ATTITUDES OF PREHOSPITAL EMERGENCY HEALTH CARE WORKERS TOWARDS SPINAL CORD IMMOBILIZATION IN PATIENTS WITH MULTIPLE TRAUMA

INTRODUCTION: To evaluate the attitudes of prehospital emergency health care workers towards spinal cord immobilization in trauma patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a descriptive study, and its participants were 407 pre-hospital emergency healthcare workers working in a province in the west of the country between April 2022 and October 2022. The data were collected online with a questionnaire consisting of twenty-four questions. Statistical significance was defined as a p-value of 0.05 for all analyses. RESULTS: 73% of the participants that they decided to perform routine spinal cord immobilization in all trauma patients regardless of the clinical findings. 85% of the participants said they generally preferred the backboard for spinal cord immobilization of trauma-injured people. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that prehospital emergency health care workers stated that they routinely perform spinal cord immobilization in every traumatized patient, despite knowing the indication for spinal cord immobilization of trauma patients