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Paramedic training is over, you’re in the front seat now. Whether day 1 or day 1,000 you can’t shake the fear you’re underprepared. You were taught to systematically decide if A... do B. But what if “A” wasn’t in the book? The truth is each emergency call is too unique to teach the right response to every situation. We need to go beyond algorithmic thinking and understand deeper principles, the WHY behind the algorithm. When every decision counts you want to rely on a framework that will guide you when things don’t make sense. Loud & Clear: EMS Guiding Principles is your resource to build that framework. Through discussions with experts, review of evidence-based best practices, and real-world case studies we teach you one step past what you learned in paramedic school. But all of this advanced education is connected back to the guiding principles that answer the question- “at the end of the day, what actually matters to the patient I have in front of me?” Our mission is to elevate your practice and help you improve patient outcomes in every emergency situation. You may not feel ready, you may not feel like you know enough, but by understanding the guiding principles of emergency medicine you can become an expert EMS clinician. Because what you do matters.
Loud & Clear: EMS Guiding Principles is an EMS Cast LLC production
Episodes
May 31, 2026
May 31, 2026
1 hr 6 min
A checklist should reduce cognitive load. So why does yours make things worse? Airline pilot and safety officer Glenn Fisher breaks down how aviation refined checklists over decades of crash data and human factors research — from verification-only flows to abnormal read-and-do procedures to defining the criteria for what should actually earn a spot on the card.
Want more?
Book a Free Coaching Call at emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call
Sign up for the weekly newsletter at empodcast.com/newsletter
NASA papers on checklist design-
Human Factors of Flight-Deck Checklists: The Normal Checklist
COCKPIT CHECKLISTS: CONCEPTS, DESIGN, AND USE
Design Guidance for Emergency and Abnormal Checklists in Aviation
American Burn Association / ABLS: Enter the ABLS giveaway by June 30, 2026; the winner will be selected July 1, 2026. Loud & Clear listeners also get 10% off ABLS Now through August 31, 2026. Details: https://bit.ly/aba-loud-clear
May 21, 2026
May 21, 2026
32 min
Pediatric sepsis is easy to miss because the first hour often looks ordinary. Kids compensate, until they don't. In this episode, Will Berry talks with Dr. Peter Antevy about the case that still bothers him and why fluids, vasopressors, antibiotics, and hospital feedback all have to be treated as one resuscitation system.
Book a Free Coaching Call with us at emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call
Sign up for our weekly newsletter The Confidence Dispatch at emspodcast.com/newsletter
American Burn Association / ABLS: Enter the ABLS giveaway by June 30, 2026; the winner will be selected July 1, 2026. Loud & Clear listeners also get 10% off ABLS Now through August 31, 2026. Details: https://bit.ly/aba-loud-clear
May 14, 2026
May 14, 2026
1 hr 37 min
Most EMS skills training creates an illusion of competence. You drill a procedure, check a box, and move on. But what does the research actually show about competency and retention?
Dr. Jason Hine (EM physician, SimKit founder) breaks down the actual science of procedural skill acquisition: S-curves, encoding and consolidation, retrieval practice, and why expensive simulation labs often underperform cheap, high-rep lo-fi tools.
Plus: a big announcement about SimKit and The Loud & Clear Fellowship.
Book a Free Coaching Call at emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call
Sign up for the weekly newsletter at emspodcast.com/newsletter
SimKit - https://simkit.co
Made to Stick - https://amzn.to/4d5B5qA
American Burn Association / ABLS: Enter the ABLS giveaway by June 30, 2026; the winner will be selected July 1, 2026. Loud & Clear listeners also get 10% off ABLS Now through August 31, 2026. Details: https://bit.ly/aba-loud-clear
Apr 28, 2026
Apr 28, 2026
16 min
Stephanie Suzadail's favorite word is "fail." She'll tell you why and how we should embrace it.
In this episode she walks through the difference between failure that builds you and failure that breaks you. Why Sisyphus is a warning, not a role model. Why the best clinicians you'll ever work with have made bigger mistakes than you have. Why high-functioning organizations report mistakes ten times more often than average ones. Why self-identified perfectionists only ever climb to "moderately successful."
Book Your Free Coaching Call at emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call
Sign up for the weekly newsletter - emspodcast.com/newsletter
American Burn Association / ABLS: Enter the ABLS giveaway by June 30, 2026; the winner will be selected July 1, 2026. Loud & Clear listeners also get 10% off ABLS Now through August 31, 2026. Details: https://bit.ly/aba-loud-clear
Apr 22, 2026
Apr 22, 2026
1 hr 12 min
Most medics walk onto a domestic violence scene armed with instinct and not much else. Jim Schmidt thought 20 years in the fire service had prepared him for anything — until he had to identify his stepdaughter Gabby Petito's body in 2021. In the months and years after he realized how little EMS is prepared to recognize and treat domestic violence victims. What he's learned since has rewritten what first responders should be doing on these calls. Jim walks us through the red flags, why strangulation may leave no external marks but signals a 750% jump in homicide risk, how to document, how to treat and talk to the patient, and what patterns we can recognize.
