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Honoring Public Safety Telecommunicators

Posted: April 1, 2021

National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week is April 11‑17

It's been a tough year for everyone, including public safety telecommunicators who have played such an essential role during the COVID-19 pandemic. During National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week 2021, take a moment to tell the #HeadsetHeroes who somehow get it all done with patience, compassion and a smile on their face, “thank you!” for their vital contributions to the emergency services.

Appreciation—no matter how it's shown—is a meaningful way to remind people of the true difference they make.

Activities to honor telecommunicators

“Who is Your Public Safety Hero?” contest

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials hosts a website for National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week and sponsors a “Who is Your Public Safety Hero?” contest. Your emergency communications center can submit an entry for a telecommunicator you wish to recognize by April 19, 2021. You can also go to the website to vote for your favorite contestants and view the winners.

CPR LifeLinks Celebrating Survivors Toolkit

You can also check out the CPR LifeLinks Celebrating Survivors Toolkit from 911.gov. The toolkit contains suggested activities and resources for honoring those telecommunicators who have helped save the life of someone in cardiac arrest. Some ideas in the toolkit include:

  • Hosting a celebratory event uniting the caller, telecommunicator and survivor after recovery from an event.
  • Providing a small plaque recognizing the caller and telecommunicator who helped save a life by working together to perform CPR before EMS arrived.
  • Sharing “save stories” with staff and the media about each saved life that a telecommunicator helped initiate.

The CPR LifeLinks program is a national initiative to help communities save more lives through the implementation of high-performance CPR programs. The program trains telecommunicators to guide 911 callers through delivery of CPR to someone in cardiac arrest, prior to the arrival of EMS.

911 educational resources

April is also National 911 Education Month. There are many educational resources available to educate the public about 911 services from NENA, the 9-1-1 Association, and from Know911.org, a clearinghouse of 911 educational resources created by the National Association of State 911 Administrators.

U.S. Fire Administration resources

Community outreach

Check out our collection of social media cards and pictographs to communicate 911 and first aid messages to the public.

social card encouraging people to call 911 for medical help
social card for Stop the Bleed

Incident reporting

The NFIRSGram CAD Systems and Autopopulated Fields explains how to ensure that your Computer-Assisted/Aided Dispatch (CAD) system is populating the correct data to the Incident Time and Incident Remarks/Narrative fields in the National Fire Incident Reporting System.

911 planning

Maintaining 911 Operational Capabilities During a Pandemic is a quick reference handout that contains potential action steps to consider when preparing for a pandemic.

Dual Dispatch to Cardiac Arrest: Can It Save Lives? discusses research on how survival chances increase when EMT-trained firefighters are dual-dispatched with EMS units.

Transforming Cardiac Emergency Care with Drone Delivery of AEDs provides preliminary study information on dispatch of medical drones containing an automated external defibrillator (AED) for cardiac treatment in rural areas.

This article is based on content in the
April 1, 2021 InfoGram.

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