”
• “When I attended Cornell’s Educational Leadership course, one of the first rules was ‘no one was allowed to talk in acronyms.”  Good reason.  Different letters mean different things to different areas, etc.  Perhaps we could at least define QI, REMAC, REMSCO – sometimes whole sentences were letters!”
• “Was a wonderful seminar.  The dinner/reception at the end was greatly appreciated.”
• “This is a great training and would be good for everyone, not just officers.  The information, most of it, should be made available to everyone in EMS and Fire.”
• “Information was especially helpful as our agency is in the process of separating from the Fire Department (Security) and developing a ‘not-for-profit’ corp.”
• “Lee Burns is an excellent speaker.  This is my first year of attending on Friday, although I have always attended Saturday’s lectures. Today was very informative and well worth my personal day.”
• “Managing  EMS providers – need more practical examples and suggestions.”
• “Informative lecture on EMS Laws; however, how much of that was actually ‘on-topic’ to leadership/management (very informative though).  What about EMS ‘parking’ of HS at ED – impact and how to handle it.  Do PCR’s have to be completed and turned into ED before leaving ED and going on another call?  Can you force a crew to leave the hospital to take another call before they have completed a PCR?  Just some issues that would be nice to hear addressed.  Overall – Excellent program and I enjoyed it greatly.  Very good job!!!  Thank you. J”
• “This was a great course.  I enjoyed it very much.  Ms. Burns can be quite inspiring.  I also laughed, hysterically, when she referred to herself as a ‘bag of potatoes’.  Ha, ha, laugh out loud funny … she’s got a great sense of humor!”
• “One of my many hats I wear is the County EMS Advisory Board – Management & Leadership has been identified as a major concern.  This is also true of the Fire Service.  I didn’t ask if you go out of your area to teach?  Do you charge?”
• “The whole day was excellent.  I feel Joyce needed more time.  She has information that I didn’t know I needed to be compliant.  I would love to have her do a lecture in our area.  I am sure other departments would benefit from her knowledge.  Thank you for sending the flyer.”