Without a doubt, one of the most under-appreciated groups of healthcare workers in our country are emergency medical technicians. These are the dedicated men and women who respond to illness and injury outside of the hospital setting. There are several levels of EMT — including emergency medical responder, EMT basic, advanced EMT and paramedic — and the levels correspond to increasing levels of education and skill.

While much of our national healthcare focus is always on nurses and physicians, it is the first responder who comes to the house where a loved one experiences a cardiac arrest and starts CPR. It is the EMT who treats the patient at the overturned car and extricates them from it so that they can be taken to the hospital. It is the flight paramedic who keeps them alive from the scene of the house fire to the burn center. These individuals put themselves at physical risk and work with limited resources to save life and limb.