Maintenance, care and control of ambulance car equipment from the view of paramedic

Abstract

Paramedics use, as part of their work, their own potential, for example knowledge, experience and skill. They must also be able to deal with medical devices and medical instruments, they have to know how to use them and also how to control them and maintain them. This thesis focuses on the area of control, care and maintenance carried out by paramedics on medical devices. Further specification of these activities is not appropriately analyzed in current literature. Only legal sources, technical standards or user manuals of individual medical devices are available. Activities in relation to the care, maintenance, and control of medical devices in particular, are major part of paramedic workload prior to the emergency medical services itself. Each paramedic should have a precise idea of how to treat particular medical device, maintain it and service it. Bachelor thesis therefore aims to define and map the extent of the activities of paramedics during the performance of maintenance tasks, control and care of medical equipment of EMS vehicles, while it also wants to highlight the risks associated with the performance of these activities. Through the comparison of available resources, activities in connection with the performance of control operations, maintenance and care executed by paramedics on specific medical devices and equipment EMS vehicle were mapped. These activities are then described in individual sections of this thesis. The research was carried out as a survey with sample of 91 respondents, paramedic students, and interviews with paramedics and emergency medical services personnel in Ústí nad Labem and South Bohemia Region. To ensure the goal of this thesis, time range, frequency, and frequency of individual tasks and activities related to maintenance, inspection and care of medical equipment were determined. I see the main contribution of this thesis in specifying the activities and operations of control, care and maintenance of medical devices used every day by paramedics of emergency medical service. Based on my own experience I know that for student purposes there are no guidelines or document illustrating the performance range of activities of control, care and maintenance carried out by paramedics on medical devices. From my position as a paramedic student I perceive the inaccessibility of any comprehensive manual for this area rather negatively. Based on this, I have approached the bachelor thesis in the way, so that it can be the basis or foundation for the creation of this manual, or possibly to become such a simple manual itself. As a future paramedic I think it is important that the education of paramedic students is sufficient and complete to the extent that, when taking into practice paramedic will be a full member of the medical crew in the vehicle of emergency medical services