Hi, I’m Sam, a critical care flight paramedic and the founder of Mind Over Medic.
I’m originally from Pennsylvania but I’m currently residing in northern Minnesota. Having started my EMS career in 2009, I’ve gained my prehospital medical experience in various settings from urban streets to aeromedical to wilderness EMS and overseas contracts. I’ve had many opportunities to witness the human factors associated with performing under the pressure of emergency medicine.
Throughout my career and education, I have noted an overall lack of preparation within the emergency medical services to perform under and manage stressful situations. I believe this has directly contributed to the high amount of post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, addiction, and domestic problems that are plaguing EMS workers.
Having spent much of my career struggling with the stress responses resulting from my work, I decided to address it at its root – the human factor. While studying Extreme Medicine at the University of Exeter in England, I began directly applying principles of performance under pressure, mindfulness, and stress mitigation to my everyday work. The results were impressive. Not only did my job performance improve, but the psychological impacts of stress were reduced, and my job satisfaction increased!
I have developed a passion for studying human factors and sharing the ways I have been able to integrate these strategies into my own life as a paramedic. As your peer, I am eager to share practical and obtainable ways to develop mental resilience throughout the EMS community.
Sam Henne, NRP, EXM-C, FP-C, C-NPT