02 July 2008

Poster Children

Are you fucking kidding me? I loaded the JEMS Web Site this morning, and was greeted by an "interesting" photo. Now, I'm not going to get into the finer points of splinting, or the fact that we "stabilize" C-Spine FAR too often. Those topics have been covered ad nauseum.


That being said, how is it that the Journal of Emergency Medical Services feels it is appropriate to use THIS photo for an article on splinting procedures:


Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over.

7 comments:

Rogue Medic said...

It is the thought that counts.

Far better that we look like we're doing something that matters, than that we actually do something that matters - at least something that matters in a positive way.

If we were to log roll this patient, think of how demeaning the term "log roll" must be to the patient! "I'm being treated like a log.

We must heal the inner spine. Since spine boards are just about documentation to keep the lawyers away, does it really matter how we perform the Ceremony of the Immobilization?

This is only a picture, you cannot hear the magical incantations that accompany this farce. :-)

It's all about the documentation and offering sacrifices to the Gods of Legal Paranoia.

Unknown said...

OH this picutre is the reason I should not be playing on the internet while in class. It made me laugh out loud. Maybe this is a new fangled way to get someone on a backboard. Maybe I am behind the times.

Rogue Medic said...

Notice how they are carefully guiding the uninjured leg to the backboard, while he puts his weight on the splinted leg.

Unknown said...

So I HAVE been doing wrong all along! And here I was thinking that I wanted to support the injured limb. I was kind of wondring why it looks like she's making him do a high kick. Do we stretch our patients first now? Or is this some kind of demented audition for the rockettes? Does the high kick align the spine better? Hmm I have to research this one.

Anonymous said...

Maybe they're trying to reduce that dislocated hip in the field?

Better yet..maybe the patient was just trying to kick some sense into the nice paramedic whose idea it was to roll him onto his injured leg and she caught his foot just in time?

I don't dwell too much on these stock photos. You can usually find errors in each of them if you look.

TOTWTYTR said...

Getting advice on medical techniques from JEMS is like taking banking tips from the homeless guy you picked up last week. Only the banking tips might, just might, be useful.

Unknown said...

You guys must've missed the new Pain control protocols - we're going to start having the patients do Yoga.

It works.

Fo realz.

-MM