The collegiate or campus-based EMS (CBEMS) community has faced unprecedented challenges in the past year. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause suffering across the world, many in our community have fallen ill or lost loved ones to the virus. Many have felt the economic impacts of the crisis and are fighting to make ends meet. And many are continuing to struggle with the mental health repercussions of social isolation and chronic stress.
Faced with the daunting tasks of confronting a global pandemic and navigating campus closures, this past year CBEMS agencies rapidly adopted operations to serve their communities in a time of need. Some squads spearheaded contract tracing efforts and assisted with testing on their campuses. In other cases, providers volunteered on the frontlines through state and local organizations. Every CBEMS provider has played an important role in combating this pandemic, whether by directly caring for patients, conducting medical research, or following public health guidelines and leading by example. We at the Journal of Collegiate EMS (JCEMS) have been uplifted and inspired watching our community navigate these decisions with integrity and unwavering optimism.
This past year has been marked not just by the pandemic, of course, but by a series of crises. From natural disasters to mass political protests, instability and change have been defining features of life. In particular, there has been a global reckoning with structural racism and police brutality. Police killings of Black Americans – including the murder of a fellow EMT, Breonna Taylor – have been brought to the forefront of the national conversation here in the United States. JCEMS stands in solidarity with Black and other marginalized communities fighting for dignity, health, wellness, opportunity, and life. We will commit ourselves in the coming years to help root out systemic inequities in healthcare and bring justice to marginalized patients and providers alike.
Looking to the future of the CBEMS community, many have already begun the work of rebuilding and reimagining. As evidenced by recent submissions to JCEMS, providers at numerous schools have developed a renewed focus on CBEMS research. All the while, CBEMS agencies are maintaining educational standards – for example, through the National Collegiate EMS Foundation’s remote learning program – and are preparing to reinstate operations upon reopening of school campuses. As a journal focused on research and scholarship, we recognize the importance of developing a literature base that supports CBEMS agencies in confronting the challenges ahead. This issue, for example, will feature a publication from Georgetown EMS on what CBEMS agencies can do to maintain high educational standards while planning to restart operations. We welcome additional submissions focusing on how CBEMS organizations can promote public health and fight injustice. We recognize that by sharing best practices, lessons learned, and innovative strategies, we can best serve our communities together.
To our readers and the entire CBEMS community: thank you for your resilience, your integrity, your persistence, and your compassion. While we cannot know what this next year may bring, we can be sure that you will all continue to fight for your patients, for public health, and for justice. Here at JCEMS we pledge to do the same.
Author & Article Information
Christopher Gaeta, EMT is the Director of Business Development of JCEMS and a student at Swarthmore College.
Nicholas M.G. Friedman, BA, EMT is the Editor-in-Chief of JCEMS and a medical student at Stanford University.
Primary Author Contributions: M.M. and C.G. contributed equally to this work.
Author Affiliations: From The Journal of Collegiate Emergency Medical Services, National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation, West Sand Lake, NY, USA (N.M.G.F., M.M. & C.G.).
Address for Correspondence: Nicholas M.G. Friedman, BA, EMT | E-mail: JCEMS@CollegeEMS.com
Conflicts of Interest/Funding Sources: By the JCEMS Submission Declaration Form, all authors are required to disclose all potential conflicts of interest and funding sources. M.M., C.G., and N.M.G.F. serve in uncompensated editorial roles for JCEMS. All authors declared that they have no other conflicts of interest. All authors declared that they did not receive funding to conduct the research and/or writing associated with this work.
Published Online: December 31, 2020
Published in Print: December 31, 2020 (Volume 3: Issue 2)
Reviewer Information: In accordance with JCEMS editorial policy, Editorial manuscripts are reviewed by the JCEMS Editorial Board and published by the Editor-in-Chief or designee. JCEMS thanks the Editorial Board members who contributed to the review of this work.
Copyright: © 2020 Moss, Gaeta & Friedman. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The full license is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Electronic Link: https://doi.org/10.30542/JCEMS.2020.03.02.01
