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2017 Health Care Champions Technician: Freya Whalen

CoxHealth

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In the best and worst of times, Freya Whalen is there.

During one shift, the CoxHealth emergency medical technician provides critical care to patients who are enduring traumatic medical emergencies. On the next, she celebrates with patients welcoming babies into the world as an obstetrical technician on the labor and delivery floor of Cox Medical Center Branson.

“My role in health care is to be there,” Whalen says.

Sometimes that role entails performing life-saving functions in the back of an ambulance. Other times, it’s as simple as tucking the blanket around a patient’s toes, Whalen says. As an EMT, she never knows what the next shift will bring.

“In the emergency service, we’re there for people typically on the worst day of their life. We have to manage and plan for the patient’s care and also their family. We educate both patients and their family,” she says. “If they’re going through a psychiatric crisis, then the best I can do is be there – to be honest and to help support them while transporting them to a hospital where they can get more advanced treatment.”

Whalen’s empathy stems from personal experience. She understands medical trauma after losing her father despite emergency attempts at resuscitation.

“Even though it was a terrible situation to be in, I knew they did all they could,” she says. “And when I, as a provider, am in that situation to tell a family they’ve lost a loved one, I make sure to explain so they know everything that could have been done was.”

Whalen also is passionate about passing this knowledge to the next generation of EMTs. She is an EMT field training officer, providing pre-hospital training for newly hired and student EMTs. Her goal is to go beyond the textbook and locate needs in the emergency medical service industry.

“Rather than avoid something you need to work on, go get educated, which is what I do,” Whalen says.

She also volunteers teaching hands-only CPR with the American Heart Association to individuals of all ages. Whalen’s emergency service doesn’t stop there, though. She is currently a medical officer and fire lieutenant for Clever Fire Protection District and previously worked as an emergency medical dispatcher for Mercy.

Whalen says she’s inspired by her younger sister, who was diagnosed at a young age with a life-threatening illness. They’ve spent countless hours together in the hospital.

“I have seen the best of health care. Those providers inspire me, even years later, to be like them to my patients and leave such a long-standing impression,” she says. “Through this experience, I have also seen the worst in health care providers. The ignorant, uncaring, incompetent ones who are there for a paycheck.”

The bedside experiences have shaped her own practice and taught her how to provide the most effective and meaningful patient care possible.

“In health care, we are given a rare opportunity to be there for someone in their darkest time and to help them. Be it big or small, the things we do and say are important,” she says. “Some days are amazing; some days will break your heart. But at the end of it all, I go home knowing I did everything I could to help heal my patients and their family.”

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