Ergonomics of EMS

[harold1981]

What actions have been taken by your agency, to support the physical wellbeing of your EMS personnel?

For example our ambulances are build, with ergonomics in mind: the attendant seat is facing forward instead of facing the stretcher, the monitor and Thoughbook can be reached without getting out of the seat, by using built-in extendable tables, the undercarriage of the stretcher breaks without having to pull it up, and lifting or breaking the stretcher can be done in two phases, dividing the weight in two smaller portions. Jumpkits have been made lighter and so on. There are also in-company ergo-coaches who aim to reduce health issues by making our job less physically demanding.

 

[Underoath87]

We don't have any of that stuff. But we do have powered stretchers and firefighters with good, strong backs

 

[medicaltransient]

I am happy if the unit does not have more than 200k miles on it and all the components are functioning on it. Our stretchers are pretty light because they are from the 1980s.

 

[harold1981]

Used to be on that spot too...we would start shift by asking ourselves which of one of the rigs would have the best chance of not breaking down during a call. One of the older ones even caught fire once while loading a patient. After evacuating and calling the FD we called the manager. Instead of asking if anyone got hurt, he went nuts and insisted on us taking the fire extinguisher out of the cabin, and try to 'save the damn ambulance'. 'But boss...the oxygen bottles might explode on us'...'Not if you take out the fire!'