Emergency Medical Response

As a pharmacy assistant you must be well versed with the basic medical responses in case of emergency. Learning basic responses to emergencies can help you cope with an emergency. You may be able to keep a person breathing, reduce their pain or minimise the consequences of injury or sudden illness until an ambulance arrives. This could mean the difference between life and death for them.

Basic life support (BLS) is a level of medical care which is used for victims of life-threatening illnesses or injuries until they can be given full medical care at a hospital.

First aid is as easy as ABC – airway, breathing and CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). In any situation, apply the DRSABCD Action Plan.

DRSABCD stands for:

• Danger: Always check the

Is the person breathing? If the person is responding, they are conscious and their airway is clear, assess how you can help them with any injury.

• Breathing: Check for breathing by looking for chest movements (up and down). Feel for breathing by putting your hand on the lower part of their chest. If the person is unconscious but breathing, turn them onto their side, carefully ensuring that you keep their head, neck and spine in alignment. Monitor their breathing until you hand over to the ambulance officers.

• CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation): If an adult is unconscious and not breathing, make sure they are flat on their back and then place the heel of one hand in the centre of their chest and your other hand on top. Press down firmly and smoothly (compressing to one third of their chest depth) 30 times. Give two breaths. To get the breath in, tilt their head back gently by lifting their chin. Pinch their nostrils closed,

Keep going with the 30 compressions and two breaths at the speed of approximately five repeats in two minutes until you hand over to the ambulance officers or another trained person, or until the person you are resuscitating responds.

• Defibrillator: For unconscious adults who are not breathing, an automated external defibrillator (AED) is applied. An AED is a machine that delivers an electrical shock to cancel any irregular heart beat (arrhythmia), in an effort get the normal heart beating to re-establish itself. Please ensure that a trained person is there to apply the AED. If the person responds to defibrillation, turn them onto their side and tilt their head to maintain their airway. evaluate the patient’s airway. Remember, if the patient is alert and talking, the airway is open. For a patient who is unresponsive, make sure that he or she is in a supine (face-up) position to effectively evaluate the airway. If the patient is face-down,