Shah Nipam, Hert Katherine, Klasner Ann E
From the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama and the Alabama Department of Public Health, Montgomery.
South Med J. 2020 Feb;113(2):59-63. doi: 10.14423/SMJ.0000000000001063.
Interfacing with patients with sensory processing difficulties is challenging to healthcare providers and even more problematic for emergency medical services (EMS) personnel in the acute care setting. Sensory training may be an effective nonpharmacologic method to deal with these patient populations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether an educational session and placement sensory tools would improve the comfort of EMS providers in the prehospital setting.
EMS providers from two agencies in the Alabama Gulf EMS System were selected for this study. Preeducation questionnaires were administered to EMS providers to assess their frequency and comfort level in taking care of patients with sensory processing difficulties. The educational session included a video presentation of various topics related to sensory processing difficulties and education on sensory tools. Posteducation questionnaires were administered to EMS providers 3 months posteducational session to assess the use of sensory tools and their comfort in patient care. Comfort level was assessed on a Likert scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being not comfortable at all and 10 being extremely comfortable. We performed descriptive statistics and the nonparametric Wilcoxon signed rank test to compare medians.
A total of 177 of 225 (78.6%) EMS providers completed the preeducation questionnaire. In the preeducation period, 159 (89.8%) EMS providers transported patients with sensory processing difficulties. The preeducation median comfort level was 7.5 (range 1-10). At postsurvey, 135 of 177 (76.3%) EMS providers received educational training; 37 (27.4%) used the sensory tools within the previous 3 months. The posteducation median comfort level was 8 (range 3-10). Pre- and post median comfort levels were significantly different using the Wilcoxon signed rank test ( = 0.006).
Sensory training can be an effective method for EMS providers to increase comfort levels in taking care of patients with sensory difficulties. Further research with larger sample sizes is needed to confirm/refute these findings.
与存在感觉加工困难的患者打交道对医疗服务提供者来说具有挑战性，而在急诊环境中，对紧急医疗服务（EMS）人员而言问题更大。感觉训练可能是应对这些患者群体的一种有效的非药物方法。本研究的目的是评估一次教育课程和放置感觉工具是否会提高院前环境中EMS提供者的舒适度。
从阿拉巴马湾EMS系统的两个机构中挑选EMS提供者参与本研究。对EMS提供者进行教育前问卷调查，以评估他们照顾存在感觉加工困难患者的频率和舒适度。教育课程包括一个关于感觉加工困难相关各种主题的视频展示以及关于感觉工具的培训。在教育课程结束3个月后对EMS提供者进行教育后问卷调查，以评估感觉工具的使用情况及其在患者护理中的舒适度。舒适度采用1至10的李克特量表进行评估，1表示一点都不舒服，10表示极其舒服。我们进行了描述性统计和非参数威尔科克森符号秩检验以比较中位数。
225名EMS提供者中有177名（78.6%）完成了教育前问卷调查。在教育前期，159名（89.8%）EMS提供者运送过存在感觉加工困难的患者。教育前期的舒适度中位数为7.5（范围为1至10）。在调查后，177名EMS提供者中有135名（76.3%）接受了教育培训；37名（27.4%）在过去3个月内使用了感觉工具。教育后的舒适度中位数为8（范围为3至10）。使用威尔科克森符号秩检验，教育前后的舒适度中位数存在显著差异（P = 0.006）。
感觉训练可以成为一种有效的方法，帮助EMS提供者在照顾存在感觉困难的患者时提高舒适度。需要进一步开展更大样本量的研究来证实/反驳这些发现。
