Premium
Performance of Norwegian civilian EMT s and army medics in penetrating trauma: a controlled simulation‐based assessment
Author(s) -
Blix S. W.,
Melau J.,
LundKordahl I.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
acta anaesthesiologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1399-6576
pISSN - 0001-5172
DOI - 10.1111/aas.12910
Subject(s) - medicine , surgery , penetrating trauma , hemostasis , penetrating wounds , emergency medicine , medical emergency , blunt
Background Penetrating trauma kills rapidly. Thorough and efficient examination and aggressive hemorrhage control is important to save lives. The aim of this study was to assess the skills of civilian Emergency Medical Technicians ( EMT s) in bleeding examination and control compared to Army Medics. Our hypothesis was that civilian pre‐hospital systems perform at a lower level compared to an expert group, and did not have sufficient focus on education and training in examination and treatment of penetrating injuries. Material and methods We included 60 volunteer Certified EMT s and Army Medics. First, the participants examined a wounded patient. Second, the participants were presented a patient with a penetrating injury on a pork side fixated to the thigh with an artificial arterial bleeding. Results The EMT s took significantly shorter time examining, median 1 min 5 s vs. 3 min 58 s ( P < 0.001). 5/30 (17%) of EMT s and 28/30 (93%) of army medics did an approved gauze wound packing of the penetrating injury ( P < 0.001). EMT s took (median) 18 s and army medics 8 s to hemostasis regardless of approved packing or not ( P < 0.001). Time spent on the packing was (median) 1 min 50 s vs. 5 min 47 s respectively ( P < 0.001). Increasing time spent on the procedure showed significantly better chance of a successful procedure. Conclusion The EMT s had lower accuracy in examination but used significantly shorter time than the Army Medics. The treatment part of the study showed poor EMT performance compared to the Army Medics. This study indicates that more wound packing training needs to be incorporated into initial and ongoing civilian EMT training.