Well, we're nearing the end of National Telecommunicators Week. For those of you who didn't know that this week was National Telecommunicators Week....this week was National Telecommunicators Week. This is the week when the recognition is given to public safety telecommunicators.
I, once again, had the opportunity to attend the Ohio APCO/NENA Gold Star Luncheon. This is held every year during National Telecommunicators Week to recognize dispatchers from across the state of Ohio for the work that they have done during the previous year. 2011 had a few stories of dispatchers who worked behind the scenes to do things that were an invaluable amount of assistance to the responders on the road and saved lives.
The Muskingum county dispatchers and the dispatchers from the Cambridge post of the State Highway Patrol who were working that evening in October when the wild animals were turned loose in Zanesville were honored for the way they handled the situation.
This year's "Dispatcher of the Year" no doubt saved the life of her caller when the caller became stranded in high water. The caller was ready to give up. She was resigning herself to that fact that she was going to die. She was cold and wet and, at one point wanted to hang up with the dispatcher so she could call her family and say good-bye. If the dispatcher hadn't kept her on the phone, hadn't reassured her that help was going to get to her, hadn't told the caller that she WOULD hang in there, there is no doubt in my mind that the caller would have given up, laid down on the roof of her car, gone to sleep in the near freezing temps. and never wake up.
Dispatchers may not be the ones on the scene, and more often than not it's the responders that do the actual "hands-on" work when it comes to the life saving. But sometimes, and more often than you'd realize, the dispatchers save some lives.
I teach a basic dispatching course a couple of times a year, and I always tell the students, people very rarely ever call us to tell us they're having a good day. When a person has a situation that requires them to call and talk to us, it's usually not a positive situation for them. It's easy to remember the responders, they're the face you see when you have a problem...but don't forget that there are those people involved whose face you'll never see...the voice on the phone.
I, once again, had the opportunity to attend the Ohio APCO/NENA Gold Star Luncheon. This is held every year during National Telecommunicators Week to recognize dispatchers from across the state of Ohio for the work that they have done during the previous year. 2011 had a few stories of dispatchers who worked behind the scenes to do things that were an invaluable amount of assistance to the responders on the road and saved lives.
The Muskingum county dispatchers and the dispatchers from the Cambridge post of the State Highway Patrol who were working that evening in October when the wild animals were turned loose in Zanesville were honored for the way they handled the situation.
This year's "Dispatcher of the Year" no doubt saved the life of her caller when the caller became stranded in high water. The caller was ready to give up. She was resigning herself to that fact that she was going to die. She was cold and wet and, at one point wanted to hang up with the dispatcher so she could call her family and say good-bye. If the dispatcher hadn't kept her on the phone, hadn't reassured her that help was going to get to her, hadn't told the caller that she WOULD hang in there, there is no doubt in my mind that the caller would have given up, laid down on the roof of her car, gone to sleep in the near freezing temps. and never wake up.
Dispatchers may not be the ones on the scene, and more often than not it's the responders that do the actual "hands-on" work when it comes to the life saving. But sometimes, and more often than you'd realize, the dispatchers save some lives.
I teach a basic dispatching course a couple of times a year, and I always tell the students, people very rarely ever call us to tell us they're having a good day. When a person has a situation that requires them to call and talk to us, it's usually not a positive situation for them. It's easy to remember the responders, they're the face you see when you have a problem...but don't forget that there are those people involved whose face you'll never see...the voice on the phone.
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