EMT Unit 1
Chapter 2: Workforce Safety and Wellness
National EMS Education Standard Competencies
Medicine
- Medicine applies fundamental knowledge to provide basic emergency care and
transportation based on assessment findings for an acutely ill patient
Infectious Diseases
- Awareness of-
o How to decontaminate equipment after treating a patient
- Assessment and management of-
o How to decontaminate the ambulance and equipment after treating a patient
Preparatory
- Applies fundamental knowledge of the emergency medical services EMS system,
safety/well-being of the emergency medical technician EMT, medical/legal, and ethical
issues to the provision of emergency care
Workforce Safety and Wellness
-Standard safety precautions
-Personal protective equipment
-Stress management
-Dealing with death and dying
-Prevention of response related injuries
-Prevention of work-related injuries
-Lifting and moving patients
-Disease transmission
-Principles of Wellness and resilience i
Introduction
- To take care of others we must first take care of ourselves
- Recognition of head of hazards to your health safety and well-being is important
o Personal neglect
o Environmental and human made threats
o Mental and physical stress
- The emotional well-being of the EMT and the patient are intertwined especially in high
stress rescues
General Health Wellness and Resilience
- Health is a complex interaction between physical mental and emotional connections
- Chronic physical mental or emotional stress can worsen or increase the chance for
developing health conditions
- Wellness and stress management
- Not all reactions to stress are negative
o Eustress (good stress) creates a positive response
o Distress can cause a negative stress response
- Wellness is the active pursuit of a state of good health
, - Resilience is the capacity of an individual to cope with and recover from distress the
following practices can help increase resilience
o Eat a healthy and well-balanced diet
o Ensure a minimum of seven to nine hours of sleep per day
o Strengthen positive relationships with close family and friends
o Build relationships with peers and colleagues
o Incorporate daily stretching movement and exercise
o Build habits of mindful and positivity
Strategies to Manage Stress
- Minimize or eliminate stressors
- Change partners to avoid a negative or hostile personality
- Change work hours
- Change the work environment
- Cut back on overtime
- Change your attitude about the stressor
- Talk about your feelings
- Seek professional counseling if needed
- Do not obsess over frustrating situations
- Try to adopt a relaxed physiological outlook
- Expand your social support system
- Develop friends and interests outside emergency services
- Limit intake of caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco
Nutrition
- Eat regular, well-balanced meals
- Limit consumptions of sugars, fats, sodium and alcohol.
o Complex carbohydrates are comparable to simple sugars in their ability to
produce energy complex called carbohydrates. Pasta rice and vegetables are
among the most reliable source of long-term energy production Fats are easily
converted to energy but eating too much fat can lead to obesity cardiac disease
- Maintain adequate fluid intake
Exercise and Relaxation
- Regular exercise will enhance the benefits of maintaining good nutrition and adequate
hydration
- When you are in good physical condition you can handle stress more easily
- Engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity 5 days per week
including cardiovascular endurance muscle strength etc
Sleep
- The National Sleep Foundation and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
recommends that adults sleep a minimum of seven to 10 hours per night
- Half of EMS personnel get less than six hours of sleep per 24 hours and report severe
mental and physical fatigue
o Short term effects of sleep deprivation can lead to medical errors, vehicle
crashes, and other harm to patients, bystanders, and other EMS providers long
, term effects include hypertension sleep apnea diabetes depression and other
medical conditions
o Increased stress can contribute to sleep deprivation and fatigue issues
- Evidence based guidelines for fatigue management have been developed under the US
department of transportation (DOT) and through the national association of state EMS
officials
- Recommendations to combat fatigue
o Get an adequate duration and quality of sleep
o Take 20-30 min naps during shift work
o Increased physical activity
o Be careful about caffeine consumption
o Engage in mental exercise
- Recommendations to improve sleep quality
o Avoid caffeine and nicotine for at least 4 hours before bedtime
o Ensure your sleep environment is dark, quiet, and cool
o Exercise early and allow enough time to relax
o Nap early
o Avoid heavy pre sleep meals
o Balance fluid intake
o Establish a calming pre sleep routine
o Sleep when truly tired
o Don’t watch the clock
o Keep a consistent sleep schedule
o Expose yourself to natural light during your waking hours
Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
- Disease prevention
o Focuses on medical care and prevention to avoid the effects of disease
