EMS Education - Growth Mindset Development

EMS Providers can benefit greatly from cultivating a growth mindset, which is the belief that one's abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication and effort. Here's what EMS providers should know about cultivating a growth mindset:

Embrace Challenges: Encourage EMS providers to see challenges as opportunities for growth rather than obstacles. Facing difficult situations in the field can be daunting, but approaching them with a mindset of growth can help providers see them as chances to learn and improve.

Persistance: Encourage resilience and perseverance when things don't go as planned. EMS providers may encounter setbacks or failures, but it's important for them to understand that setbacks are a natural part of the learning process and can lead to valuable lessons.

Criticism Becomes Constructive Feedback: Teach EMS providers to see feedback, whether positive or negative, as an opportunity for growth. Constructive criticism can help providers identify areas for improvement and develop their skills further.

Learn From Mistakes: Emphasize the importance of reflecting on mistakes and using them as learning opportunities. Instead of dwelling on failures, encourage EMS providers to analyze what went wrong, identify lessons learned, and use that knowledge to improve their performance in the future.

Celebrate Growth & Progress: Recognize and celebrate the efforts and achievements of EMS providers as they work to develop their skills and expertise. By acknowledging their progress, you reinforce the idea that growth is possible through effort and dedication.

The concept of a growth mindset was originally proposed by psychologist Carol Dweck in her research on achievement and success. 

Dweck's groundbreaking work, outlined in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success and published in 2006, contrasts the growth mindset with the fixed mindset, which is the belief that abilities and intelligence are innate and unchangeable. 

Dweck's research demonstrates the power of mindset in shaping individuals' attitudes toward learning and achievement, with implications for personal and professional development across various fields, including EMS.

Further Reading:

Dweck, C. S. (2006) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House Publishing

Desperate Times Call for Leave No Trace Measures

Four Leave No Trace Musts for the Government Shutdown

You've read the disturbing stories reported from our national parks, now that the partial government shutdown has moved into January. The situation is serious—wildlife picking through bins piled high with trash, latrines overflowing with waste and unfettered off-roading in fragile ecosystems. With 85% of National Park Service employees furloughed, rescue services are limited and maintenance continues to be deferred. 

Please consider these recommendations for the duration of the shutdown from the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics:

1. Develop a Plan B: Choose an alternative to national parks and other federal lands if it is at all possible. The country has many vast and sweeping state parks and municipal lands, many adjacent or nearby. So if you can, give our national lands a breather. 

2. Pack Out ALL Trash: Plan ahead and prepare takes on an elevated meaning during the shutdown. Make sure that you equip yourself with extra bags for any potential trash that you generate and plan to remove all of it from the park. Pack out trash left behind by others to lessen potential impacts on wildlife and waterways, and the environment in general. 

3. It's Time To Try: Given that many restroom facilities on federal lands are closed or already compromised, the use of biodegradable, disposable toilet-in-a-bag-type products is essential. 

Even if it has never been in your repertory, this is a tremendously important commitment you must make to protect wildlife, water sources, and fellow users. 

Contact your local outdoor retailer and ask if they have Restop, Clean Waste or comparable products so you can pack out your human waste. 

4. Share Well With Others: With a lack of critical personnel on site are areas, many visitors will not receive important Leave No Trace information they would otherwise absorb from rangers. 

Share Leave No Trace principles far and wide with those around you. You may find that people are very receptive to hearing from you during the shutdown. 

Most importantly, if you are enjoying federal lands, do so with a gentle touch. All of us hope, for the sake of our beloved outdoors, that the shutdown ends soon. If it continues, we will share more information with you about efforts to help by our thousands of passionate members and partners. 

The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics supplies dome of the best information to help you make good decisions about enjoying our shared lands responsibly during this precarious time.

Go to: Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics

The Camas Centre, Ross of Mull, Scotland

In the summer of 1989 I took my first steps down the track to Camas Tuath, they were not my last either, and part of me has never left. Being at the Camas Centre, and on Iona, that summer transformed my view of the world as a young man and those initial experiences continue to shape my approach to outdoor learning, even now.

