KED Vest Application - Leg Straps

[CBEMT]

All EMTs in my state are taught straight down the buttocks, under the legs, criss-crossing over the top to the buckles in patients with no groin injury, or straight down the buttocks, under the legs to the same side buckles if there is a groin injury.

For testing purposes, there is NEVER a groin injury.

[crazydoctorbob]

Thanks guys for all your incites. Looks like alll agree there is no one correct method as long as it does the job.

[bryan20w]

The Manual available through kendricks states the cross method is the proper placement, however i agree with everyone that EMS is about improvising and do what works!

[FormerEMSLT297]

To really know the answer to this question, one had to be around in the eraly 1980's before KED's became standard on all units..... I originally tested on the short board, and the KED was a "new thing" that we "may see stadnrad some day."

But, as usual, Dustdevil is correct.. I learned BOTH ways are O.k. as the straps are just used to keep the device from sliding off during transfer, Remember, when the patient gets onto the L/B you release the straps so the patient can put their legs down and you then secure the legs to the board.

But, the other answer Richard and others gave was correct,,, crossing the straps, may "pinch" the male patients, so the same side to same side I feel is best.

[Dustdevil]

Remember, when the patient gets onto the L/B you release the straps so the patient can put their legs down and you then secure the legs to the board.

I continue to be amazed at -- after twenty-five years -- how many providers seem to not know this. Is it not being taught? Is the culture of ignorance so pervasive that even the instructors out there don't even know it anymore? Or is it just more of the same stupidity we have always seen in EMS, where people are in such a hurry to get their card and go play with the siren, that their brains retain only that 70 percent of knowledge necessary to pass the test, discarding all the rest as "just details"?

[tskstorm]

I continue to be amazed at -- after twenty-five years -- how many providers seem to not know this. Is it not being taught? Is the culture of ignorance so pervasive that even the instructors out there don't even know it anymore? Or is it just more of the same stupidity we have always seen in EMS, where people are in such a hurry to get their card and go play with the siren, that their brains retain only that 70 percent of knowledge necessary to pass the test, discarding all the rest as "just details"?

My opinion on the matter is simply this, Reason EMS providers do not release the leg straps is because 'there is no need to' they improperly apply the KED. When they move the patient on the LB they are perfectly supine instead of being in a so called 'seated position.'

This of course is just my humble opinion.

[Dustdevil]

Good call. You did, in fact, probably just explain over half of the occurrences. :thumbright:

[tskstorm]

Good call. You did, in fact, probably just explain over half of the occurrences. :thumbright:

I'm always excited to get a thumbs up from dust ...

I must have done something right this time around ... don't forget it next time i mess up!

[CBEMT]

I continue to be amazed at -- after twenty-five years -- how many providers seem to not know this. Is it not being taught? Is the culture of ignorance so pervasive that even the instructors out there don't even know it anymore? Or is it just more of the same stupidity we have always seen in EMS, where people are in such a hurry to get their card and go play with the siren, that their brains retain only that 70 percent of knowledge necessary to pass the test, discarding all the rest as "just details"?

Could be that, for example, students are being taught to apply the device on a fellow student sitting in a classroom chair and then..... nothing. The first time my Basic class ever actually used the KED to remove the patient was on Extrication Day. Each student got maybe one or two exposures.

I've even seen classes where the student being tested on the KED is allowed to stand where the dashboard would be to apply the device!!! Why, you ask? Because learning the KED "is so you can pass National Reg. You'll never use it."

[reaper]

I love that last sentence!

I piss off a lot of EMT's that work with me, because I make them use the KED on a lot of scenes.