- Health Promotion
o Focuses on personal practices and social habits to improve one’s health
- Smoking, vaping, or chewing nicotine can lead to cardiovascular and respiratory illness,
as well as cancer
- Strategies are available to assist quitting nicotine containing products
- Alcohol abuse
o Acceptable alcohol consumption is described to be one drink per day for women
and two drinks per day for men
o Excessive alcohol use can adversely affect many body systems (nervous, cardiac,
etc) and increase the risk of developing certain cancers
- Drug Use
o Both prescription medications and illegal or illicit drugs may be abused or
misused
o Many EMS agencies drug testy their employees for illegal and prescription drugs
Balancing Work, Family, and Health
- Rotate your schedule to give yourself time off
, - Take vacations
- Seek help when stress becomes more than you can handle
Infectious and Communicable Diseases
- Infectious diseases is caused by organisms within the body
- Communicable diseases can be spread
o From person to person
o From one species to another
- Infection risk can be minimized by
o Immunizations
o Protective Techniques
o Handwashing
- Terminology
o Pathogen
Microorganism that can cause disease in a susceptible host
o Contamination
The presence of infectious organisms on or in objects such as dressings,
water, food, needles, wounds, or a patient’s body
o Exposure
A situation in which a person has had contact with blood, body fluids,
tissues, or air borne particles in a manner than suggests disease
transmission may occur
o PPE
Routes of Transmission
- Routes Include:
o Direct contact- bloodborne pathogen
o Indirect contact- needlestick
o Airborne transmission- sneezing
o Foodborne transmission- contaminated food
o Vector-borne transmission- fleas/ticks
Risk Reductions and Prevention for Infectious and Communicable Diseases
- All EMTs are trained in handling bloodborne pathogens
- CDC developed standard precautions
o Hand hygiene
o Personal protective equipment
Gloves
Gown
Mask, eye protection, face shield
Donning and Doffing PPE
- Donning: Putting on full PPE
- Doffing: Removal of full PPE
- Preform in a consistent sequence to reduce the risk of contamination
Proper Hand Hygiene
- Handwashing is the simplest, yet most effective way to control disease transmission
Chapter 2: Workforce Safety and Wellness
National EMS Education Standard Competencies
Medicine
- Medicine applies fundamental knowledge to provide basic emergency care and
transportation based on assessment findings for an acutely ill patient
Infectious Diseases
- Awareness of-
o How to decontaminate equipment after treating a patient
- Assessment and management of-
o How to decontaminate the ambulance and equipment after treating a patient
Preparatory
- Applies fundamental knowledge of the emergency medical services EMS system,
safety/well-being of the emergency medical technician EMT, medical/legal, and ethical
issues to the provision of emergency care
Workforce Safety and Wellness
-Standard safety precautions
-Personal protective equipment
-Stress management
-Dealing with death and dying
-Prevention of response related injuries
-Prevention of work-related injuries
-Lifting and moving patients
-Disease transmission
-Principles of Wellness and resilience i
Introduction
- To take care of others we must first take care of ourselves
- Recognition of head of hazards to your health safety and well-being is important
o Personal neglect
o Environmental and human made threats
o Mental and physical stress
- The emotional well-being of the EMT and the patient are intertwined especially in high
stress rescues
General Health Wellness and Resilience
- Health is a complex interaction between physical mental and emotional connections
- Chronic physical mental or emotional stress can worsen or increase the chance for
developing health conditions
- Wellness and stress management
- Not all reactions to stress are negative
o Eustress (good stress) creates a positive response
o Distress can cause a negative stress response
- Wellness is the active pursuit of a state of good health
, - Resilience is the capacity of an individual to cope with and recover from distress the
following practices can help increase resilience
o Eat a healthy and well-balanced diet
o Ensure a minimum of seven to nine hours of sleep per day
o Strengthen positive relationships with close family and friends
o Build relationships with peers and colleagues
o Incorporate daily stretching movement and exercise
o Build habits of mindful and positivity
Strategies to Manage Stress
- Minimize or eliminate stressors
- Change partners to avoid a negative or hostile personality
- Change work hours
- Change the work environment
- Cut back on overtime
- Change your attitude about the stressor
- Talk about your feelings
- Seek professional counseling if needed
- Do not obsess over frustrating situations
- Try to adopt a relaxed physiological outlook
- Expand your social support system
- Develop friends and interests outside emergency services
- Limit intake of caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco
Nutrition
- Eat regular, well-balanced meals
- Limit consumptions of sugars, fats, sodium and alcohol.