It was in these places I discovered the joy of working in remote settings and real community living. I was able to reflect upon ways my faith could grow and was equipped with the means to understand my own spirituality as I progressed in life. These experiences and subsequent times spent at Camas inspired my career choices to become an outdoor educator.

The Camas Centre plays a crucial role in the lives of the young people and adults that visit the centre, by offering them the opportunity to see core-values being lived out on a daily basis via the resident team, thus enabling them to manage any future tides of change in a positive way, by modeling what they experience at the centre.

And regardless of how we use it to promote aspects of social learning, being at Camas also helps us all embrace good environmental stewardship to preserve what there is to enjoy by simply being there. The sense of connection with nature that is achieved by working on the land, exploring the water, and the shared enjoyment of Camas is both powerful and transformative.

I firmly believe that participating in a week of community living at Camas can act as a catalyst for change within an individual by creating a sense of connection with and an awareness of others as well as the environment in which we live together.

Go to: The Camas Centre

#LifeIsPrecious #Camas #Adventure

Leadership Development - Nurturing a Growth Mindset

Scholars are deeply gratified when their ideas catch on. And they are even more gratified when their ideas make a difference (Carol Dweck, 2016). The growth mindset concept is spreading and being embraced in a number of sectors as part of their curriculum.

But popularity has a price and people begin to distort ideas, and therefore fail to reap their benefits (Carol Dweck, 2016). For instance, some believe a growth mindset is just about praising and rewarding effort. This isn’t true for students in schools, and it’s not true for employees in organizations. In both settings, outcomes matter.

Furthermore, some organizations espouse an ambitious "adopt a growth mindset, and good things will happen" philosophy. Such mission statements are wonderful things, aren't they? You can’t argue with lofty values like growth, empowerment, or innovation. But what do they mean to employees if the company doesn’t implement policies that make them real and attainable?

Organizations that embody a growth mindset encourage appropriate risk-taking, knowing that some risks won’t work out (Carol Dweck, 2016). They reward employees for important and useful lessons learned, even if a project does not meet its original goals.

However, the following infographic serves a purpose in that it emphasizes a relational dynamic between the individual and the growth mindset concept (Steve Wood, 2018). In that, no matter what stage of your career you are in, nurturing and preserving your own growth is absolutely essential, rather than devolve that responsibility to the organization you are part of. In that way, you are more likely to be an agent of change as a leader as well as be better invested as an active follower within your team.

Such are my thoughts on the matter, for now...

#Leadership #GrowthMindset #Development

NREMT Emergency Medical Responder

Emergency Medical Responders provide immediate lifesaving care to critical patients who access the emergency medical services system. EMRs have the knowledge and skills necessary to provide immediate lifesaving interventions while awaiting additional EMS resources to arrive. 

EMRs also provide assistance to higher-level personnel at the scene of emergencies and during transport. Emergency Medical Responders are a vital part of the comprehensive EMS response. Under medical oversight, Emergency Medical Responders perform basic interventions with minimal equipment.

Go to: www.nremt.org

Leadership Development - Conditional Outdoor Leadership Theory

Image Credit: Paddle Golden Gate

Simon Priest and Robert Chase (1989) took the notion of situational leadership and adapted it specifically for outdoor practitioners. The Conditional Outdoor Leadership Theory (COLT) postulates that leaders must go beyond the dimensions of relationship, task, and group readiness and look at all the levels of conditional favourability (Martin et al., 2006; Priest & Gass, 2005). The COLT model presents a continuum of leadership styles from autocratic, through democratic, to abdicratic (Lewin et al., 1938; Katz et al., 1950; Tannenbaum & Schmidt, 1973) depending on whether the power to make decisions rests with the leader, is shared between the leader and group, or is abdicated to the group (Priest, 1986; Priest & Gass, 2005; Ogilvie, 2005). 

