This column from Kate's series titled "Straight Talk" appeared online in her monthly Internet column for MergiNET (which ran from Nov.1996 to June 2003), and also in print in EMS magazine in October, 2001.
Did your mom ever claim to have eyes in the back of her head? I kept my child stumped with that one for years. She was perpetually confounded I could seemingly have my attention elsewhere, yet always catch her when she was up to some mischief or danger.
Knowing constantly what's going on around me may have been very irritating to her, but it's one of my best and most-used skills. The skill of "soft gaze" or "soft eyes" is something that I realize now I have honed for years. Whether I'm in a crowd, working around a large animal, or assessing an emergency scene, it's easily one of my most valuable skills (right up there with an ear-splitting whistle). Savvy emergency care providers are encouraged to build up this skill for their own personal protection.
Basically, soft eyes is when you monitor your world well beyond the limits of your focused gaze. It's peripheral vision taken to a wider view. It's seeing everything at once, even when you're looking at one thing in particular. Soft gaze occurs when you employ your eves, ears, smell/ taste even your sense of touch and your gut instincts—to do a routine, continual check-in of the world around you. It's not paranoia. It is supreme awareness. There's a big difference.
Thinking back, my development of soft eyes began as a youngster avidly riding many different horses every week. It's wise to work around a 1,200-1b. animal with part of your attention continually focused on its shifting weight and mental attitude. Horses are tremendous creatures, but when they move, you don't want to be in the way. A moment of inattention can yield a sore foot if they step where you are standing, or a broken tooth if you're in the way when they toss their head (ask me how happy my parents were about that, when it happened just three days after finishing a three-year orthodontic program).
Other pursuits also sharpened my soft eyes. One was 12 years of studying aikido, a Japanese martial art, and another six years practicing tae kwon do. hen fellow students approach you relentlessly with intentions of grabbing, striking or kicking, your observation skills improve, especially when avoiding other students practicing around you on a crowded mat.
And finally, of course, there was the University of the Streets, where soft eyes rewarded me time and again with information about each scene and the people involved. Soft eyes inform you when muscular tension is building up to a dangerous degree in someone else. It keeps you abreast of the ebb and flow of bystanders at a scene, whether or not they are threatening at the moment (and will help you notice if circumstances evolve for the worse). With this skill, you will gather more relevant, if hasty, information at critical, fast-moving scenes. Any way you look at it, soft eyes have it made over tunnel vision any day.
It was a real surprise to discover that soft eves is an unusual concept for many emergency providers. One day, while on a ridealong, we had a routine call to a home for a mid-level illness. The medic, a relative novice, did the .patient assessment by the book and was impressively complete. I assumed he had also scanned the room for additional information, and inquired later why he hadn't brought along the patient's crutches, which had been leaning against the wall near the bed. He had never noticed them. It was beyond his narrow field of vision—one which would have broadened with softer eyes. Maybe he would have noticed someone with violent intention standing in that part of the room but his skills had not developed to take in subtleties. And there have been many other instances that tell me soft eyes is not a universally touted skill in EMS. Maybe it's just one of those things that's so subtle field veterans know about it (and practice it) without identifying what's happening in so many words.
Soft gaze occurs when you employ your eyes, ears, smell/taste—even your sense of touch and your gut instincts—to do a routine, continual check-in of the world around you. It's not paranoia. It is supreme awareness. There's a big difference.
Nonetheless, you can bet that good field veterans all have soft eyes to some degree, whether or not they even know it. They have learned to have eyes in the backs of their heads. They know the value of maintaining a constant thread of vigilance and observation during every waking moment, on duty and off. In a way, the concept can be compared to what Luke Skywalker was told: "Feel the Force, Luke." It's that subliminal, watchful, aware consciousness that informs you of the world around you.
If you don't have soft eyes, you can begin today to develop the skill, for that's all it is. It's another excellent habit to put into your armory of skills to use on the streets, as you work the calls that come your way. And when/ if you ever have children, imagine the fun you'll have, trying to convince them of the eyes in the back of your head!
As part of a joint effort between EMS Magazine and MERGINET to offer readers additional educational material to improve the delivery of emergency medical care, EMS will feature a new article each month from MERGINET.News, an online webzine for emergency responders. Visit merginet.com to read this article and many more online.