In today’s micro-lecture, Australian Paramedical College Hon. Snr. Lecturer Sam Willis talks about the ambulance carry chairs which are used as part of the process of access and egress, that is, getting somebody out of the situation.
In today’s micro-lecture, we’re going to talk about the ambulance carry chairs. Now, ambulance carry chairs are used as part of the process of access and egress, in other words, getting somebody out of the situation. Now, there are many different types of carry chair on the market. We’re going to talk about a number of different devices. Now, when you start your shift in the morning, one of the first things you will do is to do a vehicle inspection. As part of that vehicle inspection, you need to make sure that you do have the appropriate access and egress equipment because, let’s face it, the crew before you may have used it and left it at the hospital, left it on scene. So making sure you actually have it in the first instance is really important.
Once you’re happy that it’s there, check the equipment, and not only check it but clean it too. So when you’re checking it, this Stryker chair, just as one example, check to make sure the wheels are not damaged. Make sure that all four wheels are okay to be to … That they’re all usable. Make sure that the braking system works. Make sure that the handles are not damaged. Make sure the straps are not frayed. Make sure that all the components of the chair work, because if nobody’s checked the vehicle in quite some time, you could find that some of the past starts to perish and nobody will actually do anything about it because they’re not checking it.
Now, this particular type of chair is designed to get patients downstairs. Now, on the back here, you have a set of tire treads, a little bit like a tank. Let me show you another image. Here’s a better image of one. So here you have a specific, these actual treads are designed so once your patients sat on it, you tip it back at the top of the set of stairs and it locks onto the stairs and slowly navigate your patient down the stairs. Of course, the patient will be strapped in. There’ll be somebody in the bottom guiding it nice and slowly and there’s somebody at the top who’s able to also navigate the chair. You would never just allow it to do its own thing. Now, a couple of other features include, let’s see if I can find an image, this one here. So on this one in particular, it’s got a handle rail at the top. You pull a catch at the back and the entire rail at the back lifts up. Again, it allows you to pivot the patient backwards, so in other words, it allows you to lever the chair at the top of the stairs so that you can actually use it to get the patient down.
Now with all of these chairs, you’re going to need to make sure that you are reassuring your patient consistently, okay? Now, other types of chairs, they all generally do the same thing. You have a patient. You will sit them on it. You’ve got straps to keep them on it. You’ve got handlebars, wheels that do need checking in the morning, but this type here, this Ferno, make sure that the ring is over this part, otherwise it could collapse and of course you got a foot bar here. Again, whenever you’re using this type of chair, make sure that you do put your hand on the patient’s shoulder and tell them, “Look, I’m just going to tip you back. You’re in safe hands. Just try and relax.” Then just tip them backwards. So that’s just an introduction to the stair chair and another type of carry chair. They are all designed to get your patient out of a situation if they’re indicated for it and you do get chance to have a play with these at the clinical workshops.