An EMS expert and educator discusses the importance of airway management for EMS providers, who need to be well-versed in the practice and capable of using every device in their airway toolboxes.
According to Art Hsieh, MA, NREMT-P, of the Public Safety Training Center, Santa Rosa Junior College in the Emergency Care Program, it is critical for EMS professionals to follow a process that can consistently and rapidly identify an airway that requires intervention. He listed three important questions when assessing a patient in the field:
- What is the likelihood of airway failure?
- What are impediments to adequate airway control?
- What airway resources are available?
In addition, Hsieh believes the increasing use of automatic transport ventilators to better manage a patient’s ventilatory needs may signal another evolution in the field management of out of hospital airway practice.
