I think that at Brown we do a lot of things right. However, I have a question to ask: why is our jump kit so heavy? That red bag weighs a ton. I consider myself to be a pretty big guy, but even I have trouble lugging that stupid bag up five flights of Keeney. The gear I carry in the fire service is usually lighter. I honestly had some back soreness after carrying that monstrosity around all night on our spring weekend shift.
I think that the problem is two fold. One is that we are carrying everything in only one bag. Why not separate out some of our equipment? We usually have an excess of people on runs. Let everyone carry something. One bag could have all of the bandages and BLS equipment in it, while the other carries the oxygen and airway equipment. This could be similar to the two bags we carried during commencement. Those two bags from the RI Disaster Medical Assistance Team were both light and carried everything we needed. Plus, you could sling them over your back like a backpack.
Additionally, I think that we have just plain too much stuff in our jump kit. Gunshot kit? Thermometer? We are carrying bags of saline in the “BLS” bag. Why? If an ALS provider is going to be starting a line in the field, such as for a code, they will generally need the drug box. Put the IV bags and equipment in the drug box. (While we are on the subject I also think that we can do better then that massive piece of plastic we call a drug kit.)
Often times I see EMTs working out of equipment in the bag when we have the patient in the rescue. The bag should only be stocked with enough equipment to care for a single patient on scene. When we are in the truck, we should be working with equipment in the compartments.
EMS units here in my corner of NJ seem to have a good system. BLS units carry a bag consisting of the oxygen plus enough bandages and airway supplies to reasonably care for a single person. ALS units will then arrive with a small tackle box (med kit), plus a small airway bag (ET tubes, laryngoscopes, etc), and the Lifepak 12. This makes four separate pieces of equipment, but each is easy to carry.
With large crews for the majority of the semester, and some smaller people on our service to begin with, I think it would do us a great deal of good to reduce the weight of some of the equipment we carry around on a daily basis.
Anyone have any icy-hot?
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