Should you may design your personal airway bag, what would you place in it?
The longer we work within the subject, the extra we develop habits and preferences that discover their method into our each day routines. You carry sure instruments in your belt or in your pouch; you arrange for an IV or an intubation utilizing a set sample; and also you place the whole lot in a particular spot as a way to seize it in a rush.
Habits, particularly good habits, breed muscle reminiscence, which permits us to carry out duties as in the event that they had been second nature. It is the identical purpose we use a head-to-toe format when performing a bodily evaluation: in order that we get in a routine of working our method down the physique systematically, thereby decreasing the potential for skipping one thing vital.
The Ideally suited Airway Bag
Think about stocking your preferrred airway bag. You would want the necessities, after all, so let’s start with them.
Oxygen provides:
- O2 tank and ratchet (ideally hooked up, so it isn’t misplaced)
- Oxygen masks—each easy and non-rebreather
- Oxygen cannulas
Intubation provides:
Some companies are turning to intubation kits, which include all of the necessities. Others inventory them individually. Both method, your provides ought to embody:
- An assortment of laryngoscope blades (Miller and McIntosh) of various sizes
- A spread of grownup/pediatric ET tubes
- Different superior airways (King or Combitube)
- NPAs, in a variety of sizes
- Nasal trumpets
- CO2 detectors
- Business tube strap
- Syringes
- Lubricant jelly
- Nasal spray (for nasotracheal intubations)
- PPE gear, together with:
- Masks
- Face shields/security goggles
- Gloves
- Robes
These are the fundamentals for oxygen remedy and securing the airway.
An Important Piece of Tools: Transportable Suction
Considered one of your most important items of apparatus and a very good addition to your airway bag, is your emergency respiratory gadget, a.okay.a. your transportable suction unit.
Many transportable suction models are too giant to suit neatly in an airway bag. However that does not imply the best unit would not exist. At present’s suction models are smaller, extra light-weight, and extra transportable than these of the previous, making them the right addition to your airway bag.
Think about ALWAYS having a conveyable suction unit on EVERY name! By no means being caught with out suction. Superb, proper? No extra toting the suction unit with you on each potential respiratory emergency. These miniaturized models can slip simply into the airway, trauma, or tactical drugs bag.
And talking of tactical drugs … an rising variety of departments are using paramedics in regulation enforcement situations. Paramedics are being cross-trained to function a part of emergency response groups, responding to barricaded gunmen, hostage incidents, and a variety of emergencies the place regulation enforcement and rescue work facet by facet. In these conditions, your tools have to be contained, and your baggage restricted. Having a small, tactical transportable suction unit is good for these situations.
Don’t Overlook the Maintenance
In case you have the posh of including an emergency respiratory gadget to your airway bag, be sure you embody it in your each day checkout. Listed below are some reminders:
- Energy the unit up to make sure it’s practical.
- Exchange low or broken batteries, and maintain extras available.
- Have a variety of catheters obtainable, relying on the scenario:
- Small-tipped inflexible catheter for regular situations
- Hyper-curved catheter for tough airways
- Ensure the unit is disinfected after every use—by no means use the unit on two sufferers directly (assume MCIs).
There are a lot of essential elements to your airway bag, however including a small, light-weight emergency respiratory gadget is a good way of guaranteeing you might be all the time ready for that essential suction state of affairs.
Editor’s Observe: This weblog was initially revealed in January 2018. It has been re-published with further updated content material.
