Clinical: Special Populations

Caring for patients with severe traumatic injuries can be difficult enough but what do you do when your patient is very young, very old or very pregnant or very large? “Special populations” is the term we use to identify patients for whom we need new tools and different rules for trauma care. This program shows you how to ensure an informed size-up, systematic assessment and delivery of effective, prioritized trauma care for the most challenging patients that you’ll encounter.

Stroke is a leading cause of serious long-term disability in the US, and it is not only an older adult’s disease: a CDC study found that ischemic stroke hospitalizations among boys ages 5 to 14 rose by more than 50 percent between 1995 and 2008, and rose by 23 to 50 percent among adolescents and adults ages 15 to 44, depending on age and sex. Despite these increases, many young victims go undiagnosed due to the mindset that they are simply “too young for stroke”. This program improves our understanding, awareness, assessment, care and coordination to help EMS provide better outcomes for all victims of cerebrovascular accidents. In this session we explain the startling reasons behind these dramatic numbers, what EMS can do about them and the diagnostic approach that catches what others often miss in newborns, very young children and younger victims of stroke.

Elevated temperatures in pediatric patients are some of the most common, and often frustrating types of calls in EMS. Are the parents over-reacting? Are we under-reacting? This presentation illuminates what causes fever, how it can help or harm a child, what problems it can cause or be caused by, how to differentiate critical vs benign fever and how to choose the best care for pediatric patients with elevated temperature.

Each year in the United States, more than 18,000 children develop sepsis and more than 1,800 die during their hospitalization or are discharged to hospice, according to the CDC. Many of these cases may include missed or delayed diagnoses. As an EMS provider, you play a decisive role in the identification and early treatment of these critically ill children. This program will show EMS providers how to identify, assess, and begin treatment for pediatric patients with sepsis as well as how to coordinate care with emergency department and critical care staff. This program is intended for both advanced and basic providers whether or not your EMS system currently has formal sepsis alert protocols. Learn the latest updates and take home the knowledge of how you can make the biggest difference for our littlest patients.

There are few emergency calls that evoke the emotion of a child in cardiac arrest. As caregivers, we know we have a responsibility to give this patient the best possible chance for resuscitation. Do we rush to the hospital or resuscitate early on scene? Do we prioritize airway or epinephrine administration? Do we focus on ventilation, or does too much ventilation decrease circulation? New, practical, EMS-focused research is helping us make better decisions on-scene to help our littlest, most critical patients. This program evaluates the latest information and focuses on helping ALS and BLS providers leave bad habits behind and focus on what we now know we can do better to make a real difference in pediatric cardiac arrest.

How can we best care for our oldest and most fragile patients? We put a lot of work into education and practice in the management of cardiac arrest, but what if we focused more on identification and correction of the factors that may lead to cardiac arrest? When we do this for geriatric patients it can lead to significantly improved outcomes. This program focuses on pre-hospital management of geriatric peri-arrest factors with the goal of avoiding cardiac arrest and, if the worst happens, optimizing BLS and ALS resuscitation care.

The proportion of the elderly in America is greater today than ever before and is growing even larger. What’s more, the elderly tend to be our sickest and most challenging patients. What signs and symptoms may indicate common disease processes, the normal signs of aging or special needs of the geriatric patient? How do you deal with the special needs of the geriatric patient? With a focus on every aspect of caring for your patient, this presentation answers your questions so that you’ll love what you learn.