In the event of a pandemic or other health emergency, hospital emergency departments and intensive care units can become overwhelmed. Doctors, nurses, and medical personnel are being asked to go above and beyond to protect patients — and to do it quickly.

Here are a few questions for all you paramedics out there: When was the last time you decompressed a tension pneumothorax? How many surgical airways have you performed? Have you ever delivered a baby in the prehospital setting? And how many times have you performed a rapid sequence intubation?

CPR, ACLS, NRP, PAL. As a nurse, you are likely familiar with some, if not all, of these acronyms. Early in your career, you were taught the skills to resuscitate a patient in cardiac or respiratory arrest. Every few years, you attend a class to review and renew your certification.

If you are in the market for a portable suction device, you’ll notice that there is a large variety of different products available. Depending upon your intended use, you will need to evaluate several things. Consider, for example:

You understand the importance of clearing your patient’s airway in an emergency. To do this, you know that an appropriate suction device is necessary to remove secretions, vomit, blood, or foreign materials that may be causing an obstruction or distress. You are also aware that your hospital stocks portable suction machines to be used as needed. But have you ever thought about the fact that where you store your portable suction machine makes a difference?

Sometimes portable suction machines get a bad rap. That’s unfortunate because these life-saving devices have come a long way in recent years. Let’s debunk some of the most common fallacies about portable suction machines.

Individuals with special needs make up an increasing proportion of outpatient populations. Better equipment, more effective medications, and the rising cost of medical facilities mean more special needs individuals are being cared for at home by family, friends, and home health personnel.

This means you, as an EMS professional, will run into such patients with greater regularity.

For every 1,000 Americans, about 404 made an emergency room visit to a community hospital in 2018. That’s more than 40% of the total population. And this number doesn’t even include millions of hospital inpatient stays or outpatient procedures, further emphasizing the importance—and challenges—of providing quality care every time someone walks in or is wheeled in the door. 

Every nurse working in a hospital knows to expect the unexpected. Just when the unit seems calm, your shift is well-staffed, and your patients are stable, it can turn on a dime: Your doctor decides he wants STAT blood work on one patient, your other patient’s IV infiltrates, and an admission comes in from the emergency room. Meanwhile, a code is called in the waiting room for a visitor that suddenly collapsed and is not breathing.

A hospital visit can save a patient’s life. It can also destroy it if they pick up a virulent healthcare-associated infection (HAI). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that on any given day, 1 in 31 hospital patients have at least one HAI.