I’ve been looking at the question of professionalism in paramedics by examining the eleven attributes of professionalism in the affective learning domain as laid out by the National Standards Curriculum. You can find a listing of them in my introductory post of this series. My third installment is about the professional attribute of self motivation. In keeping with my previous style, we’ll start with the definition from my laptop’s dictionary:
self-motivated |ˈˌsɛlf ˈmoʊdəˌveɪdɪd|
adjective
motivated to do or achieve something because of one’s own enthusiasm or interest, without needing pressure from others: she’s a very independent, self-motivated individual.
It seems the definition for being self-motivated is to be motivated by something of one’s own. That’s a circular discussion but we’ll leave the critique of Apple’s dictionary software for someone else. Let’s look at what self-motivation means for us.
I would think that being self-motivated is something that is essential to the basic makeup of a paramedic. It makes me sad, then, to think of how often I’ve encountered lazy, ineffective deadweights who wear a paramedic patch only because they haven’t screwed up enough to have it revoked (or haven’t been caught). It’s clear we need to look at self motivation more closely.
Again, I’m not concerned nor will I attempt to discuss how to feel more self-motivated. I’m only here to look at how to act more self-motivated. All I care about, all that matters in the real world of professionalism are behaviors. The NSC discusses what to look for in paramedic students as they develop towards the self-motivation aspect of professionalism:
Examples of professional behavior include, but are not limited to: Taking initiative to complete assignments; taking initiative to improve and/or correct behavior; taking on and following through on tasks without constant supervision; showing enthusiasm for learning and improvement; consistently striving for excellence in all aspects of patient care and professional activities; accepting constructive feedback in a positive manner; taking advantage of learning opportunities.
Ok. This is more along the lines of what we need: A list of behaviors that define self-motivation. More than just a list of behaviors, I’d like to look at degree and means of measuring a paramedic’s (or paramedic student’s) level of self-motivation as well as provide guidelines for improvement. As a paramedic instructor, I went with a scale, as I have in the other attributes, that listed behaviors corresponding with a grade. This scale shows attributes of a self-motivated paramedic student as well as a non-motivated student. Let’s look at the low-end. If a student is not self-motivated, how does she perform?
1. Consistently failing to meet established deadlines, unable to demonstrate intrinsic motivation requiring extra extrinsic motivation from instructors, failing to improve even after corrective feedback has been provided by faculty, requiring constant supervision to complete tasks or being asked to repeat a task that is incorrectly performed.
There seems to be some vague language in this one, specifically, "…unable to demonstrate intrinsic motivation requiring extra extrinsic motivation from instructors…" At first glance this looks like an attempt to measure a person’s internal dialogue. Words like "intrinsic" make me think we’re trying to get inside one’s head. If you read it again, the words "intrinsic" and "extrinsic"actually refer to the source of motivation. I could translate and simplify this phrase into "…unable to do things for himself, always needs an instructor go give direction…" That’s more like it. Here we’re looking at a demonstrable behavior. Does this student do anything without prompting and reminder?
Now let’s look at the middle of the road. The middle of the road is the average. I consider average to be the minimum acceptable standards for a paramedic. What are the minimum acceptable behaviors for in a student who is self motivated?
3. Taking initiative to complete assignments, taking initiative to improve or correct behavior, taking on and following through on tasks without constant supervision, showing enthusiasm for learning and improvement, consistently striving for improvement in all aspects of patient care and professional activities, accepting constructive criticism in a positive manner, taking advantage of learning opportunities.
Actually, this looks pretty good! Are we sure this is the minimum standards? Is this what we call average? Let me ask you this: Are we so used to lazy, unmotivated slackers in our workforce and profession that we rejoice when we find someone who does what they’re supposed to, when they’re supposed to and not having to be told about it? Let’s think about this and redefine our concept of minimum acceptable standards for a paramedic. We MUST take initiative, we MUST do things without being told by someone else, we MUST always learn and improve. Without doing that, we’re going to kill patients. Anyone who thinks they’re "good enough" as a paramedic and has to be told what to do in the ambulance needs to get into a different line of work. If we want to go above and beyond this, then what are the behaviors we would look for in order to improve?
