About Me
Ambulance Driver is the blog of a Paramedic with 40 years of experience in Emergency Medical Services. During my entire career it has been obvious that the public is fascinated with the work of EMS professionals. Some of the content of this blog will be about the patients seen, however don’t be surprised to also see reflections on health care policy, controversies within the profession and personal posts concerning life outside the job.
Ambulance Driver is for those who have questions and curiosities about health care in general. In addition, it is hoped that my colleagues will stop by and add valuable insight to what is written here.
One of the chief goals of this effort will be to educate a public that is woefully short of knowledge about their health, the health care system, and policy initiatives arising from local, state and federal governments. This blog comes to you from a guy who has been at the “point of the spear” for a very long time.
My name is Duke Powell and my first ambulance call occurred in 1971 as a sixteen year old volunteer at a small, rural start-up service in Indiana. After graduating from Mankato State University, I began my Paramedic journey in 1980 at a public hospital ambulance service (Level One Trauma Center) in a large metropolitan area in the north central United States. My entire career has been as a “street medic” responding to emergency calls.
I spent several years as an EMS instructor, teaching EMT’s and First Responders employed by various public safety agencies in and around our service area. I also taught for a private company and trained hundreds of citizens in First Aid and CPR classes.
More recently, I frequently serve as a medic for Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the Woman’s National Basketball Association and college football. My role there is to respond to emergencies involving the players, referees and sideline personnel.
I also trained as a “tactical medic” and was embedded in the Mobile Field Forces (read: Riot Police) that were deployed during the 2008 Republican National Convention.
In addition to my pre-hospital health care experience, I also spent twenty years deeply involved in the political process at the local and state level. This involvement led to my election to the Minnesota House of Representatives where I served between the years 2002-06. There my concentration was on health care policy and finance as well as energy policy.
Just recently, I have contracted with the Minnesota Ambulance Association to lobby for their interests at the Minnesota Legislature.