Her Story
About Crystal
My typical day varies quite a bit. Some days I have meetings with county administration, council, hospitals, and medical control to ensure all organizations are working together to take care of patients the best we can. However, first and foremost, I want everybody at my department to be a paramedic, so if we need to handle calls, take care of patients, or make sure that we have trucks up and operating, that is the first priority of the day. As long as operations are handled appropriately and we don't have pending calls, I function more as the director, which is generally the case. There are times that we have call-outs and pending calls that I will go assist with running. After ensuring all of that is covered, I proceed to help purchase items, look for grants, apply for grants, make sure we are within our budget, keep up with maintenance on trucks and stations, and try to see where we can be innovative so that we can retain and keep employees. What keeps me most motivated are the patients I take care of and the people I see in our community - the people I've saved, the people whose hand I've held to the hospital, and the families I've grieved with when telling them their loved ones have died. Even though there are hard times, those relationships help me get through the day.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Crystal
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Try not to make rash decisions. If you can sleep on it, it's always best. My former county administrator when I first was given the director's position told me to try not to make any emotional decisions, and make sure that I'm looking at it from all aspects before I make any hard decisions. This advice has really helped me approach difficult situations with more clarity and thoughtfulness.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Trust your instinct, trust your gut feeling. Sometimes, even though it might seem the opposite of what you really want to do, when you look at all of the bottom line, a lot of times it is pointing in the right direction. Your intuition helps so much, and your experiences that have gotten you to where you are help form those intuitions that you need to follow. I will say, a lot of people may or may not feel their gut instinct is the best to follow, but it has definitely given me many correct decisions to go off of.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Trust and honesty are the biggest values for me. I always tell my colleagues and employees that the one way you can mess up a relationship with me is lying. I tell them that they might not have always done what's perfect to help patient care, but in the end, it's lying that breaks trust. If you come to me and tell me the truth, we will see what we can do to make everything better. Whether you wrecked the ambulance or hurt somebody taking care of them as a patient, telling me the truth and coming up front to me means I can support you and we can work it out to make the best of the situation. We can improve how we handle things or change policies or procedures. But it's hard for me to help if you lie to me. Honesty and integrity, being truthful, are definitely some of the biggest values, because without that, you don't have the respect and you don't have the professionalism to handle people. When you are entrusted with so much from the community, especially taking care of loved ones when they are their sickest or they need you, they've entrusted that care to us. Without the trust, it doesn't give us a good reputation and it won't build that rapport with the community.
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