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Important articles and news in EMS
Awareness, effectiveness and usefulness of the long board in motor vehicle collisions.
As many states have done and many others studies on the effective use and quality of patient outcome from the use of the long board in traumatic injuries. Many studies have shown that the effectiveness of long board is lost due to the improper application of stabilizing straps and void padding. However this is paled in comparison to the application of the backboard based on the mechanism of the injuries, in which EMS agencies and EMTs for the sake of “in case of” apply the backboard to patient who are absolutely not needing the back board.
The majority of applied backboards in the field, for all forms of motor vehicle collisions regardless of the; severity of the patient’s condition, the EMT’s differential diagnosis, and the overall consideration of the vehicle type and age, not including other forms of trauma; only suggests that EMS personnel are grown into the ideology of “in case of”. The majority of the studies states that the use of the longboard has shown to cause more back problems in the short and the long term of the overall patient health due to the prolonged state of being strapped down to a non ergonomic device to the human physiology of the spine. This means that our patients who are involved motor vehicle collisions who have minor injuries should be evaluated and based on the patient’s presentation of their pain and symptoms we need to have our differential assessment and treatment plans to go in alignment with what is best for our patient’s.
When dealing with your patient’s remember we are their to help not harm. We are the professionals, we practice the job we do because of the love of it, and in the fear of being called “ambulance drivers” and worse we train, educate, and apply.