Michigan EMS Practitioners Association honors Ken Bailey at annual event
North Flight EMS Paramedic Ken Bailey, EMT-P, recently was honored as the “EMS Practitioner of the Year” at the Michigan EMS Practitioners Association’s 2017 EMS Expo on Mackinac Island.
Bailey was nominated for the award by Lee-Ellen Brown of Munson Regional EMS Education for his work as an instructor and his tireless efforts on behalf of the EMS community and residents in the region.
“Ken places his students, his patients, and his coworkers before him,” she said. “He always figures out how to make others smile, especially his patients. He has had multiple cardiac arrest saves over the past few years. The tears that came to his eyes as one of them thanked him in person shows the love and passion Ken has for his job and his patients.”
As an instructor at Munson Regional EMS Education, Bailey teaches EMT and paramedic courses. He also leads courses for registered nurses to get their EMT and paramedic licenses. He is qualified to teach American Heart Association classes as well as prehospital trauma life support classes.
Bailey began his EMS career as a first-responder at the Boardman Township Fire Department in Kalkaska County during the mid-1990s and steadily furthered his EMS education. Changes in his former profession brought him into a full-time EMS role. For the past six years he has worked for North Flight EMS out of Cadillac’s Fire Station.
“It’s kind of humbling. I didn’t do anything special,” he said of the honor. While he has delivered a baby, performed life-saving CPR on patients, and worked through all kinds of trauma – he does not point to any one incident as a career highlight to date.
“The one thing that does stand out every day is that I made a difference in somebody’s life,” he said.
More information on North Flight EMS can be found at northflightems.org.