Emergency medical services
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The primary and fundamental responsibility of a local EMS system is to provide prehospital care to the citizens of the community. Therefore, each community must have a system in place to ensure continual, efficient prehospital care. ⋯ If lifeguard personnel are expected to respond to respiratory, cardiac and spinal-injury incidents within their aquatic facilities, they must be included within this comprehensive community EMS system. Therefore, fire, rescue and other prehospital EMS agencies must coordinate their efforts and training responsibilities with the local lifeguard services in their area.
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Developing relevant performance standards and rating criteria and preparing preceptors for the role of evaluator are critical to establishing valid student field performance evaluations and providing assurance to educational institutions that graduating students truly are competent and ready to assume an entry-level position. Using scripted, pre-scored video case studies in conjunction with written guidelines for rating the performance standards and providing specific feedback to explain rationale can significantly improve interrater agreement between preceptors.
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The purpose of this article is only to introduce these procedures. More extensive review of the procedures and instruction by a qualified professional are mandatory before proceeding further. ⋯ Since these techniques are probably used infrequently, a regular training schedule should be established, along with competency testing. Whichever procedure is used will enable appropriately trained and competent personnel to get a patient through a life-threatening situation quickly.