Celebrate Today's EMS – and Prepare for the EMS of Tomorrow!

National EMS Week is May 18-24. This is OUR week to celebrate and honor the life-saving service our EMS practitioners provide their patients on a daily basis and the important role of EMS in our nation's preparedness strategy and response to disasters.

This year's celebration also provides an excellent opportunity to help our local government officials, other health care providers in our communities, and the public at large understand the important role of EMS in our changing healthcare system. New opportunities are emerging within our profession. EMS is very well positioned to help our communities improve patient outcomes and lower healthcare costs. Learn about these changes and how to prepare yourself, your agency and your community.

This year's EMS Week Ideas Site www.emsweekideas.org has been designed to provide members with new resources and tools to help your agency celebrate your accomplishments during EMS Week and prepare for the future with new sections and resources on:

• Understanding Mobile Integrated Healthcare and Community Paramedicine and what it means for your future in EMS.
• What you can do to prepare yourself for the future through education, training and professional development.
• How you and your EMS agency can build local partnerships to strengthen your community's awareness of health and safety issues.
• Plus a complete "how-to" guide on advocating for EMS at the local, state and federal levels, a virtual library on EMS history, and how you can get involved in honoring our EMS heroes.
• Now is the time to plan for 2014 EMS Week. Please visit the site and share it as a resource with your co-workers. We look forward to hearing about your EMS Week activities. Please send your stories and photos to media@naemt.org.

EMS Week 2014 is almost here. Start planning today at www.emsweekideas.org!