Introduction to Emergency Care

1
Introduction to Emergency Care

• Chapter 1

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Introduction

• 70 million emergency hospital visits
• 1.3 million are non-fatal
• First on the scene often untrained
• Too much time passes before care is given
• Many die

• What is First Aid?
• Temporary and immediate care
• Must recognize life-threatening conditions and
  take action
• Does not replace medical professionals

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Life-threatening emergencies

• Unconsciousness
• Vomiting while not fully conscious
• Convulsion (seizures)
• Breathing difficulties
• Fever gt100
• Pulse gt100bpm or absent

• When to move a victim
• If the scene becomes unsafe
• You need to reach other victims
• You need to reposition them to give care

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Responding to Emergencies

• Deciding to act
• Why not get involved?
• What can you do dont get involved?
• Chain of survival
• Recognizing an emergency
• Unusual sights, sounds, appearances, behaviors,
  odors
• Signals might not be clear
• Victim in denial, unsure, or deliberately
  misleading
• Ask questions
• Some conditions/illnesses mimic others

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Emergency action sequence

• CHECK scene for safety and victim for
  responsiveness
• Examples of unsafe scenes?
• CALL 911 or emergency number
• Immediately if alone and victim is an adult (gt8
  years old)
• Give 1 minute of care if alone and victim is an
  infant (0-1 years old) or child (1-8 years old)
• What information to give the dispatcher??
• CARE for conditions you find

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Protecting yourself

• Duty to act
• Preexisting responsibility
• Employment requirement
• Once begin, must continue
• Good Samaritan Laws
• Protects first aider from lawsuit unless found
  guilty of negligence
• Negligence
• Victim was injured
• Actions/lack caused or contributed to injury
• You had duty to act
• You acted in unusual, unreasonable, or imprudent
  way
• Reasonable man test
• Defense against negligence
• Did you do what a similar person would do
• Burden of proof on victim

• Legal aspects of FA
• Dont interfere with help given by others
• Follow directions of EMS or police
• Dont force help
• Actual consent
• Implied consent
• Minors consent
• Mentally ill consent
• Once begin, must continue
• Follow procedures for your training
• Respect victims privacy
• Preserve evidence

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Infectious Disease Transmission

• Infectious body fluids?
• 3 things must occur for a disease to pass from
  one person to another
• Identifying diesases?
• Common bloodborne pathogens
• Hepatitis, HIV/AIDS
• Other diseases of concern
• Herpes, tuberculosis, meningitis

• Protecting yourself from infection
• Universal precautions
• Immunizations
• Clean area
• Wash hands
• Cover wounds
• Report all exposures
• Avoid touching personal objects