Keith Edmonds, AEMTA President

TRAUMA!! Welcome to the world of the new Arkansas Trauma System!! I hope that everyone has had an opportunity to attend one of the Arkansas EMT Association events that we have put together to ‘roll out’ the new Trauma System for Arkansas. Needless to say, we have been extremely busy making these events happen in order to get the information out to you, the Professional that will make the Trauma System work in Arkansas.

Our events that have occurred so far have been quite educational and eventful. We opened up the Trauma Educational Blitz in Pine Bluff with the first ever Trauma Symposium to be held in Arkansas. We were blessed with several great lectures as well as several great lecturers. Many different realms of Trauma were touched on in some aspect there and those that attended had the ability to learn from these lectures and return to their homes with the information to share with other employees that were working during this event. What a concept!! We want as many as we can fit into a room to attend these events, however, if your job calls you first, then you must answer that call because the families in Arkansas need you.

I am sure there are only a few EMS Professionals in Arkansas that can now say they attended class in the men’s room. While our Symposium was being held in Pine Bluff, we actually had a tornado warning issued for that area with rotation and funnel clouds being spotted. All participants were removed from the Pine Bluff Convention Center into the men’s room of the building for safety purposes. Fortunately, all was well and no damage was reported at our location.

Our second event was a class that had not been taught in Arkansas since 1991, according to the records that we researched. This class, the Farmedic Instructor class, proved to be an exciting 16 hours. All 29 attendees had a wonderful time and my appreciation for the knowledge in the class was unremarkable. This class had become docile with several situations, including the buy out of the class by McNeil Publishing. Our Instructors came to us from the south side of Chicago and found that Arkansas EMS Professionals perform over and above several other states! Great job to each of you that attended and for those that could not make it, be prepared, there will be a class near you in the near future. Several of our instructors will be building class presentations to better suit the areas of Arkansas with the equipment we are working with each day.

This weekend, the PHTLS Instructor update is going on in Conway at the OEM Building. We have several Instructors in this class and we are really looking forward to the new information being shared with everyone at the conclusion of the update. Once again, expect an update on your PHTLS in an area near you soon.
Next weekend, we will be in the Harrison area of north Arkansas with our final Trauma Symposium of 2010. This is the same educational opportunity that we shared with those in the south portion of Arkansas at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. We wanted to ensure that this information was given to as many Arkansas EMS Professionals as we could reach. We also wanted to ensure that the costs associated with travel to these events were at a minimum to assist with the economical decline everyone has faced.

We will also be holding the PHTLS for First Responders on October 15 and 16 in Conway. This is a new class for Trauma education and adapts to those that are first on scene. We hope that this class is as full as the others and that our message reaches as many as possible.

The message that the AEMTA wants to ensure that we get to each of our members is this: We want to provide what you, the member wants as education, across the state of Arkansas. We want your input into these classes. We want your suggestions on how to improve our educational events. We want to know how we can reach ALL of the EMS Professionals in Arkansas. It is up to you to provide this information to us.

The AEMTA has received $66,666 for this fiscal year to spend on YOU, the EMS Professional in Arkansas and we want to ensure that you have had the opportunity to attend an event. We realize that some of the dates of our classes have fallen on special days and weekends that have effected our attendance on the events, yet with the time line that we have been faced with and the inability to begin these events until we had received the check from the state, we have had no other choice but to establish these classes and events on the dates that we have in place. If we have placed you in a situation with your families for having these events on these dates, I apologize.

Trauma 2011!!! We will be doing this for years to come! This was not a one time event and will continue as long as there are funds for a Trauma System in Arkansas and we maintain the great representation for EMS in this system. The AEMTA will be receiving in the area of $93,000 for education for the EMS Professional in Arkansas fiscal year 2011 and we, the AEMTA, will be spending it on YOU! Please keep an eye on the AEMTA website for further information on fiscal year 2011 and provide feedback to us on what you would like to see for Trauma Education next year.

A personal thank you from me to all of those who have worked so hard to accomplish the goals that we set out for the Trauma Education. We have faced some very difficult obstacles, both personally and professionally, and you guys have adapted and overcome in a phenomenal manner. It is a pleasure to work side by side with you guys in providing the optimum in education for our profession!

As always, should you have any questions or comments, please contact me by cell at 870-754-9521 or by email at keithedmonds@marioncounty.com. Be safe and keep up the great work you are doing for our state!!