If I had a dollar for every time I've been asked over the last 20 years how to become a paramedic and help others for a living, we'd surely have that place in the mountains on a lake that my wife and I can only dream about for now.

   There are a remarkable number of folks out there with the desire to help others, so it seems a bit odd to me that EMS continues to experience shortages of men and women willing to make a career of such a worthwhile, rewarding and exciting profession.

   I set out to understand why. At first I was surprised by what I discovered. But, thinking back to conversations I've had over the years with coworkers and those curious about our field, I realized there was a common theme to most. The biggest drawback to a career in EMS isn't the schooling, what we sometimes have to see, hear and do, the responsibilities we're given or even the pay. It's the lifestyle we're left with as a result of the unusual, often grueling schedules we work.

   To a considerable degree, we have continued to use the same traditional schedules utilized in EMS since its inception. In those days, most households were made up of a breadwinner and a full-time homemaker. Schedules didn't present nearly the issues they do for the typical two-breadwinner households of today. As a result, we have inadvertently developed an environment for employees that makes it difficult to accommodate the responsibilities and interests they have outside work, and to have any semblance of a normal lifestyle.

   Back then, too, only a handful of colleges and universities offered night and weekend classes. Now, in response to a changing society, just a handful don't. Year-round schools popping up across the country are another example of institutions modifying their methods of operating to meet the needs of today. Do we suppose EMS to be somehow immune from this need to adapt? If we are to thrive, we, too, need to change how we operate to better serve the needs of our workforce.

   Like many, I'd simply come to accept the schedules we work as the price we pay for being able to do what we love to do. But imagine for a moment that you're used to working 9 to 5 on weekdays, with holidays off. How would you react to a schedule that had you constantly rotating every third or fourth day, flip-flopping between days and nights every few weeks, working straight nights or working half of your waking hours each month? It's not hard to imagine that the traditional schedules we use in EMS are unappealing to others. So the question becomes, are they really necessary?