MISCONCEPTIONS

Responders, it has dawned upon me that there are still a lot of misconceptions regarding fitness and injury prevention in EMS. I just gave 3 presentations at EMS Expo in Atlanta, GA. It was a great trade show with a group of fantastic speakers and presenters. What stands out from my experience at EMS Expo are the misconceptions surrounding injury prevention and our profession. As I spoke about, at any one time up to 10% of our workforce is out of work, having suffered an injury. But when surveyed 46% of you have reported a back injury in the past 6 months(Studneck, J. Crawford, J. December 08, American Journal of sports medicine). So as a profession do we underreport our injuries or are we self treating? I presented some data showing that once you are injured that your chance of having a more severe re-injury increases 31%.

The misconception that I am alluding to is that all the responders I spoke to assumed that fitness comes before health, wellness and injury prevention. What I tried to teach everyone, and what I have been writing about for a long time now, is that we need to focus on prevention of injury first. By focusing our efforts on injury prevention we will enable ourselves to become fit and healthy. As I am fond of saying ‘Athletes do not train for their sport after the game is over.’ Why should be any different? More to come…

Comment

You need to be a member of EMS United to add comments!

Join EMS United

Comment by anna m mills on December 8, 2009 at 2:51pm: i agree that one the people that have injured themselves have a re injury. i am one of that 31% i hurt my back a strain..but the next week my partner dropped his side of the stretcher (no remember i have been around for over 20yrs so we had the stretchers that went down to the ground and you have to pick up from the ground with you and your partner on both sides) he dropped his and it lunged me forward. broke my back! i now have 2 rods,6bolts,cadaver bones and 6 screws to hold l4-5-s1 together. i now stretch every day. i walk and do my best to stay as fit as possible. very good article and bringing awareness to injury prevention!

Comment by Bryan Fass on November 9, 2009 at 8:11am: Pre-training begins with understanding why we get hurt. Once we understand the mechanics of injury learning 3-4 stretches, self massage and 'spine stiffening' techniques will significantly reduce the chance of injury while making our job much easier!

Comment by Kevin Collopy on November 7, 2009 at 10:25pm: So how do you propose pre-training begins? I agree that, especially as our patient population gains weight, training and preparation for moving these patients is critical. NO classroom ever explained how to lift a patient on to of off of a cot...much less a bariatric patient