QAS INSIGHT | Summer 2017-18 edition

Seattle

Left ■ Paramedic class at the

University of Washington’s Harborview Medical Center adjacent to downtown Seattle. Photo: Tony Hucker

Laerdal’s Q-CPR was utilised to monitor and improve the quality of our CPR. This is an excellent way of receiving CPR performance feedback, especially if you are practising alone. A great idea for single officer stations. Not to be outdone, our CPR master class is an excellent model too with some more emphasis on team work and improvement through our novel way of doing repetition drills. I also had a ride along with Seattle Fire Medic Paramedics. I have to say this was the highlight of the trip. All up, I spent 20 hours in the field and had a ball. Their system is quite different in that Fire is the primary EMS agency and 80% of their work is EMS. All firefighters are basic (BLS) EMTs. Pretty much advanced first aid and defibrillation, nothing invasive. They provide first response to all 911 calls. Paramedics (CCP equivalent) are career firefighters, who after five years’ service can apply for paramedic training. More about paramedic training later.

The Resuscitation Academy recommends the following 10 programs are required to provide the best overall system improvement to improve cardiac arrest survival: 1. Cardiac arrest registry 2. Telephone CPR 3. High performance CPR 4. Rapid dispatch 5. Measurement of professional Resuscitation (measuring CPR metrics etc) 6. First responder AED (police, fire etc) 7. CPR/AED training in schools 8. Smart technology (goodsam or pulse point etc) 9. Annual report 10. Culture of excellence The two-day Resuscitation Academy program was followed by a one day CPR Masterclass. The first half of the day was completing the high-performance CPR training program. The remainder of the day focused on delivering the program as an instructor.

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Background ■ A magnificent, pre-dawn panorama of the Seattle CBD and its famous Space Needle, looking south-east towards the equally distinctive shape of Mount Rainier in the distance.

Photo: Adobe Stock / Dschwen

Summer 2017–18