The role of emergency medical services in primary injury prevention. East Carolina Injury Prevention Program.
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.
Department of Emergency Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27835-6028, USA. hgarriso@pcmh.com
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D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000592:standards*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D007857:Leadership; D014481:United States; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*