Class teaches EMS workers how to handle patient aggression

[cougarnurse]

Guess this can apply to all of us...... http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/stor...storyid=250749

Each day emergency medical services workers across Maine take care of the sick and injured. Their jobs are vital but they also can be risky.

Across the nation EMTs and paramedics are increasingly becoming the victims of attacks and assaults. Those attacks mostly come from patients who are sick or under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

In response, some medical professionals are getting trained in self defense. Kip Teitsort is a longtime paramedic who also has a background in law enforcement. He now spends time teaching EMS workers how to react when patients show aggression.

Teitsort says a big part of the training is learning if a patient is looking to do harm or just can't control his actions.

"A confused 40-year-old person from a post head injury...whose head a head injury in the past who now lives in a nursing home could grab you the same way a 40 year old high on bath salts does," he said, "our {EMS workers} response has to be different."

A study from the National Association of EMTs showed that more than half of responders who were surveyed had faced an attack on the job.

[hppygr8ful]

I think it's a good idea for EMS workers to have this Training - When I was doing EMS a long time ago I was right in the Middle of the Riots in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdicts.....It was pretty scary

[cougarnurse]

This story will get ya. EMT's called the cops..... http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/...7271375032019/

A 95-year-old Illinois man who allegedly confronted police officers with a knife and cane died after they shot him with a stun gun and bean bag rounds.

Officers were called to an assisted living home in the village of Park Forest Friday after the man, identified as John Warna, allegedly became combative with employees of a private ambulance company who were attempting to transfer him to a hospital for medical treatment, The (Chicago) SouthtownStar reported.

Police said Warna was threatening the facility's staff and paramedics with a metal cane and a shoehorn when officers arrived.

Police said they used a stun gun on Warna and struck him with beanbag rounds after he refused to drop the items and grabbed a 12-inch butcher knife instead.

Warna was conscious and talking when he was hospitalized Friday, but was pronounced dead at 2:30 a.m. Saturday, the newspaper said.

A cause of death had not been released by Saturday evening, NBC News reported.

The Illinois State Police Public Integrity Unit was reviewing the incident.