The 2017 STEP Conference for EMTs, first responders, firefighters, law enforcement officers, physicians and hospital staff who serve in a variety of emergency medical service positions throughout western New York will begin with a preconference panel discussion led by Rochester City School District Resource Officer Moses Robinson on decreasing the potential for tension and violence in the schools.
In addition, STEP will join with the Monroe-Livingston Regional Emergency Medical Services Council to offer MeduPrep, a separate educational opportunity to prepare paramedics interested in taking certification exams such as Specialty Care Transport providers.
The events will highlight the 50th anniversary of STEP which was founded in 1967 in Monroe County.
The conference will be held on Friday, March 31, and Saturday, April 1, at the Hilton Garden Inn at College Town, 30 Celebration Drive, Rochester. Registration is now open. Mr. Robinson’s preconference panel discussion will be held on Thursday, March 30.
“This is an exciting year for the Society for Total Emergency Programs – commonly known as STEP,” said Sharon F. Chiumento, BSN, EMT-P, this year’s conference coordinator. “STEP was founded to educate and promote innovations and opportunities for the improvement of emergency services. The organization has worked for the past half century to bring physicians, first responders, EMTs and all those involved in emergency medical services together to provide up-to-date information and training.”
Among those attending the STEP Conference this year will be David N. Kluge, M.D., a STEP founder who continues in an active role on the board of directors. Dr. Kluge was a general surgeon for 35 years at The Genesee Hospital and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Throughout his career, his special interest was emergency medical services. He actively trained medical students, resident physicians, and volunteer ambulance members and firefighters in pre-hospital care techniques.
In addition, Dr. Kluge led STEP’s effort to compile and publish a regional multi-county Emergency Medical Services Directory. He is now working to extend publication of similar EMS directories throughout the nation.
“It is so appropriate that this year’s STEP Conference will begin with a preconference discussion on “Handling School-Based Situations” led by Moses Robinson,” said Mrs. Chiumento. “Mr. Robinson, a veteran school safety officer in the Rochester City School District, works to help students build resilience and increase their abilities to deal with the stresses of their lives in school and at home.
“Students and young people today face challenges such as poverty, single parents, drugs and truancy – situations which they often bring into their classrooms,” said Mrs. Chiumento. “Mr. Robinson believes that if we can deal with these issues early in students’ lives, we can help them avoid the violence that often occurs.”
“EMTs, first responders, police officers and hospital emergency department physicians and staff often come in contact with these students in high-stress situations,” she said. “Mr. Robinson’s experience in law enforcement and in the Rochester City School District, and his presentation at the STEP Conference, will provide timely and practical information to help those of us in EMS to better serve these students and their families.”
Seating for the panel discussion to be led by Mr. Robinson is limited. Early registration is recommended.
Also speaking at the conference will be Gregory E. Young, M.D., associate commissioner and medical director for the New York State Department of Health’s Western Region; Todd Baxter, executive director of programs and services at the Veterans Outreach Center Inc., of Rochester, who will discuss the recognition and management of PTSD; and Jeremy T. Cushman, M.D., associate professor of emergency medicine and chief of the Division of Prehospital Medicine at the University of Rochester.
Conference workshops will focus on topics from medical and trauma care to therapeutic communications and disaster management.
For complete conference details and registration information, visit the STEP website at stepems.org.
