Paramedic student wins award. Midhurst’s Steven Prophet sees the humanity in our heroes – the emergency services professionals – and pain as they witness trauma and suffering. Laurie Watt photo
Paramedic student wins award. Midhurst’s Steven Prophet sees the humanity in our heroes – the emergency services professionals – and pain as they witness trauma and suffering. Laurie Watt photo
BARRIE – Midhurst’s Steven Prophet sees the humanity in our heroes – the emergency services professionals – and pain as they witness trauma and suffering.
And his courageous attempt to discuss the issue in an academic paper for Barrie’ CTS Canadian Career College has won him national and provincial awards.
“Statistically, about 20 per cent are affected by post-traumatic stress disorder or critical incident stress,” Prophet said, adding that statistic is low as cases are under-reported or not diagnosed. He said more realistically, about 60 per cent suffer from stress disorders at some point in their career.
“Most people are hesitant to mention anything about it. In this industry, you’re tough. You don’t show signs of weakness.”
Choosing to be a paramedic after working for an engineering firm, Prophet retrained at age 28. Determined not only to be successful but also to prepare himself and his family for his new chosen career, he researched stress-related disorders.
“I want to have a good, long, successful career. My wife and I had had some good conversations (about the realities of paramedicine). We see things that aren’t comprehensible to most people,” he said.
“I never thought I would win anything. The more research I did, the more important I realized it was.”
Prophet is the first CTS Canadian Career College graduate to win the Tema Conter Memorial Trust award, paramedic program coordinator Mark Solomon noted.
“I’m very proud of this guy,” he said. “Finally, here’s someone I think deserves some recognition who got excellent recognition. He’s worked hard at his chosen education and he’s already been an awesome student. He’ll be an awesome paramedic. He’ll serve the public well.”
The scholarship award is presented to the emergency services student who best discusses the psychological stressors of critical incident stress and post traumatic stress disorder and their effects on the lives of emergency services personnel.
In his paper – which Solomon said will likely be published in a professional journal – Prophet shares three stories. He credited them for their courage to discuss their job, their stress and how they coped.
lwatt@simcoe.com