o Complex carbohydrates are comparable to simple sugars in their ability to
produce energy complex called carbohydrates. Pasta rice and vegetables are
among the most reliable source of long-term energy production Fats are easily
converted to energy but eating too much fat can lead to obesity cardiac disease
- Maintain adequate fluid intake
Exercise and Relaxation
- Regular exercise will enhance the benefits of maintaining good nutrition and adequate
hydration
- When you are in good physical condition you can handle stress more easily
- Engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity 5 days per week
including cardiovascular endurance muscle strength etc
Sleep
- The National Sleep Foundation and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
recommends that adults sleep a minimum of seven to 10 hours per night
- Half of EMS personnel get less than six hours of sleep per 24 hours and report severe
mental and physical fatigue
o Short term effects of sleep deprivation can lead to medical errors, vehicle
crashes, and other harm to patients, bystanders, and other EMS providers long
, term effects include hypertension sleep apnea diabetes depression and other
medical conditions
o Increased stress can contribute to sleep deprivation and fatigue issues
- Evidence based guidelines for fatigue management have been developed under the US
department of transportation (DOT) and through the national association of state EMS
officials
- Recommendations to combat fatigue
o Get an adequate duration and quality of sleep
o Take 20-30 min naps during shift work
o Increased physical activity
o Be careful about caffeine consumption
o Engage in mental exercise
- Recommendations to improve sleep quality
o Avoid caffeine and nicotine for at least 4 hours before bedtime
o Ensure your sleep environment is dark, quiet, and cool
o Exercise early and allow enough time to relax
o Nap early
o Avoid heavy pre sleep meals
o Balance fluid intake
o Establish a calming pre sleep routine
o Sleep when truly tired
o Don’t watch the clock
o Keep a consistent sleep schedule
o Expose yourself to natural light during your waking hours
Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
- Disease prevention
o Focuses on medical care and prevention to avoid the effects of disease
- Health Promotion
o Focuses on personal practices and social habits to improve one’s health
- Smoking, vaping, or chewing nicotine can lead to cardiovascular and respiratory illness,
as well as cancer
- Strategies are available to assist quitting nicotine containing products
- Alcohol abuse
o Acceptable alcohol consumption is described to be one drink per day for women
and two drinks per day for men
o Excessive alcohol use can adversely affect many body systems (nervous, cardiac,
etc) and increase the risk of developing certain cancers
- Drug Use
o Both prescription medications and illegal or illicit drugs may be abused or
misused
o Many EMS agencies drug testy their employees for illegal and prescription drugs
Balancing Work, Family, and Health
- Rotate your schedule to give yourself time off
, - Take vacations
- Seek help when stress becomes more than you can handle
Infectious and Communicable Diseases
- Infectious diseases is caused by organisms within the body
- Communicable diseases can be spread
o From person to person
o From one species to another
- Infection risk can be minimized by
o Immunizations
o Protective Techniques
o Handwashing
- Terminology
o Pathogen
Microorganism that can cause disease in a susceptible host
o Contamination
The presence of infectious organisms on or in objects such as dressings,
water, food, needles, wounds, or a patient’s body
o Exposure
A situation in which a person has had contact with blood, body fluids,
tissues, or air borne particles in a manner than suggests disease
transmission may occur
o PPE
Routes of Transmission
- Routes Include:
o Direct contact- bloodborne pathogen
o Indirect contact- needlestick
o Airborne transmission- sneezing
o Foodborne transmission- contaminated food
o Vector-borne transmission- fleas/ticks
Risk Reductions and Prevention for Infectious and Communicable Diseases
- All EMTs are trained in handling bloodborne pathogens
- CDC developed standard precautions
o Hand hygiene
o Personal protective equipment
Gloves
Gown
Mask, eye protection, face shield
Donning and Doffing PPE
- Donning: Putting on full PPE
- Doffing: Removal of full PPE
- Preform in a consistent sequence to reduce the risk of contamination
Proper Hand Hygiene
- Handwashing is the simplest, yet most effective way to control disease transmission