4. Occasionally completing and turning in assignments before the scheduled deadline, volunteering for additional duties, consistently striving for excellence in all aspects of patient care and professional activities, seeking out a mentor or faculty member to provide constructive criticism, informing faculty of learning opportunities.
You see the difference there? This upper level student is turning things in early. He volunteers for additional work, he consistently looks to improve and he goes to faculty and mentors for feedback of his own volition. These are clear activities of a self-motivated paramedic student. I particularly like the phrase, "…consistently striving for excellence in all aspects of patient care and professional activities." How do we measure that? It sounds pretty, the kind of thing you would find in a corporate mission statement or something. Whatever the flowery language, what we have here is a student who doesn’t do just enough. She’ll push herself to learn more, perform better, fine-tune skills and dig a little deeper into her craft as it develops. She’ll also shoulder more work, and carry a bit more of the workload. We can’t know the motivation of someone that does this nor do we care. It only matters that she does it.
But wait! There’s more!
5. Never missing a deadline and often completing assignments well ahead of deadlines, reminding other students of deadlines, supporting faculty in upholding the rules and regulations of the program, taking seriously opportunities to provide feedback to fellow students, seeking opportunities to obtain feedback, assisting faculty in arranging and coordinating activities.
"Never missing a deadline…supporting faculty in upholding rules and regulations…" This guys sounds like a suck-up, doesn’t he? Sure, but only to those who are less than motivated. There is a difference between a suck-up/snitch/sycophant and a motivated paramedic. This paramedic will be providing feedback to her coworkers, helping out the faculty/management but the big, important difference is that she is also just as eagerly looking for opportunities to improve herself.
The material I’ve been quoting here is from a paramedic student manual. How do we apply this to our practice as post-scholastic, in-the-field paramedics? First let’s look at motivation.
Actually, in this context, I don’t really care about motivation, at least in terms of what a paramedic is thinking. All I care about is what the paramedic does. We can, however, look at whether the motivation is external or internal. It’s simple: Did someone tell him what to do or did he do it without being told/asked? That’s the difference between internal or external motivation. And that is one of the measurable parts of EMS.
Whether we’re looking at an employee or ourselves we we can break down self-motivatied behaviors into three areas:
- Work
- Patient Care
- Education/Development
1. Work: This is the routine stuff we do every day. It’s what bugs us to always have to do yet we get really, REALLY worked-up if the shift before us doesn’t do it. I’m talking about restocking, cleaning the ambulance, house chores, paperwork and shining things that we think should be painted.
It’s the small things but they grow on you. Am I right?
2. Patient Care: I would think that this goes without saying yet here I am saying it. The paramedic who is self-motivated in the area of patient care treats each patient as they present, according to the patient’s treatment needs, not according to how convenient or not it is to the paramedic. Does the patient near the end of the shift get different treatment because the paramedic doesn’t want to be held over for shift change? The self-motivated paramedic will go through the "hassle" of performing a full 12-lead on that homeless chest pain patient even if he has to go through 4 layers of less-than-pleasant smelling clothes. He does this without being told because it’s what the patient needs.
3. Education/Deveopment: It seems that self-motivation is the opposite of self-satisfied. The self-motivated paramedic is never satisfied that she knows enough. She will constantly be looking for chances to add "tools to her toolbox" by learning new things, refining current skills and being curious. She won’t wait until her supervisor tells her it’s time to take a refresher class and she’ll often find ways to take more than required.
To make it simple, a self-motivated paramedic:
- Always does her work (and a bit more) without being told
- Is on top of patient care without reminder or prompting
- Is always ahead of the curve in learning and development of skills
Go forth, do great things!
–maddog
