Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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This retrospective study was designed to determine the choice of airway devices used for nontraumatic, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients and to evaluate the success and failure of insertion and airway control/ventilation by three airway adjuncts, the Combitube, the esophageal gastric tube airway (EGTA), and the laryngeal mask (LM), which were used in conjunction with the bag-valve-mask (BVM) by emergency life-saving technicians (ELSTs) in Japan. ⋯ The Combitube appears to be the most appropriate choice among the airway devices examined. However, serious injuries to the tissues, though they rarely occurred in the study, remain a major concern.
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To determine the effect of needle thoracostomy (NT) in the prehospital setting, its frequency of use, and its complication rate. ⋯ Prehospital NT is a procedure infrequently performed by paramedics, even in a busy urban area. While there is a risk of the procedure's being done without proper indication, NT may improve outcomes in a small subset of chest-injured patients.
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Comparative Study
A comparison of paramedic didactic training hours and NREMT-P examination performance.
The didactic hours required by paramedic training programs differ tremendously throughout the country. The authors hypothesized that a correlation exists between paramedic didactic training hours and pass/fail performance on the National Registry Examination. ⋯ There is no correlation between paramedic didactic training hours and pass/fail performance on the NREMT-P examination.
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Rates of resuscitation from cardiac arrest are directly tied to time to defibrillation. To maximize results, the first arriving care provider should be equipped and trained to defibrillate. This would include police in those systems where they serve this function; to date, no training program has been examined for effectiveness in this group. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a training program designed to train police first responders in the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED). ⋯ Police first responders trained in the use of AEDs performed at a level equivalent or superior to that in other reported studies. Future training strategies should stress proper integration of airway and CPR skills.
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The safe operation of ambulances using warning lights and siren requires both the public and emergency medical technician (EMT) drivers to understand and obey relevant traffic laws. However, EMTs may be unfamiliar with these laws. The purpose of this study was to evaluate EMTs' knowledge of traffic laws related to the operation of ambulances with warning lights and sirens. ⋯ In this sample, EMT knowledge of basic traffic laws pertaining to ambulance operation is poor. Emergency driver's education courses and increased experience appear to be related to increased knowledge scores. Increased training for EMTs about traffic laws may improve the safe operation of ambulances.