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Foundations · Chapter 3 Not started
Rescue Basics
Scene safety, personal protective equipment, and the priorities that keep rescuers from becoming patients.
Key points
- Scene safety comes first, always: your safety, then your team's, then bystanders', then the patient's.
- Size up every scene before entering: hazards, mechanism of injury, number of patients, and needed resources.
- Standard precautions (gloves, eye protection, and more as indicated) apply to every patient contact — assume all body fluids are infectious.
- Mark and protect the scene: crossed skis or a rescue sled uphill of the incident warns oncoming traffic on the slope.
- Never attempt a rescue beyond your training — a second patient makes every problem worse; call for the resources the scene needs.
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