Happy EMS Week SAFETY TUESDAY!
Today is SAFETY TUESDAY! I know, I know...it’s drilled into your heads. Scene safety, scene safety, and scene safety. Can you hear Men Without Hats?!?!?
And you know what, you’re absolutely right. The scene SHOULD be safe.But today we’re not talking about THAT kind of safety. We’re talking about your safety when it comes to fatigue. Fatigue, which is the overwhelming feeling of exhaustion and tiredness, is a rampant problem in our field. It is a pernicious symptom that leaks into every aspect of our lives affecting not only patient safety, but yours in EMS as well.
Fatigue, which is the overwhelming feeling of exhaustion and tiredness, is a rampant problem in our field. It is a pernicious symptom that leaks into every aspect of our lives affecting not only patient safety, but yours in EMS as well.
So we decided to delve into our archives (well not that deep) and play for you one of our favorite interviews with a sleep scientist and colleague of paramedics, Dr. Daniel Patterson and his evidence based guideline manuscript on fatigue. To be honest, it is very intimidating to interview Dr. Patterson because he is a paramedic AND a PhD. Fortunately, Dr. Patterson’s gentlemanly southern accent and conversational tone made this interview so relaxed and informative that it felt like we were being taught by a great mentor.
Now, Dr. Patterson made this interview great, but when we decided to branch out and hear from our ground medics around the nation about fatigue, we knew we had something special. This episode provides a mixture of educational research with real life stories to drive the point home...that fatigue is a rampant problem in EMS and MUST be addressed for our patient’s safety and more importantly...our EMS provider’s safety. So while on your drive home, working on your spring cleaning project, or even waiting to pick up your kid, check out this episode for Safety Tuesday.
Thank you EMS providers for all that you do. Happy Safety Tuesday!
Cheers and BE SAFE!!!