Pre-hospital care: Characteristics of traffic accidents

Abstract

Objectives: to identify types of occurrence registered by a pre-hospital care unit and to characterize occurrences from traffic accidents. Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional study was used to analyze 6,430 pre-hospital calls from July to September, 2003. Results: the occurrences were classified as trauma (35.2%,) or traffic accidents (57.9%). Most occurrences took place in the afternoon and were common in all days of the week. The basic pre-hospital care team, consisting of a licensed practical nurse or associate degree nurse and an ambulance driver, was the team that answered most emergency calls (84.5%). A professional nurse participated in only 11.2% of the occurrences, and great part of these occurrences (4.27%) was answered by the advanced pre-hospital care team. A physician participated in only 8.3% of occurrences. Conclusion: the basic pre-hospital care team was involved in the majority of emergency calls. This suggests a need of new strategies for preventing victim's complications and better ways to qualify pre-hospital care team members for a quality interdisciplinary-based work.