Submitted 2022-10-01
Emergency medical care is a very vital part of the health system since it is often the first contact point of patients who are critically ill, seriously bleeding or having a cardiac arrest with the health system. Some health facilities operate a specialized emergency medical service unit to handle these cases while others handle such cases at the different medical unit of the health facility. This care is usually very important for such patients because the way the care is being offered can determine if the said patient will live or die.
Depending on the severity of the condition, an emergency situation can be evaluated by a physician, a nurse or any other medical staff who has received appropriate trainings to do so. Basic life support skill is often required as the first tool for nurses and physicians to be able to perform life saving techniques on patients in an emergency situation. However, performing these techniques often requires some level of preparedness to be able to achieve good results at the end of the exercise. This preparedness should be both physical and mental on the part of the medical personnel who is to embark on such intervention.
The first level of physical preparedness is to ensure that you are healthy enough to perform the task. By being healthy I mean you are not sick in anyway or having any contagious disease that can instead endanger the life of the patient. You should equally ensure that your immune system is strong enough to be able to fight any opportunistic infection that can come as a result of contact with the patient. To achieve this you should eat healthy, that is take a balance diet daily to nourish your body well. Emergency interventions like in cardiac cases might require you to support the patient and to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation which you require you to have enough energy and force to do it.
Another important physical preparation is to ensure that all the necessary supplies and materials that will be needed in this intervention are available at the moment of the intervention. Health practitioners should always put on their jackets, wear gloves and nose masks during emergency intervention in outbreaks or when the patient is having an infectious disease. We should always make sure that there is no physical contact with the blood or any fluid that comes out from the body of the patient. In addition to that, we should be wearing our boot to avoid contact with vomits and other liquids from the patients.
The third physical preparation should be to ensure that the environment around the patient is not crowded such that air is blocked from reaching the patient. The fewer the number of persons around the person at the time of the intervention, the better for the success of the intervention. Moreover, we must make sure we have sufficient information regarding the person’s health and medical history before performing certain life saving techniques on patients in emergency situations. This often helps to reduce the complications that may be cause by certain substances or medications that may be used during the intervention.
On the part of the mental preparation, the health professional has to ensure that they are optimistic and realistic before performing this action. In doing this the health professional needs to believe in their self and the skills they have. They should believe that they have enough skills and knowledge on the emergency condition they are about to handle. As such health professionals should be sincere to themselves and the people around during emergency situation, as this may help family members and caretakers be psychologically prepared to welcome any outcome after the intervention. Another aspect of this is to show positive attitudes as you prepare to perform such interventions. At times we walk into performing emergency interventions with defeatist mindset, showing reluctance and talking negatively about a patient’s condition. This most at times hinder the chances of success in performing such interventions.
Another mental preparation that is necessary is to manage anxiety and emotions in our lives, especially in emergency conditions. We mostly encounter this in pediatric life support where nurses, midwives and physicians failed due to too much anxiety to save a child. Proper management of anxiety and emotions will help to make appropriate decisions and take appropriate actions during emergency cases. Moreso, we need to manage stress in our lives to enable us act with a free mind and make good decisions in emergency conditions. Most cases of emergency are associated with stress on the family and the health professional, so knowing how to manage stressful situations will help increase your chance of success in the exercise.
It is also important to always be relax and concentrate in whatever you do as a health professional. This helps to prepare you mentally whenever you are to perform a life saving technique in an emergency situation. Always focus on the work you do at a time and reduce multitasking so that your efficiency in output will increase. Knowing how to prepare mentally and physically in performing life saving techniques is important in achieving success during emergency conditions.