HemCon, Celox, Hemostatics etc

[DPM]

Hello team!

So I have an interesting situation. For those of you who don't know me, I was a combat medic before re-joining civilian life. I also used to teach what is commonly called Tactical Combat Care, Care Under Fire etc etc. Basically advanced first aid, mostly focused at massive bleeding from penetrating trauma and blast injuries. Among the tools that all of our soldiers had access to was their own personal tourniquets, chest seals, pressure dressings and hemostatic agents.

In my civilian job I am not being asked if I could deliver some of this training, with the permission of the departments involved, to a group of Law Enforcement and Armed Private Security types. My question is this:

Is any of this going to be out of scope for people with no formal medical training beyond first aid / CPR? (I'm not asking if you feel they will be unable to learn the appropriate techniques, I'm thinking more along the lines of Scope of Practice.)

Part 2 is, if my own department has asked me to deliver this training, what is my liability?

All of the products are available over the counter, and none of the techniques seem to be ALS or even BLS really, but I want to put my feelers out just in case. Likewise, my certification in this topic is from the British Army, and I've been a civilian for a few years now...

Thoughts? I've reached out to local EMS and Public Health but heard nothing back yet.

DPM

 

[gotbeerz001]

Seems like this would fall under a category of information that is "good to know".

If you are not certifying or authorizing the use of these techniques (which seem like they require additional equipment anyways), then you are simply passing on information that MAY be useful.

I think the sticky part is what your employer has promised to these agencies and if he is being compensated for the info you're disseminating.

I would ask a few more questions just to clarify what the expectations are.

 

[DPM]

My employer isn't getting any compensation. It's more of a professional courtesy to our allied local agencies, but there's no qualification etc being offered.

The idea is to educate these officers on how to use the equipment (specifically Tourniquets, chest seals, pressure bandages and things like hemostatic dressings) because they've expressed a desire to purchase it for themselves but they lack the education. I was approached because my current bosses know that I have a lot of experience with these and used to train people how to use them. The original conversation between my bosses and I came about after a multi-agency emergency preparedness / mass casualty drill. With simulated officers down, the responding officers wanted to know how to treat themselves or their buddies if they ever had to.

 

[redundantbassist]

Use of a pressure dressing, a tq, a chest seal, and even certain applications of hemostatic agents are BLS skills. I don't see how using an israeli bandage or putting a piece of sticky plastic over an open wound would be out of anyone's scope of practice.

 

[MackTheKnife]

I think it would be good training. I would recommend using the curriculum and videos off of the NAEMT website. If this pans out, I would be curious how it's received.

 

[Tigger]

If they aren't a certified/licensed health care provider they don't have a scope of practice to violate at all. Hemostatic agents are over the counter (so to speak) so I can't imagine you'd run into any issues.

 

[DPM]

Many thanks for the replies. I couldn't see any scope issues myself (especially with it all being OTC like Tigger said) but I wanted to run it by you guys too.

I'll take a look at the NAEMT curriculum. I have the British Army Combat Medic and the us TCCC guidelines to go on. Both go into much more detail than I need, but it's easy to think it out.

DPM

 

[TimRaven]

NAEMT actually has courses designed for non-health care providers, such as Law-Enforcement First Response(LEFR) and Bleeding Control (B-Con).
If you follow guidelines of those courses, you should be safe from the scope.