NAEMT Introduces New Course To Help Communities Respond To Active Shooter, Mass Casualty Incidents

CLINTON, Miss., Sept. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) announced a new education course that teaches civilians the same life-saving bleeding control techniques learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, and shown to dramatically increase casualty survival. "Bleeding Control for the Injured," aka "B-Con," introduces evidence-based techniques for aiding injured patients. The course was developed by the members of NAEMT's Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) Committee who author the suite of prehospital trauma care courses widely considered the global standard in trauma education.

"Numerous incidents, both in the United States and worldwide, demonstrate the importance of knowing how to stop bleeding after an injury-causing incident," said Dr. Peter Pons, emergency physician and associate medical director of the NAEMT PHTLS Program. "Sometimes, waiting until emergency medical assistance arrives allows a trauma patient to lose enough blood to develop shock and possibly die. Much like recognizing the signs of a heart attack, providing CPR and automated defibrillation (AED), everyone should know how to stop bleeding. The Bleeding Control (B-Con) course will educate participants, demonstrate actions to control bleeding, and afford an opportunity for participants to perform those skills in the classroom setting," he continued.

B-Con is a 2½-hour educational course that combines didactic lecture with hands-on training, so participants learn bleeding control techniques using a tourniquet, gauze packs or topical hemostatic agents, as well as strategies for opening a casualty's airway to breathe. It follows recommendations contained in the Hartford Consensus, documents developed by a group of public safety stakeholders to increase survivability in mass casualty shootings. The Hartford Consensus stresses that care of victims is a shared responsibility between law enforcement and emergency medical responders, and recognizes that response to a traumatic incident often begins with a bystander.

B-Con also includes a module for law enforcement officers, in response to the rise of active shooter and mass casualty incidents nationwide. "All military personnel carry tourniquets on their uniforms and police should do the same," said Dr. Norman McSwain, professor of surgery at Tulane University in New Orleans, La. and NAEMT PHTLS Program medical director. "They could potentially use this to save civilians or to save themselves," he said.

Learn more about Bleeding Control for the Injured at www.naemt.org.

About NAEMT
Formed in 1975 and today more than 46,000 members strong, the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians is the only national association dedicated to representing the professional interests of all emergency medical services (EMS) practitioners, including Paramedics, advanced emergency medical technicians, emergency medical technicians, emergency medical responders and other professionals working in prehospital emergency medicine. NAEMT members work in all sectors of EMS, including government service agencies, fire departments, hospital-based ambulance services, private companies, industrial and special operations settings, and in the military.

SOURCE National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT)