First Responder Training Insights: An Interview with Wayne Zygowicz

First responders use a limited amount of equipment to perform initial assessment and intervention at the scene of an emergency. In the following interview, Colorado’s Littleton Fire Rescue EMS chief and nationally-recognized EMS educator Wayne Zygowicz shares his insights on the utility of first responder training in the EMS profession, and explains why continuing education on ACLS, PALS and BLS guidelines is critical to ensuring improved patient outcomes.

HES: Over the course of your career, you’ve held various positions, including firefighter, paramedic, paramedic/lieutenant, paramedic captain and EMS chief. How has ACLS, PALS and BLS training benefited you in your job functions?

WZ: The benefits of ACLS, PALS and BLS are not so much for the providers but rather for the people we are serving, our customers. Resuscitation is something firefighters and EMTs do, with both adult and pediatric patients. Because people's lives depend on our abilities to resuscitate people following the ACLS, PALS and BLS guidelines, up to date certifications are absolutely critical. The data supporting the benefits of these skills to our customers are clear—in fact, I am just finishing a research paper on key performance indicators in EMS at Littleton Fire, and we have a 22 percent return to spontaneous pulse rate for patients in cardiac arrest, which clearly indicate these life-saving skills are well-practiced and put into use often.

HES: Explain why ongoing ACLS, PALS and BLS certifications are critical for firefighters and EMTs in first responder training.

WZ: As the science behind resuscitation changes, so must the providers change with it. These courses and the teachings therein are rooted in scientific evidence and fact. That means following these guidelines will improve patient outcomes, and that's really what this profession is all about—providing the best level of care we can and improving the outcomes for our customers. For example, look at how the ACLS guidelines have changed since back when I first started taking the course early in my career. Initially, the protocol was, to summarize, “Get drugs on board quick!” A few years later, it changed to "Get an airway quick!" and eventually to “Defibrillate everybody!” Now, ACLS guidelines have come full circle to "Do two minutes of uninterrupted CPR." You can see how science and best practices have changed over time, so it is critically important that emergency medical services professionals have up-to-date first responder training, including current ACLS, PALS and BLS certifications to make sure you are on the same page with your team and to improve patient outcomes.

HES: As a nationally recognized EMS lecturer, what themes are critical to communicate to your audiences?

WZ: It stays on the same theme of education, and this theme is clear in not only my lectures but also what I communicate to new professionals that come into the department. Fire and EMS are lifelong learning careers that require us to stay current in our skills as different parts of our field change. This is not a career where you can get hired, sit back and wait 25 years for a pension. This is a career that you have to keep up on your skills, especially if you're a paramedic. We do recertification for ACLS and PALS every two years. We're recertifying our licenses every three years, CPR every two years. Lifelong learning may seem like a generic topic, but we have individuals who have been here 35 years, and individuals who have only been here one year, and they all have different learning styles. So as administrators, we have to figure out how we can get the information across to meet the learning styles of all of our individual players.

About Wayne Zygowicz
Wayne Zygowicz EMT-P, B.A currently holds the position of EMS Chief at Littleton Fire Rescue. At Littleton Fire Rescue. Wayne has held the ranks of Firefighter, Paramedic, Paramedic/Lieutenant, and Paramedic Captain prior to being promoted to EMS Chief 1998. He has been an EMS Educator for the past seventeen years, and is a nationally known lecturer on EMS and an EMS instructor at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland on EMS Management and Leadership. Wayne is a member of the editorial board for JEMS (Journal of Emergency Medical Services) and is completing a Master’s-level Executive Fire Officer program through the National Fire Academy.