MORE THAN THE UNIFORM | Meet Mia, NSH EMT & Certified Wilderness EMT
For Mia, EMS was a pretty natural fit.
“I’m one of those people who hates being bored and feels my best when something crazy is happening.”
A little over a year and a half into her EMS career, she has already discovered that providing emergency care in Cook County comes with a perspective all its own.
Having grown up in a large city, Mia says she once took access to healthcare for granted. Working in small, remote communities has given her a much greater appreciation for the challenges rural areas face—and for the role EMS plays when definitive care may be hours away.
Her background as a Wilderness EMT fits that environment particularly well. Her interest in wilderness medicine began with a first-aid course required for a summer job and eventually led her to a Wilderness EMT course through NOLS.
And apparently, wilderness medicine education does not have to be boring.
Her final exercise included a simulated remote multi-casualty rescue, rubble from a building collapse, plenty of artificial blood—and even a fog machine.
Beyond the theatrics, the training taught her something that translates directly to EMS on the North Shore: be resourceful, stay confident, and keep working the problem.
“Whether in the wilderness or not, our calls often require long transport times, and we frequently don’t have the option of quickly transferring a patient to higher-trained professionals. I’m grateful for the stubborn sense of confidence and adventure that my wilderness training gave me.”
But one of the skills she is proudest of developing has nothing to do with ropes, rescue equipment, or medical procedures.
It’s empathy.
“It’s pretty humbling to have strangers invite you into their homes during some of the most stressful moments of their lives. This career exposes you to every imaginable part of the human experience, and I feel proud to have a job in which I can unconditionally offer compassion and advocacy to each person I meet.”
That same curiosity keeps her learning. She describes new medical and rescue skills as “trading cards I collect and keep in my pocket—you never know which one you might need next.”
And when the uniform comes off?
You’ll probably find her somewhere outside—backpacking, climbing, canoeing, biking, skiing, or finding an unnecessarily cold body of water to jump into.
Before EMS, Mia studied biology and ecology and spent years working in agriculture studying insects and soil—after very intentionally avoiding pre-med courses because she was sure medicine wasn’t for her.
We know how that turned out.
And one final warning from Mia:
“You have to be nice to bugs or we can’t be friends.”
That combination of curiosity, compassion, adventure, and willingness to step into the unpredictable is exactly what makes Mia more than the uniform.
-Karla, Director of EMS