Figure 1: COLT Model (Priest & Gass, 2005, p 248)

According to this model, with increasing concern for a task, or getting the job done, good leaders adopt an autocratic leadership style. With increasing concern for relationships, effective leaders employ an abdicratic style. When these concerns are equally important, the model predicts that good leaders will utilize a democratic style. These styles are spread across a typical orientation matrix of (X-axis by Y-axis) concern for task and concern for relationships (Stogdill & Coons, 1957; Blake &  Mouton, 1978; Hersey & Blanchard, 1982). 

UThe proportion of style expressed also 'flexes' in response to a spectrum of factors (Z-axis) encompassing the favourability of conditions (Fiedler, 1967; Ogilvie, 2005). 

Image Credits: Mark Tozer Collection 

The degree to which there is a high or low 'favourability' within each of these conditions - environmental dangers, leader proficiency, group cohesion, member competence, and decision consequences will create circumstances conducive that shift the style in one direction or another. 

Low favourability: Dangers are extreme; leadership is deficient; the individuals are incompetent; there is poor group cohesion; consequences of decisions are major. A more autocratic style might be necessary.

Medium favourability: Dangers are acceptable; the leader is proficient; individuals are reasonably responsible; the group gets along fairly well; the consequences of decisions are mostly recoverable. Style depends on the "pull" of concerns.

High favorability: Dangers minimal; the leader is highly proficient; the are very competent; the group gets along very well; the consequence of decisions are minor. A more abdicratic style may be favorable.

In other words, immediate danger can require autocratic leadership, though a united and competent group may well flourish under an abdicratic leader, even under adverse conditions (Martin et al., 2006; Priest & Gass, 2005; Ogilvie, 2005). 

The key point to pick up here is that no one style can be right all the time. The most effective style for ‘good leadership’ is one that is flexible within changing situations (Dixon & Priest, 1991, Tozer et al, 2007). 

Ogilvie (2005) makes the remark that the model is a sophisticated one and considerable effort is required to grasp the essential meaning sufficiently to be of any use in practice. 

However, the COLT model is considered to be more finely tuned to the needs of outdoor learning where levels of concern for the care and well being of the individual are likely to be higher than in the cut-and-thrust realms of industry and commerce from which most other models and theories about leadership have originated. 

Image Credits: Mark Tozer Collection

Reference List 

Blake, R. R. & Mouton, J. S. (1978) The New Managerial Grid. Houston TX: Gulf 

Dixon, T., & Priest, S. (1991) Confirmation of the Conditional Outdoor Leadership 

Theory. Journal Of Adventure Education and Outdoor Leadership 8 (1)

Fiedler, F. E. (1967) A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness. New York: Mcgraw-Hill

Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. (1982) Management of Organisation Behaviour. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall

Katz et al., (1950) 

Lewin, K., Lippitt, R., & White, R. K. (1938) An Experimental Approach to The 

Study of Autocracy and Behaviour. Sociometry 1: 292-300

Martin, B., Cashel, C., Wagstaff, M. & Breunig, M. (2006) Outdoor Leadership –

Theory and Practice. Champaign, Illinois. Human Kinetics

Ogilvie, K. (2005) Leading and Managing Groups in The Outdoors. Penrith: Institute 

for Outdoor Learning

Priest, S. (1988a) The Conditional Theory of Leadership: An Exercise in Flexibility. 

Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Leadership 6 (2): 10-17

Priest, S., & Chase, R. (1989) The Conditional Theory of Outdoor Leadership Style. 

Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Leadership 6 (3) 10-17

Priest, S., & Gass, MA (2005) Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming. Human Kinetics. Stogdill and Coons, 1957 

Stogdill & Coons, 1957

Tannenbaum, R. & Schmidt, W. H (1973) How To Choose a Leadership Pattern. 

Harvard Business Review 51 (3): 162-275

Tozer, M., Fazey, I., & Fazey, J. (2007) Recognizing and Developing Adaptive 

Expertise Within Outdoor and Expedition Leaders. Journal of Adventure 

Education & Outdoor Learning 7:1: 55 – 75