Education of personnel involved in the transport program

Abstract

Inclusive in the demand for transport services is the need for an ongoing formal educational curriculum to ensure that a high standard of care is consistently provided to patients. Those who provide transport services must ensure that the staff has an adequate baseline level of training and licensure, an ongoing system of educational review, and the frequency of activity necessary to maintain skills. Team members should have an acceptable level of cognitive and technical skills to transport patients and perform needed procedures safely. Such skills may be acquired and maintained by participation in nontransport activities, through a didactic curriculum and a system of ongoing case review, through team members providing training to referring hospitals, and through a "buddy" system of supervised transport activities. While an ongoing educational curriculum and its structure remain constant, the content can and should be tailored to the type of patients transported, from the very low birth weight infant and pregnant mother to pediatric and adult patients.