Simulators for paramedic tracheal intubation

Practice in the operating theatre has traditionally been regarded as the ideal environment for tracheal intubation training. However, experience gained from short visits there can be unpredictable and frustrating. After initial lectures and training, paramedic students who were given 10 hours intubation practice in a patient simulator were compared with those who had accumulated 15 intubations in the operating theatre. There were no differences in their ability to intubate a further 15 operating room patients (

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Too much hands-off during standard resuscitation

Concern about traditional compression: ventilation ratios has focussed upon large amounts of hands-off time. Two classes of soon-to-graduate technician and paramedic students were observed performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation with compression: ventilation ratios ranging from 15:2 to 60:2. A ratio of 15:2 delivered only 60 compressions per minute and resulted in 26 seconds per minute without compressions. A ratio of 30:2 achieved almost 80 compressions per minute and only 16 seconds without compressions, whilst maintaining a …