Protocols and medical issues

Street Medic Wikia (beta), the online resource for street medics that anyone can edit

Protocol

A street medic protocol is a concise document which guides the care rendered by street medics. Unlike medical issues, protocols are written only to the scope of practice of basic street medics. They should be easy to memorize, and require no prior medical knowledge beyond first response initial assessment.

Additional purposes of street medic protocols are to standardize treatment, raise the quality of care, and reduce risk to the patient and the medic. All street medic protocols are guided by the Athens manifesto and Some expectations of street medics, two collaboratively-developed consensus documents. These documents, in turn, are based on the fundamental code of Do No Harm.

Street medic protocols are often adapted by local groups to be more relevant to the needs of the population that group serves. Adapted protocols are often buided by Points of unity.

List of street medic protocols

• Initial assessment - An organized way to recognize and respond to life-threatening emergencies in a crisis
• Lifesaving skills - Head tilt- chin lift, jaw thrust, abdominal thrusts, rescue breathing, recovery position
• Triage - When there are more injured than medics, triage assures that the most critical are cared for first
• Heat injury and illness - Care for heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke
• Cold injury and illness - Care for hypothermia, frostnip, and frostbite
• Burns and blisters - Care for injuries from heat, fire, and friction (like from walking)
• Open wounds - Care for scrapes, cuts, punctures, torn flesh, or amputation
• Shock - Care for hypovolemic and anaphylactic shock
• Strains sprains and breaks - Care for muscle, joint and bone injuries
• Wounds that are likely to become dangerously infected - Learn to recognize these!
• Infected wounds - how to recognize and care for them

En español

• Primeros auxilios para quemaduras - basic first aid for burn wounds in hot climates

Medical issues

Street medical issues documents also guide care by street medics. Medical issues are less concise than protocols, and guide street medic continuing education.

Medical issues briefly identify, summarize and evaluate the best evidence and most current data about prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy, risk/benefit and cost-effectiveness. Then they define the most important questions related to street medic or street clinician practice and identify all possible decision options and their outcomes.

Medical issues are targeted at street medics who have mastered the basics in practice, and as such they define a scope of practice slightly broader than the scope of practice of basic street medics. Medical issues help medics use their prior knowledge and experience in the less-than-ideal environments in which street medics operate.

Medical issues can be conducted also through medical consultation which services are done real-time through our advanced medical portal which provides clients with electronic medical records and the technology to connect our members to our doctors instantly.

List of medical issues

• Epileptic seizure aftercare- Basic explanation of types and seizures and aftercare
• Heat injury - Information on heat and sun-related illnesses
• Hypothermia - Information on cold and wet-weather illnesses
• Infected wounds - Very basic information on recognizing and responding to wound infections
• Help getting to sleep - Not sleeping for long periods of time is extremely dangerous for physical and emotional well-being. This article was created to aid in maintaining a healthy sleep schedule
• What to put in your first aid kit

Medical issues related to sexual assault at mobilizations

• Sexual assault disclosure - What to do if a survivor of sexualized violence comes to you
  • Responding to Sexual Assaults at Mass Mobilizations - For organizers, step by step guide to creating a SA response infrastructure
  • Active Listening Skills (for sexual assault survivor support) - Collection of resources for those offering emotional support
  • Example Consent and Safer Space Policies - Resourses for organizers and collectives

Medical issues related to police tactics / weapons

(or nazi/ anti/ counter-protester/ hate crime perp... tactics / weapons)

• Documenting injuries (police brutality) - How to document your injuries for lawsuits and criminal defense
• Fear
• Handcuff injury - Medical review of so-called "Handcuff Neuropathy" a superficial radial nerve branch compression mononeuropathy
• Taser
• Pepper spray and tear gas - information on prevention and care for chemical weapons injuries
  • Gas masks - review of self-protection measures
  • L.A.W. (liquid antacid and water) - first aid treatment for eyes, nose, and mouth
  • For pepper spray on the skin - first aid treatment for skin
• OC trials - black cross health collective's clinical trials of the effectiveness of various remedies for pepper spray pain
  • OC trial protocols - the black cross's protocols for their clinical trials
  • The dangers of working with pepper spray - harm done during the trials despite the safety protocol, and how they dealt with it
• Police dog bite - medical review and suggestions for street medic- level care
• Special considerations for gunshot wounds and shrapnel wounds - Issue relating to Open wounds protocol.

Medical issues related to protest tactics

• Health and safety in sabotage actions - Help people avoid injury to themselves or others.
• Hunger strike - Health and safety during hunger strikes
  • Hunger strike (in prison) - Guidelines for providing medical advocacy to imprisoned hunger strikers

Wellness center medical issues

• Intake list - This is the list of things an intake worker at Common Ground Health Clinic should consider with each patient.
• How to take care of a sick person
• Signs of dangerous illness - Call 911 for these
• Emotional aftercare (herbal) - Some people hold stress in their bodies following demos. These formulas may aid a person in their emotional recovery
• Help getting to sleep (herbal) - Herbs have traditionally aided people in relaxing and getting to sleep
• Injury aftercare (herbal) - Herbal remedies can help the body to heal faster with less residual damage. This formula can be used for a wide variety of injuries such as cuts, scrapes, bruises, sprains and strains
• Burn wound (for soccorista) - Advanced first aid for burn wounds in hot climates.