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Building Diverse EMS Agencies
Webinar recorded on April 28, 2021
Webinar Description
Emergency Medical Service providers rarely mirror communities they serve. Women, racial, ethnic, and linguistic minorities as well as members of the LGBT community are underrepresented in EMS systems. Language and cultural barriers add challenges to developing trust between the EMS systems and their communities. Recruiting and retaining EMS providers that culturally and ethnically represent the community is difficult for EMS systems. Through recruitment, education, and provider engagement programs, EMS leadership can recruit and retain employees from diverse backgrounds.
Meet Your Presenters
Meg Marino, MD | Deputy Medical Director, New Orleans EMS | Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician
Meg Marino, MD, FAAP, is the Deputy Medical Director for New Orleans EMS, Director of Pediatric Prehospital Education for Ochsner Health, and a pediatric emergency medicine physician. She serves as the Chair-Elect for the American Academy of Pediatrics EMS subcommittee, as the Chair of the Provider Education Subcommittee for the Louisiana EMS for Children Advisory Committee, on the Governor’s EMS Certification Commission for the State of Louisiana and on the workgroup to develop national consensus statement for a National EMS Continued Competency Agenda for the Future.
She created the Pediatric Prehospital Educational Symposium in New Orleans which provides free in-person pediatric education to prehospital providers in Louisiana and provides pediatric EMS education to EMS providers. She lectures nationally and internationally with the aim of improving the emergency care that pediatric patients receive.
Dr. Marino has a strong interest in provider wellness and developed the COVID occupational health program for New Orleans EMS. She is leading the Diversity and Equity Council at New Orleans EMS to help acknowledge biases in healthcare, working to improve access to care to marginalized communities and promoting diversity in EMS. Dr. Marino enjoys spending time with her family, writing children’s books, and playing the ukulele.
Emily Nichols, MD | Medical Director, New Orleans EMS | Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician
Emily M. Nichols, MD has been an adult emergency medicine physician since 2006. She has worked in the cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Baton Rouge in addition to New Orleans.
Dr. Nichols received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Princeton University. Her senior thesis focused on the importance of doctor-patient relationships and their impact on patient health and outcomes. She completed a post baccalaureate premedical program at the University of Pennsylvania prior to attending medical school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University. Dr. Nichols graduated medical school in 2002 and completed her emergency medicine residency in Brooklyn NY at SUNY Downstate Hospital and Kings County Hospital Center. There she served as Chief Resident at one of the largest emergency resident programs in the nation. Dr. Nichols then moved to Philadelphia PA and underwent additional training in pediatric emergency medicine. Dr. Nichols has served as a Clinical Assistant Instructor and been awarded for her commitment to resident education and wellness. She additionally has worked on quality control committees to improve patient care and hospital experiences.
Dr. Nichols is board certified in both adult and pediatric emergency medicine and is able to care for persons of all ages during their sickest moments. She has also studied public health; her career interests include public health, disaster response, and provider wellness. Dr. Nichols has worked in community clinics in urban and rural settings in the US, Costa Rica, Belize, Haiti, Brazil, and South Africa. She was an integral part of relief efforts in Port-au-Prince Haiti during the 2010 earthquake, and in 2014 she taught emergency response, first aid, and “train the trainer” courses to responders in Northern Haiti. Dr. Nichols has lectured nationally on the topics of provider wellness and secondary traumatization; she has lectured internationally on the development of 911 systems and emergency medicine in the United States.
Dr. Nichols enjoys spending her free time with her daughter and her husband, Jonel Daphnis MD, MPH, who is also an emergency physician.
Dr. Nichols brings a breadth of supervisory and emergency medicine experience to New Orleans EMS. Dr. Nichols values the EMS Continuum of Care and the role of EMS in health care, public safety, and public health. She looks forward to working to provide outstanding, equitable prehospital care to the residents and visitors of New Orleans.