Resources
- DomesticShelters.org — find local DV/SA orgs by address
- National DV Hotline — 1-800-799-SAFE · text START to 88788
- JEMS article by Jim Schmidt on educating first responders to recognize domestic violence: https://www.jems.com/ems-training/domestic-violence-educating-first-responders/
- Jim Hopper, PHD on the neurobiology of trauma and sexual assault: https://www.youtube.com/@JimHopperPhD
Want to go deeper?
Book a Free Coaching Call at emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call Sign up for the weekly newsletter: emspodcast.com/newsletter
American Burn Association / ABLS: Enter the ABLS giveaway by June 30, 2026; the winner will be selected July 1, 2026. Loud & Clear listeners also get 10% off ABLS Now through August 31, 2026. Details: https://bit.ly/aba-loud-clear
Apr 14, 2026
Apr 14, 2026
19 min
Don't Be A Field Training Officer Be A Field Training Mentor.
Field training is about more than teaching skills, it shapes culture, standards, and the kind of clinician someone becomes. In this episode, Ross sits down with Ben Tacy onsite at FASTCAN to talk about the origins of field training and why Ben prefers the language of mentorship over “field training officer”.
If you care about leadership, education, workplace culture, or building better medics, this conversation is worth your time.
If you want deeper discussions on topics just like this subscribe to our weekly newsletter - emspodcast.com/newsletter
Want some individualized mentorship? Book a free coaching call with us - emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call
Interested in The Loud & Clear Fellowship? Book a free coaching call with us: emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call
American Burn Association / ABLS: Enter the ABLS giveaway by June 30, 2026; the winner will be selected July 1, 2026. Loud & Clear listeners also get 10% off ABLS Now through August 31, 2026. Details: https://bit.ly/aba-loud-clear
Apr 1, 2026
Apr 1, 2026
1 hr 6 sec
Frostbite is more dangerous than it looks and easier to make worse than you think. In this episode, Ross and Will sit down with Dr. Greg Doctor, a wilderness medicine specialist and emergency physician practicing in the Colorado Rockies, to break down frostbite from the prehospital perspective.
Greg walks through field assessment, when to rewarm vs. when to leave it alone, pain management, and when to bypass your local ED for a tertiary care center.
Whether you’re running urban calls or wilderness rescues, you may see this and this episode will help inform how you approach cold injury.
Want more?
Subscribe to The Confidence Dispatch, our free weekly newsletter for paramedics who want to get 1% better every shift: → https://loudandclear.kit.com/d45b012fae
Want to go even further?
The Loud & Clear Fellowship is a year-long course and coaching community for new medics who want to close the gap between what school taught them and what the job actually demands.
Not a lecture series. Not another CE you'll forget by your next shift. Real frameworks for clinical reasoning and mental performance. The stuff nobody teaches you in school.
If that sounds like what you've been looking for, book a free 30-minute coaching call and we'll talk about whether it's the right fit. Even if it’s not we’ll give you actionable advice on the call so that you still walk away with something valuable: → emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call
American Burn Association / ABLS: Enter the ABLS giveaway by June 30, 2026; the winner will be selected July 1, 2026. Loud & Clear listeners also get 10% off ABLS Now through August 31, 2026. Details: https://bit.ly/aba-loud-clear
Mar 9, 2026
Mar 9, 2026
29 min
The contaminated airway is one of the most unforgiving calls in prehospital medicine. Blood, vomit, debris — your laryngoscope goes in and you're blind. For decades, paramedics managed this with tools designed for a clean OR and training that never got close to the real thing.
Dr. Jim DuCanto decided that was unacceptable. He's the anesthesiologist who invented the DuCanto catheter and SALAD (Suction Assisted Laryngoscopy and Airway Decontamination). Will Berry sat down with Dr. DuCanto at the FASTCAN conference for a conversation.
In this episode we cover:
- The SALAD technique, step by step
- Why paramedic OR training should default to video laryngoscopy
- The downsides of SALAD that Dr. DuCanto himself will tell you about
- What a new portable suction device does differently
Guest: Dr. Jim DuCanto anesthesiologist, inventor of the DuCanto catheter and the SALAD technique
Want more?
Also subscribe to The Confidence Dispatch — Our free weekly newsletter for paramedics who want to get 1% better every shift: → https://loudandclear.kit.com/d45b012fae
Want to go even further?
The Loud & Clear Fellowship is a year-long course and coaching community for medics who want to close the gap between what school taught them and what the job actually demands.
Not a lecture series. Not another CE you'll forget by your next shift. Real frameworks for clinical reasoning and mental performance — the stuff nobody teaches you in school.
