The board and demonstration
The two EMTs came to our school and showed us how to properly use a spinal board. To demonstrate, they used Brody Hale as a patient. The first thing that they did was stabilize the head, Joshua Greem grabbed the patient's neck with his thumbs by his ears to immobilize the head. While keeping the neck stabilized, they assembled the neck brace and put it on the patient. When a neck brace is on, it should not be comfortable and the patient should not be able to move his/her neck. They then, while the neck was stabilized, assessed the patient, find the major injuries, see if the patient could move or talk, and did a basic quick head-to-toe assessment. To get Brody onto the spinal board, they used a lift and slide technique. Where they turned the patient on his side, on the count of the person stabilizing the head, then pulled the board to his back and slowly placed him on it. To make sure he was centered on the board, they pushed him up and pulled him down, still on the count of the person stabilizing the head. When doing this you never slide the patient to keep from further injuring the neck or head.
Once centered, they strapped the patient in with straps on every side of the board. Similar to the ones on the right. These straps should be strapped sight enough to keep the patient on the board and prevent much motion. There should be two fingers left of space in between the straps and the patient.
After the body is secured, they then do the head. While keeping the head stable with Joshua's hands, they added one head block at a time. After those were implanted, they used a chin and head strap to keep the head in the blocks.
In the end, this is what the finished product should look like.
We then got to try it ourselves, and I helped strap down Jae, we strapped her down, and then we carried her around the room. Overall, this skills lab was extremely fun, the people who came were super friendly.
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