Prehospital and disaster medicine
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Mar 2005
Peer evaluation of the professional behaviors of emergency medical technicians.
Professional behavior is one of the cornerstones of effective emergency medical services (EMS) practice and is a required part of the National Standard Curricula for advanced levels of EMS education. However, peer rating of emergency medical technicians with respect to the 11 categories of professional behavior never has been quantified. This study uses a peer evaluation methodology to assess the affective competencies of practicing EMS providers. ⋯ Overall, EMTs peer evaluation of professional behavior was "good." The behaviors most highly rated were integrity and appearance/personal hygiene. The behaviors rated lowest were self-motivation and team work/diplomacy. It appears that paramedics are more critical of their colleagues than are EMT-Basics, that experienced EMT-Basics are harsher critics than are newer EMT-Basics, and that there is a relationship between job satisfaction and peer evaluation.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Jan 2005
Triage decisions of United Kingdom police firearms officers using a multiple-casualty scenario paper exercise.
British police officers authorized to carry firearms may need to make judgments about the severity of injury of individuals or the relative priority of clinical need of a group of injured patients in tactical and non-tactical situations. Most of these officers receive little or no medical training beyond basic first aid to enable them to make these clinical decisions. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the accuracy of triage decision-making of firearms-trained police officers with and without printed decision-support materials. ⋯ It appears that significant improvements in the accuracy of triage decision-making by police firearms officers can be achieved with the use of appropriate triage decision-support materials. Training may offer additional improvements in accuracy, but this improvement is likely to be small when decision-support materials are provided. With basic clinical skills and appropriate decision-support materials, it is likely that the police officer can make accurate triage decisions in a multiple-casualty scenario or make judgments of the severity of injury of a given individual in both tactical and non-tactical situations.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Jan 2005
Review Comparative StudyEffects of prehospital spinal immobilization: a systematic review of randomized trials on healthy subjects.
To evaluate the effects of spinal immobilization on healthy participants. ⋯ Data from this review provide the best available evidence to support the well-recognized efficacy and potential adverse effects of spinal immobilization. However, comparisons of different immobilization strategies on trauma victims must be considered in order to establish an evidence base for this practice.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Jan 2005
ReviewInformation technology and public health management of disasters--a model for South Asian countries.
This paper highlights the use of information technology (IT) in disaster management and public health management of disasters. Effective health response to disasters will depend on three important lines of action: (1) disaster preparedness; (2) emergency relief; and (3) management of disasters. This is facilitated by the presence of modern communication and space technology, especially the Internet and remote sensing satellites. ⋯ The creation of such an infrastructure will enable the rapid transfer of information, data, knowledge, and online connectivity from top officials to the grassroots organizations, and also among these countries regionally. This Model may be debated, modified, and tested further in the field to suit the national and local conditions. It is hoped that this exercise will result in a viable and practical model for use in public health management of disasters by South Asian countries.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Jan 2005
The incident command system in disasters: evaluation methods for a hospital-based exercise.
No universally accepted methods for objective evaluation of the function of the Incident Command System (ICS) in disaster exercises currently exist. An ICS evaluation method for disaster simulations was derived and piloted. ⋯ A structured, objective, quantitative evaluation of ICS function can identify deficiencies that can become the focus for subsequent improvement efforts.