Citation

Garrison HG, Foltin GL, Becker LR, Chew JL, Johnson M, Madsen GM, Miller DR, Ozmar BH. Ann. Emerg. Med. 1997; 30(1): 84-91.

Affiliation

Department of Emergency Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. hgarriso@pcmh.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, American College of Emergency Physicians, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9209232

Abstract

Injury is a leading cause of death and disability. Preventing injuries from ever occurring is primary injury prevention (PIP). The objective of this statement is to present the consensus of a 16-member panel of leaders from the out-of-hospital emergency medical services (EMS) community on essential and desirable EMS PIP activities. Essential PIP activities for leaders and decision makers of every EMS system include: protecting individual EMS providers from injury; providing education to EMS providers in PIP fundamentals; supporting and promoting the collection and utilization of injury data; obtaining support for PIP activities; networking with other injury prevention organizations; empowering individual EMS providers to conduct PIP activities; interacting with the media to promote injury prevention; and participating in community injury prevention interventions. Essential PIP knowledge areas for EMS providers include: PIP principles; personal injury prevention and role modeling; safe emergency vehicle operation; injury risk identification; documentation of injury data; and one-on-one safety education.