Premergency First Aid, CPR and AED Manual

2 PREmergency Scene Management

Patient Positioning As a first aider, you may find you need to position your patient for proper assessment or care. You must ensure that you protect the patient and don’t cause any further injury. Most times when you need to roll a patient for assessment it is due to a trauma injury. With many trauma or unconscious patients, you will need to protect the patients’ neck and c-spine as you move them. Unless you are a single rescuer, once you start or establish c-spine precautions you must continue them. The most common patient movement is the log roll. It is used to position the patient on their back (supine position), for assessment and treatment. It is also used to place patients in the recovery position (on their side). - see next page for proper technique.

SKILL

Protecting patient’s head/C-spine while rolling

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