When you’re a provider of air ambulance service, there may come a time when you get a call involving a pediatric patient. Although to some people this may seem like any other emergency call, it’s important to remember how complicated it can be to provide pediatric care. This post will help you gain some ideas on how to provide better care to pediatric patients.
Understand the Common Pediatric Call Types
One of the first steps to prepare yourself for better pediatric care is to identify the common types of calls you should be expecting. Most complaints involving younger children are related to seizures and respiratory distress. In adolescents and older children, you should expect to see a lot of calls related to traumatic injury along with psychiatric or behavioural complaints.
However, you should do a thorough audit of the kind of calls you get at your air ambulance service. This will help you gain a better understanding of the most common types of pediatric emergency calls specific to your agency. You can then train your crew to always be prepared for such kind of calls.
Provide Your Air Ambulance Service Crew with Evidence-Based Guidelines
Once you’re familiar with the common pediatric call types, you should look to secure offline medical direction that has been developed using protocols based on the current standards in pediatric care. You need to look for evidence-based guidelines that have been published recently and use them to provide guidance to your air ambulance crew.
There’s a pediatric seizure management guideline already available. You can also make the most of the pain control guideline for traumatic injuries. And you should soon expect to see a respiratory distress guideline that you can use for providing better pediatric air ambulance care.
