Prodigy EMS

🚑 Today’s Top Tip with Ashley Villanova
Nash County EMS

Ashley Villanova’s message is one every EMS professional needs to hear:

👉 Look after yourself so you can look after others.

In emergency services, the focus is almost always outward — toward the patient, the crew, the next call, the next crisis. But sustained performance, compassion, and resilience all depend on something simple: making sure you are taking care of your own physical and mental wellbeing too.

Rest matters. Recovery matters. Family matters. Health matters.

EMS professionals are exceptionally good at showing up for others, but long-term success in this profession requires balance, awareness, and the willingness to recognize when you need support yourself.

Taking care of yourself is not weakness. It is preparation for continuing to serve others well.

Looking to support the health, growth, and development of your EMS team?
👉 Visit www.prodigyems.com

🚑 Today’s Top Tip with Cody Spaulding — “The Salty Paramedic”

Cody Spaulding’s leadership advice is straightforward and practical:

👉 Invest in yourself.

Gain the knowledge. Pursue the certifications. Earn the qualifications. Develop the expertise. But don’t stop there. The real value comes when you bring that experience back to your organization, share it with others, and help elevate the people around you.

Great EMS professionals never stop learning — and great EMS leaders make sure that learning spreads beyond themselves.

Cody’s message is also about legacy. The best providers “pay it forward” by mentoring others, sharing lessons learned, and helping the next generation become stronger than the last.

And if you ever have the opportunity to hear Cody speak live — take it. As a keynote speaker, educator, and motivator, “The Salty Paramedic” delivers energy, authenticity, and frontline credibility wherever he appears.

Looking to build stronger educators, leaders, and clinicians in your organization?👉 Visit www.prodigyems.com

🚑 Today’s Top Tip with Paul Willette

Paul Willette, Ambulance Director at Patterson District Ambulance, keeps leadership simple and direct:

👉 Stay engaged — and always make sure your people know you care.

In EMS, frontline personnel can tell very quickly whether leaders are truly present or simply passing through. Engagement is not just visibility. It’s consistency. It’s listening. It’s checking in before there is a problem. And it’s making sure your team knows they matter beyond the schedule and the shift roster.

People who feel supported, respected, and cared about are more likely to stay connected to the mission, to each other, and to the organization.

Leadership doesn’t always require a grand strategy. Sometimes it starts with being present, paying attention, and showing genuine concern for your people.

Looking to strengthen leadership, education, and engagement across your EMS organization?
👉 Visit www.prodigyems.com

🚑 Today’s Top Tip with Mike Taigman

EMS educator, leadership mentor, and FirstWatchF data Jedi Mike Taigman shares a deceptively simple leadership principle:

👉 Listen for the needs your frontline staff are not saying out loud.

In EMS, people do not always directly state when they are overwhelmed, frustrated, uncertain, or struggling. Sometimes it shows up as disengagement. Sometimes as silence. Sometimes as performance changes, sarcasm, or fatigue.

Strong leaders don’t just hear words — they pay attention to patterns, behaviors, and the operational pressures sitting underneath them. The unsaid needs of frontline personnel are often the earliest indicators of workforce stress, morale issues, burnout, or system friction.

The best EMS leaders develop the ability to listen beyond the conversation itself.

That means:
• paying attention during station visits
• recognizing changes in attitude or engagement
• creating psychologically safe conversations
• acting before problems become crises

Leadership is not only about managing systems. It is about understanding people.

Looking to develop stronger leaders, educators, and field providers? Explore the tools and education resources available at 👉 Prodigy EMS
🌐 www.prodigyems.com

Rob Lawrence

We are at the North Carolina EMS Expo in Winston Salem! Come visit Michael and Rob at Booth 44… See you if you are here!

We've joined the rest of you doing video podcasts!
Have a listen to our latest episode of The EMS Educator... this time, on YouTube! (Link in Chat)

"Wired for the Job: ADHD, Mental Preparedness, Neurodiversity in EMS"
What if the traits that make someone great at EMS are the same ones that make traditional classrooms feel challenging? In this episode, hosts Rob Lawrence, Hilary Gates, and Maia Dorsett sit down with Nicole Hansen, EdD, EMT-P, Long Island EMS Division Manager for NYU Langone to explore two of her recent publications. Nicole shares findings from her dissertation on mental preparedness in EMS, including why current curricula fall short and how the "wounded healer" theory might shape who enters EMS. The conversation then shifts to her latest research on ADHD prevalence among EMS clinicians. They discuss how neurodiverse learners are often misread as underperformers, the link between ADHD and PTSD risk, and — crucially — what EMS educators can do right now to redesign their classrooms to support every kind of brain.

The Monday Michael

Coming to you live from the Prodigy booth at NAEMSP 2026, Michael Kaduce is asking EMS influencers:

What’s one myth or misconception in EMS that needs to die?

This week’s insight comes from Mario Vargas, clinical lead in Alameda County for Falck.

The myth?

That trauma patients always need a large bore IV.
Mario offers that big is not always better.

With a better understanding of permissive hypotension, the focus is shifting. Too much fluid can be harmful, and smaller gauge access can be entirely appropriate.

20s work.

This is about matching the intervention to the patient, not the habit.

Evidence is shaping practice. Thoughtful care is replacing routine.

You heard it here live from NAEMSP 2026.

To learn more visit www.prodigyEMS.com