If that sounds like what you've been looking for, book a free 30-minute call and we'll talk about whether it's the right fit: → emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call
American Burn Association / ABLS: Enter the ABLS giveaway by June 30, 2026; the winner will be selected July 1, 2026. Loud & Clear listeners also get 10% off ABLS Now through August 31, 2026. Details: https://bit.ly/aba-loud-clear
Feb 25, 2026
Feb 25, 2026
11 min
What if the mistake wasn't your fault... but it's still your responsibility?
That's the tension Shay Montgomery sits with every time she talks about the day she flew to a scene without the drug bag. Shay is a flight nurse and educator. At FAST 25, she gave one of the sharpest talks of the conference — not on a procedure or a drug, but on the science of why humans make mistakes and what we can actually do about it.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
Task Brackets — Your brain bundles repetitive actions into smooth automated sequences.
The First Habit Rule — The first habit is permanently ingrained. Old habits lurk underneath new ones and surface under stress. Get it right the first time.
Goal-Oriented Stimulus — Don't ask "Do I have everything?" Ask "Where are the things I need?" and physically point to them.
The Preceptor Problem — Most preceptors feel unprepared. The goal isn't to make "mini me", it's to create independent critical thinkers.
Shift Fatigue — Cognitive function degrades meaningfully at 16 hours.
Just Culture — Human error is inevitable. Punishment doesn't fix the system. The guilty already feel terrible. They need peer support and system redesign.
RESOURCES:
Join The Loud & Clear Fellowship
CONNECT WITH US:
- Instagram- @emsloudandclear
- YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/@EMSLoudandClear
- Website- www.emspodcast.com
CONNECT WITH SHEA:
- TikTok: @flightnurseshay
- Instagram: @flightnurseshay
Interested in The Loud & Clear Fellowship? Book a free coaching call with us: emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call
American Burn Association / ABLS: Enter the ABLS giveaway by June 30, 2026; the winner will be selected July 1, 2026. Loud & Clear listeners also get 10% off ABLS Now through August 31, 2026. Details: https://bit.ly/aba-loud-clear
Feb 9, 2026
Feb 9, 2026
18 min
Miss your first intubation attempt and your patient's risk of adverse events jumps sevenfold. By the third attempt? Nearly guaranteed complications. This isn't about your anatomical knowledge or practice hours—expert clinicians fail too. David Olvera, who led national research on intubation checklists, reveals why your brain predictably fails under pressure and what systems actually prevent it. You'll learn the challenge-response checklist protocol that speeds up your intubation time (not slows it down), the HEAVEN criteria's six specific warning signs that predict difficult airways before you attempt, and why dump kits create muscle memory that works in the dark. David shares the story that started his human factors obsession and proves that expertise doesn't protect you from error—systems do. This is operational excellence: building checklists that think for you when tunnel vision sets in.
Want more? Also subscribe to The Confidence Dispatch — Our free weekly newsletter for paramedics who want to get 1% better every shift: → https://loudandclear.kit.com/d45b012fae
Want to go even further?
The Loud & Clear Fellowship is a year-long course and coaching community for new medics who want to close the gap between what school taught them and what the job actually demands. Built by an ER doc who runs medical direction for 5 rural Colorado agencies and has talked with hundreds of paramedics about exactly where that gap shows up.
Not a lecture series. Not another CE you'll forget by your next shift. Real frameworks for clinical reasoning and mental performance — the stuff nobody teaches you in school.
If that sounds like what you've been looking for, book a free 30-minute call and we'll talk about whether it's the right fit: → emspodcast.com/free-coaching-call
Resources
The Loud & Clear Fellowship - emspodcast.com/program
To see the actual checklist - https://www.airmedandrescue.com/latest/long-read/medical-insight-latest-tools-ensure-successful-first-pass-intubation
Guest/Cast/Crew information-
Guest- David Olvera
Host- Ross Orpet, Will Berry
Catch up with us after the show
- Instagram- @emsloudandclear
- YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/@EMSLoudandClear
- Website- www.emspodcast.com
Books we recommend
- The Dichotomy of Leadership - https://amzn.to/4fiCAjN
- Extreme Ownership - https://amzn.to/3O1FWfa
- Managing the Unexpected: Sustained Performance in a Complex World - https://amzn.to/3V7BwYf
- Thinking Fast and Slow - https://amzn.to/4fiJG85
Gear We Like
- Good Stethoscope - https://amzn.to/3YJJrf2
- Good Shears - https://amzn.to/40FROuF or https://amzn.to/3ChZ4Tn
- Notepad for taking notes on calls - https://amzn.to/3Z1X21J
American Burn Association / ABLS: Enter the ABLS giveaway by June 30, 2026; the winner will be selected July 1, 2026. Loud & Clear listeners also get 10% off ABLS Now through August 31, 2026. Details: https://bit.ly/aba-loud-clear