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What is Your Department's SOPs on Turnout Gear on Medical Runs?
I was told I can not wear my bunker pants on aid runs. Since that time I have been exposed to more bodily fluids than I care to talk about. After a talk with the chief he said wear them if I like. But the next in the officer in line says NO. My First Responder instructor taught us to wear them they are just part of BSI.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Turnout gear liners are BSI-compliant as long as they meet an edition of the NFPA standard that includes that resistance.
I'd much rather decon the outer shell of my turnout pants or coat than to have the spooge soak into my station uniform.
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Permalink Reply by John Dobson on
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We are a volunteer Department and do not have station uniforms. The reason I was told not to wear it was because of cross contaminating someones house with conbustion by-products. I keep my gear clean even scrub my boots. We do not have a gearwasher I have to drive 15 miles to get it cleaned by another dept. But when it needs cleaned, It is cleaned.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Koontz on
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THink of the contaminants you pick up during normal fires and vehicle accidents. How many chemicals and compounds get onto your gear? You don't wash them every single day after every single call, correct? Add to that the sweat that comes from you thats always contained in them. Do you really want to expose one of your citizens to all of that, in the middle of a medical emergency? I understand the need for BSI. Talk to the private ambulance crews that have to wash down and change uniforms at least once a shift. But from my point of view, a healthy, strong individual with no immune system compromise, I wear gloves and eye protection, and a mask when I have concerns. As for my gear, I wear long sleeves and pants. For the summer, I have a jumpsuit thats specifically for EMS, and gets washed on a regular basis in hot water. Do your research on the diseases you see. Know what the dangers are. An educated EMT is much better than one who takes what he hears from someone else as gospel, because in my experience, its never quite as true as I thought it would be. And one other thing to think about. Whens the last time you washed your ambulance? How many patients have you seen, or how many houses have you been in, between washings of your hands, your equipment, yourself? Have your own gear? How many patients has it touched? Thinking about the goobers you can get isn't so much about you, because most are opportunistic diseases that a normal healthy person handles easily. Its your patients you need to think about, the old and the young, who can't deal with those types of things. What are you exposing them to?
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Good for you!
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You should wash your gear after every serious exposure to smoke or chemicals, and especially after exposures to biohazards - especially the shells. Your sweat isn't a serious risk of cross-contaminating a patient unless you put them inside the gear with you.
Washing uniforms, jumpsuits, or other clothing in hot water isn't adequate disinfection. You must use a bacteriocide/viruside to disinfect the clothing. That means a commercial chemical spray prior to laundering.
My department disinfects the stretcher, carry-in kits, heart monitor, and any other equipment that gets contaminated at least once per shift plus after every call in which an exposure is a possibility.
That includes a disinfectant spray on the mattress, carry handles, and controls and if any gross contamination is present, we hose the entire thing off, apply a disinfectant, then dry it by hand.
We believe strongly that we should protect our personnel as well as the patients. Turnout gear is a good way to protect yourself from bloodborne pathogens - the gear specifications are specifically designed with BSI in mind.
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Permalink Reply by Lt. Shane Peterson on
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We wear bunkers if we are wearing shorts. Otherwise it is up to the firefighters discretion.
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The truth no not after every little thing, If I am hands on fire attack yes. We had a firefighter ride back in his underwear after the lift assist went number two down his front as he was lifting her. Bunkers or not it would have been nasty, But he was in street clothes. We have the throw away gowns and was told to use those. But I wonder what the patient is going to think when we wear a gown like a surgeon. I would think kids would not respond well to it. What about the time to don the gown my bunkers are kept in the ready, The gowns are kept in a ppe kit with mask, gloves, red bag. All this for a lift assist then throw it away. Most runs we don't get exposed but I can't predict what is going to happen.
I am a very firm believer that my safety is first, My fellow firefighter is next then the patient. By saying this I don't mean the patient is a low priority.
When I talked to the chief about this my question was. Is the department going to pay for what my family at home is exposed to when I get home and they get sick.
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Whens the last time you washed your ambulance?
We are BLS nontransport we don't have a ambulance, Just a rescue truck.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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Keep things in perspective here John... you say ambulance I say EMS equipment on the rig, whatever, it's just an awareness thing to make sure you focus on cleaning stuff should it become contaminated... and just for the record, if you want to see invisible BSI things then consider using a black light to detect the presence of body fluids... if works great on looking for where your dog pee'd in the house, why not use it to see if you have some nasty BF's?
CBz
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We have did that with the black light yuk! It works great for teaching proper hand washing too.
I think we do a good job on decon EMS equipment. When you guys pick up your backboards does anyone clean them at the hospital? When we go pick them up they just throw them in the ambulance bay the way they came in. Seems like a bad idea to leave them where folks are exposed to the nastys. I myself clean them there in the bay before loading them to bring back to the station. I was first told they cleaned them until I picked one up with bare hands and my hand was covered in blood. From that time on I wear gloves when I pick them up and take in cavicide and clean them myself so I know its done and done right.
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Permalink Reply by Matt Moore on
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I like to wear mine as a just in case kind of thing... plus if you run into a hostile crazy patient the helmet is a good self defense tool...
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I am a big fan of keeping my gear clean. If my department and taxpayers can buy me gear the very least I can do is take good care of it. I think it shows alot about the character of a person.
When our gear gets outdated it goes to the newbies for training.
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