From Ego to Excellence: Redefining Airway Success in Prehospital Care

Oct 3, 2025

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Discover how collaborative learning, well-designed simulation, and fostering a culture of psychological safety are transforming prehospital airway care. National EMS Quality Alliance’s (NEMSQA) Airway Collaborative organized EMS agencies from across the country to analyze their current practices and explore ways to improve the safety and effectiveness of airway management. Join hosts Maia Dorsett and Hilary Gates as we explore why education alone isn’t enough for sustained improvement, highlighting the crucial role of system design and a patient-centered approach. Guests from the collaborative include Shawn Brinkley, Matt Francis, Tom Grawey and Marlow Macht. They share candid insights from their agencies, discussing how data revealed surprising performance gaps and spurred a paradigm shift towards optimizing patient outcomes over simply “getting the tube.” Listen in for invaluable lessons on how to cultivate a system where the expectation is a patient managed carefully by EMS to be truly optimized for the best outcome possible.

Ginger Locke highlights the episode's key points with her "Mindset Minute."

Mentioned in the episode:

NEMSQA Airway Collaborative: https://www.nemsqa.org/airway-collaborative

IHI Breakthrough Series: https://www.ihi.org/library/white-papers/breakthrough-series-ihis-collaborative-model-achieving-breakthrough

SALAD: https://www.sscor.com/suction-assisted-laryngoscopy-and-airway-decontamination-salad

NAEMSP Prehospital Airway Position Papers: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10903127.2021.1977877 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10903127.2021.1990447

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