The Role of Demographic Factors and Skills of Pre-hospital Staff in the Handling and Movement of Patients from Trauma Scenes to Emergency Wards

Abstract

Background: Handling, transferring, and handing off trauma patients impose risks on patients and transfer teams. Therefore, pre-hospital staffs require a high skill to perform these processes simultaneously in critical situations.Aim: The present study was performed with aim to examine the role of demographic factors and skills of pre-hospital staff in the handling and movement of trauma patients to hospitals.Method: This cross-sectional study was performed by the proportional stratified random sampling method on 151 pre-hospital emergency staff. For data collection, in addition to a demographic information questionnaire, the researcher completed a valid and reliable checklist based on 300 hours of direct observation for assessing staff skills. The data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 20) using descriptive and inferential statistics. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: The mean score of staff skills was 77.80±7.84. The lowest scores were related to the stage of “transfer to hospital” (72.04±8.41) and the dimension of “using body mechanics” (67.57±10.42). There was an inverse correlation between staff body mass index and the mean score of staff skills (r= -0.19, p<0.05). Besides, the staff’s skill mean score was correlated with patients’ age (r=0.18) and weight (r=0.16) (p<0.05).Implications for Practice: Retraining courses covering driving, managing pediatric patients, healthy diet and exercise, proper use of equipment, and body mechanics should be implemented for pre-hospital staff. Also, authorities should take measures to control infection and improve patient handoff.

Keywords

• emergency responders
• patient handoff
• patient safety
• patient transfer