Objective: To describe some aspects of the quality of ambulance care and completeness of information in the transfer forms of emergency patients who arrived in ambulances to the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL).
Methods:This was a descriptive study. All ambulances arrived at the NHSL during the study period with an emergency patient were selected (n=409) and from those 250 transfer forms, which could be traced were taken. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used for ambulance staff. A Checklist, which has been derived from the standard patent chart, was used to determine the availability of information on transfer forms.
Results: Of the 409 ambulances, the patient was accompanied by a doctor in 4% (n=16), a nurse in 4% (n=15) and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) in 1% (n= 4), and there were 675 miner employees and 409 drivers. Twenty six percent (n= 4) of doctors, 12.5% (n= 2) of nurses, 100% (n=4) of EMTs, 56.9% (n=189) of drivers and 24.3% (n=164) of minor employees had received training in emergency medicine/pre-hospital care.
The time interval between receipt of the message and loading the patient to the ambulance was >15 minutes on 19% (n= 75) of the occasions and from the latter time to commencement of the journey was >15 minutes on 7% (n=27) of the occasions.
The call number of sending facility 0.4% (n=1) and sending time 33.2% (n=83) were poorly documented. The past surgical histories 20.8% (n=52), chronic diseases 48% (n=120), psychological problems 13.2% (n=33) and allergies 9.2% (n=23) were poorly documented. Details of physical examination findings except cardio-vascular system were not documented in >50% of transfer forms. Medications had been documented fairly (>60%) in most of the transfer forms and however, the procedures (IV fluids, ECG) were poorly documented (<30%).
Conclusion: The completeness of information in the transfer form was not up to standards. This emphasizes for need of well-structured standard transfer form in the country.
Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitudes, and skills in pre-hospital care and emergency medicine of doctors, nurses and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT), who accompanied emergency patients in ambulances?
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among the doctors, nurses, and EMT who accompanied emergency patients in ambulances to the National Hospital. All ambulances arriving from August to October 2008 (n=409) were screened. A self-administered questionnaire with 30 items was used to assess knowledge, attitudes, and skills. The knowledge was categorized into three levels, EMT-basic level, EMT-intermediate level, and EMT-paramedic level and the scores were converted into the percentages.
Results: The overall knowledge score on basic, intermediate and paramedic level were 57.5%, 42.9%, and 33.9% respectively. The knowledge on airway management (84.3%), bleeding control (82.9%), patient transport (71%) and first aids (61%) at the EMT-basic level were higher, however oxygen administration (37.1%) and basic life support (38.6%), spinal immobilization (45.7%), traction splinting (47%) and triage (48.6%) were lower. For the EMT-intermediate level, knowledge on endotracheal intubation (41.4%) and initial cardiac drug therapy (44.3%) were low. For the EMT-paramedic level, the knowledge on the advanced respiratory support (53%), ECG interpretation (37%), pharmacology (13%) and paediatric life support (20%) were lower.
Most staff showed positive attitudes towards the need of basic knowledge in pre-hospital care (97.1%, n=34), need for proper training (97.1%, n=34) and cost for pre-hospital care (77.1%, n=27), while they showed relatively negative attitudes towards the outcome of pre-hospital care (74.3%, n=26).
For the required skills for advanced life support, most of the staff showed skills in IV cannulation (71.4%, n=25) and IV drug administration (71.4%, n=25) however less skills were shown cricothyroidotomy (22.9%, n=8), pleural drainage (25.7%, n=9) and laryngoscopy and intubation (31.4%, n=11).
Conclusion: The knowledge at the EMT-basic level was average and intermediate and paramedic levels were lower than average. The attitudes were generally positive. However they lacked some specific skills.
The emergence of COVID-19 worldwide in an unprecedented pandemic. COVID-19 has a significant mortality, mostly from acute lung injury. We reviewed the available literature from China and Europe in regard to the behavior of SARS-Cov2 and ability to adhere to the cell wall [1,2]. The evidence based literature describes three component for the virus to grant entry to the target cells including Cathepsin B/L (the viral cap protein needed for initial connectivity to the cell wall), the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 and a low PH environment to allow the first connectivity of the virus to the cell wall [3]. The goal of our Case study was to prevent SARS- SARS-Cov2 from entering target cells by raising the airways PH using sodium bicarbonate inhalation. The sodium Bicarbonate inhalation (4.2% concentration) has been used safely in Cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with inspissated mucoid impaction [3,4] and in chloride inhalation toxicity by opposing the effect of the low PH induced by the insulting agent [4,5]. It has not been administered for COVID -19 patients particularly prior to this study.
I am delighted and satisfied with. Heighten Science Publications as my manuscript was thoroughly assessed and published on time without delay. Keep up the good work.
Ido-Ekiti/Afe Babalola University, Nigeria
Dr. Shuaib Kayode Aremu
Your journal has accomplished its intended mission of providing very effective and efficient goals in dealing with submissions, conducting the reviewing process and in publishing accepted manuscripts ...
University of Jacqmar, Inc., USA
John St. Cyr
Your service is very good and fast reply, Also your service understand our situation and support us to publication our articles.
Palestine College of Nursing, Khan Younis, Gaza St...
Ayman M Abu Mustafa
Your big support from researchers around the world is the best appreciation from your scientific teams. We believe that there should be no barrier in science and you make it real and this motto come ...
Arefhosseinir Rafi
Submission of paper was smooth, the review process was fast. I had excellent communication and on time response from the editor.
Ayokunle Dada
I do appreciate for your service including submission, analysis, review, editorial and publishing process. I believe these esteemed journal enlighten the science with its high-quality personel.
Bora Uysal
Thank you very much. I think the review process and all of what concerns the administration of the publication concerning our paper has been excellent. The nice and quick answers have been very good I...
Doris Nilsson
I am very much pleased with the fast track publication by your reputed journal's editorial team. It is really helpful for researchers like me from developing nations.
I strongly recommend your journ...
Badri Kumar Gupta
Dear colleagues! I am satisfied with our cooperation with you. Your service is at a high level. I hope for a future relationship. Let me know if I can get a paper version of the magazine with my artic...
Aksenov V.V
It was a real pleasure working with your team. The review was done fast, and it was very clear, the editing was flawless, the article was published quickly compared to other journals, and everyone w...
HSPI: We're glad you're here. Please click "create a new Query" if you are a new visitor to our website and need further information from us.
If you are already a member of our network and need to keep track of any developments regarding a question you have already submitted, click "take me to my Query."