Transport Methods for Critically Ill Patients
Course #90744 - $90 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
Healthcare professionals are an integral part of the transport system, stabilizing patients prior to transport, providing care in transport and ensuring the safety of the patient throughout the transport process. This course will provide information on the types of transport available, transport physiology (those stressors that impact the patient in transport), transport regulations, stabilization for transport, care in transport, and the general principles of transporting patients, including both safety and medical-legal issues. All healthcare professionals involved in caring for sick or injured patients must be aware of all of these concepts in order to provide optimal care.
- INTRODUCTION
- MODES OF TRANSPORT
- TRANSPORT PHYSIOLOGY
- THE TRANSPORT PROCESS
- STABILIZATION FOR TRANSPORT
- STABILIZATION OF SPECIFIC PATIENT POPULATIONS
- DETAILS INVOLVED IN THE TRANSPORT OF PATIENTS
- PRINCIPLES OF TRANSPORT
- MEDICAL-LEGAL ISSUES
- SUMMARY
- INTERNET RESOURCES
- Works Cited
- Works Consulted
- Evidence-Based Practice Recommendations Citations
This course is designed for all healthcare professionals involved in the transport of critically ill patients, including physicians, physician assistants, and nurses.
The purpose of this course is to provide information on the types of patient transport available, transport physiology, transport regulation, stabilization for transport, care in transport, and the general principles of transporting patients, including both safety and medical-legal issues, in order to facilitate better patient care.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Compare the advantages and disadvantages of ground, fixed-wing, and helicopter transport.
- Evaluate physiologic changes that occur during transport and list interventions to limit patient compromise.
- Describe the current federal requirements and regulations in regard to transporting the ill or injured patient.
- List, in order, the appropriate steps in arranging an interfacility transport.
- Identify stabilization procedures to be undertaken for all patients requiring transport.
- Describe the emotional impact of transport on the patient and/or the family and list interventions to provide psychosocial support for these individuals, taking into consideration cultural and linguistic variables.
- List the baseline diagnostic studies to be performed prior to transport, if time and patient condition warrant their performance.
- Cite physiologic changes that occur during transport and impact the neurologic, respiratory, and cardiovascular systems.
- Summarize special considerations for transport of burn and multiple-trauma patients.
- Identify the problems that may occur during transport of the pediatric patient.
- Identify the stressors of transport that impact the elderly patient and cite how to best stabilize the patient to limit these complications.
- Describe the impact of transport on the pregnant patient and her fetus and how these problems can be managed.
- Describe the steps in caring for a patient in transport.
- Describe how transport impacts the choice and use of biomedical equipment.
- List actions to take to ensure the safety of the crew, the patient, and the personnel on the ground when performing both a helicopter and a fixed-wing transport.
- Cite the medical-legal requirements of providing care to a patient outside of a hospital system.
Susan Engman Lazear, RN, MN, received her undergraduate education at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing in Washington, D.C. After completing her BSN, she served as an Army Nurse at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco for four years. She then attended the University of Washington School of Nursing and received a Master’s in Nursing, specializing in Burn, Trauma and Emergency Nursing. After receiving her MN, she started Airlift Northwest, the air ambulance service based in Seattle which serves the entire Northwest region, including Alaska. Mrs. Lazear left the air ambulance service to start her own nursing education and consulting business, Specialists in Medical Education. For the past 20 years she has been teaching emergency nursing courses throughout the country. She lives in the Seattle area. Mrs. Lazear continues to teach and publish. She is both an editor and contributing author of Critical Care Nursing, published by W.B. Saunders Company, in June of 1992. She served as an author and reviewer of the Emergency Nursing Core Curriculum 6th Edition, published by W.B. Saunders Company in 2007. She has been named to the Who’s Who in American Healthcare list annually since 1992.
Contributing faculty, Susan Engman Lazear, RN, MN, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
John V. Jurica, MD, MPH
Jane C. Norman, RN, MSN, CNE, PhD
The division planners have disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.