Emergency medical services (EMS) can be a dangerous profession. EMS practitioners are 2 ½ times more likely to die on the job and 3 times more likely than the average worker to miss work as a result of injury. To combat this epidemic, NAEMT created the EMS Safety course to promote a culture of safety and to help reduce the number of on-the-job fatalities and injuries.

EMS Safety, Third Edition is the next step in the evolution of this critical continuing education course. This course manual is an engaging resource that can continue to be consulted after the course to assist in crafting proactive safety policies and procedures.

A Proactive Approach to Safety

NAEMT's EMS Safety course aims to promote a culture of EMS safety and help reduce the number and intensity of injuries incurred by EMS practitioners in carrying out their work. The EMS Safety course increases EMS practitioners' awareness and understanding of EMS safety standards and practices and develops their ability to effectively implement them. EMS Safety is the first national and most comprehensive education course of its kind that teaches techniques on how to best achieve safety on the job.

This proactive safety program addresses:

• Integrating crew resource management concepts in EMS
• Identifying and responding to the hazards faced by EMS professionals
• Applying current best practices for safe emergency vehicle operations
• Employing multi-agency preplanning, vehicle and practitioner visibility techniques, and defensive staging practices at roadside incidents
• Identifying strategies to protect both EMS practitioners and patients from injury
• Employing situational awareness to continually assess for the potential of violence on the scene and verbal and physical techniques to deescalate potential threats
• Strengthening resilience skills to help EMS practitioners cope with daily and critical incident stress
• Ensuring personal readiness for the daily challenges and hazards of working in the field through optimal personal health