title: The role of emergency medical services in primary injury prevention. Consensus workshop. Arlington, Virginia, August 25-26, 1995.
abstract: Injury is a leading cause of death and disability. Preventing injuries from ever occurring is primary injury prevention (PIP). The objective of this statement is to present the consensus of a 16-member panel of leaders from the out-of-hospital emergency medical services (EMS) community on essential and desirable EMS PIP activities. Essential PIP activities for leaders and decision makers of every EMS system include: protecting individual EMS providers from injury; providing education to EMS providers in PIP fundamentals; supporting and promoting the collection and utilization of injury data; obtaining support for PIP activities; networking with other injury prevention organizations; empowering individual EMS providers to conduct PIP activities; interacting with the media to promote injury prevention; and participating in community injury prevention interventions. Essential PIP knowledge areas for EMS providers include: PIP principles; personal injury prevention and role modeling; safe emergency vehicle operation; injury risk identification; documentation of injury data; and one-on-one safety education.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. hgarriso@pcmh.com
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Garrison
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Foltin
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Chew
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Madsen
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Ozmar
mesh_terms: D000056:Accident Prevention; D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004632:Emergency Medical Services; D006266:Health Education; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D011322:Primary Prevention; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*