Prehospital and disaster medicine
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Oct 1996
EMS knowledge and skills in rural North Carolina: a comparison with the National EMS Education and Practice Blueprint.
Many state and local emergency medical services (EMS) systems may wish to modify provider levels and their scope of practice to align their systems with the recommendations of the National Emergency Medical Services Education and Practice Blueprint. To determine any changes that may be needed in a typical EMS system, the knowledge and skills of EMS providers in one rural area of North Carolina were compared with the knowledge and skills recommended in the National Emergency Medical Services Education and Practice Blueprint. ⋯ In North Carolina, combining the EMT and EMT-Defibrillator levels and eliminating the EMT-Intermediate level would create three levels of certification, which would be more consistent with levels recommended by the Blueprint. The results of this study should be considered in any effort to revise the levels of EMS certification in North Carolina and in planning the training curricula for bridging those levels. Other states may require similar action to align with the National Emergency Medical Services Education and Practice Blueprint.
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The capnometric demonstration of end-tidal carbon dioxide (CO2) is a reliable method of differentiating between a correct endotracheal tube position and an accidental misplacement of the tube into the esophagus. Recently, several CO2 detectors have been introduced for monitoring end-tidal CO2 in the "out-of-hospital" setting, where quantitative capnometry with capnography is not yet available. ⋯ The presence of 5% CO does not interfere with infrared spectrometry detection (MiniCAP and StatCAP) or chemical detection (EasyCAP, PediCAP, and Colibri) of CO2. The devices can be used safely in patients with CO poisoning for monitoring of endotracheal tube position.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Oct 1996
A survey of emergency medical services systems on college and university campuses.
Many colleges and universities appear to exist in relative isolation from community-based emergency medical services (EMS) systems. In response, some have developed their own EMS systems. ⋯ A significant number of colleges/universities have EMS systems and one-half transport patients. However, the level of training of the personnel and medical direction may be below the standard for the EMS systems in the communities in which these campus-based systems exist.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Oct 1996
Does basic life support in a rural EMS system influence the outcome of patients with respiratory distress?
The purpose of this study was to determine whether basic life support, prehospital emergency medical care in a rural area affects the hospital course of patients with respiratory distress. ⋯ Basic life support prehospital care in this rural emergency medical services system does not result in a lower mortality rate or a shorter hospital stay for a broad group of patients with respiratory distress who require hospital admission. Although this study is limited to a single population and a single emergency medical services system, it is one of only a few studies of outcome in basic life support systems.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Oct 1996
Letter Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical TrialNebulized lidocaine as an adjunct to endotracheal intubation in the prehospital setting.