Family Advisory Network feature: Karen McCracken

Name:

Karen McCracken

State:

Kentucky

Why did you become a FAN?

“Having personal experience with our special needs son being transported more than once to the hospital and having EMS come to the house to assist, I have a passion for making sure that EMS professionals stay up-to-date and educated on the parent and family perspective of emergency services and how their level of care, understanding, and response affects families. My husband is also a retired firefighter/paramedic and he’s served many families over the years with children from just a few months old up to teens.”

What do you want EMS physicians and personnel to know about centering the family in their care?

“That the families are typically the experts on their children and that the treatment of the family in an emergent situation can make all the difference in the child staying calm and in the level of their care. Also, that families, even in emergency situations, are thankful for the care, compassion, and expertise of the EMTs, paramedics, nurses and all emergency workers who assist us.”