When ambulance crew face violence at work

Paramedic Kyle Bayens (left) and EMT Emilie Thurston (right) working on a patient inside their ambulance before transporting him to a hospital. Photo: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post/TNS

For as long as emergency medicine has existed, being physically assaulted has been part of the job. Talking about feelings that come after an assault, though? Not so much.

That’s something that paramedics and others working in emergency medicine are trying to change, said Crystal Eastman, a paramedic instructor and “peer responder” at Denver Health, Colorado, the United States.