Introduction
CHAPTER 1
PHTLS: Past, Present, and Future
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES At the completion of this chapter, the reader will be able to do the following: Recognize the magnitude of the problem both in human and financial terms caused by traumatic injury. Understand the history and evolution of prehospital trauma care. Identify and recognize the components and importance of prehospital research and literature.
Introduction
Our patients did not choose us. We chose them. We could have chosen another profession, but we did not. We have accepted the responsibility for patient care in some of the worst situations: when we are tired or cold; when it is rainy and dark; when we cannot predict what conditions we will encounter. We must either accept this responsibility or surrender it. We must give to our patients the very best care that we can— not while we are daydreaming, not with unchecked equipment, not with incomplete supplies, and not with yesterday’s knowledge. We cannot know what medical information is current, we cannot purport to be ready to care for our patients if we do not read and learn each day. The Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) course provides a part of that knowledge to the working EMT but, more important, it ultimately benefits the person who needs our all— the patient. At the end of each run, we should feel that the patient received nothing short of our very best.
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