Not Just EMS - Academic EMS!
Sports psychology students designed a hackathon - taking several EMS-based issues and showing how they could provide effective solutions
MDA – Not just EMS, but Academic EMS!
MA Sports Psychology students at the College of Management Studies in Rishon Letzion faced a challenge – how to improve various aspects of emergency medicine through sports psychology. The course, the first and only one of its kind in Israel, is groundbreaking not only at home, but abroad too, with its approach to psychology.
The students have been building their knowledge and understanding of competitive sportspeople, as well as other groups striving for excellence, such as dancers, management teams, musicians and emergency service staff.
The aim of working with these different groups of people is to find a way to improve the positive mental attitude that brings with it fulfilment of personal potential as well as the ability to strive for and reach excellence. It also allows for focus on mental wellbeing of the sportspeople involved, as well as the effect of them participating in sport on their personal development.
Academic collaboration is nothing new to Magen David Adom. Many of our paramedics complete degrees in emergency medicine in a number of universities across Israel, and recently MDA and Ben Gurion University signed an official affiliation agreement, making Magen David Adom the first ambulance service in the world to have such an agreement with a leading university.
The college students developed a first of its kind hackathon, dividing into five groups, each addressing a different problem and providing solutions to how psychology could solve them.
The problems posed were: Reducing stress on the Dispatchers, encouraging EMS providers to exercise, prevent burnout, management of a non-organic team at a major incident, and management of the civilian population during a crisis event.
All groups presented their research and findings to members of Magen David Adom, including Deputy Director General for Community Dr. Eli Jaffe, and Yael Bengio of the Volunteers Department, with a view to expand the theory into practice in the field, thereby improving EMS provision and the wellbeing of the staff.
