Guest Post: Medical Series Number One

My name is Ed and I’m a nurse, an RN. I’m just as concerned with various survival scenarios as you are, especially having taken survival courses in the military from which I retired after 20 years of service.

I would like to begin a medical series, seeing that only 5 articles have been published here. However, I have a concern relating to various posts I have read. There is no lack of enthusiasm, nor is there a lack of interest. That is good, because despite the best equipment one has, if injury or disease overcomes someone, the mission will fail with a possible fatal outcome to top it off.

The concern I have is this-that medical treatment rests with licensed physicians and nurse practitioners, and nursing care rests with licensed nurses, LPN or RN. Information relating to piece meal extracts from medical books such as the The Merck Manual for example and applying that information into treatment can be dangerous because the entire medical picture is not taken into perspective.

For example: how many of you have given an over the counter medication to someone you know? How many of you asked if they were allergic to anything?

All reading this have done the former but I can bet very few have done the later. Nursing 101-”are you allergic to anything?” Why the word “anything”? Because you want the person to think back; you don’t want to prompt the person by saying “Are you allergic to aspirin?” and the person says yes, thinking “motrin”.

Believe it or not, most people do not know their medications, especially prescription medications. How many times have I gone through a person’s medication list to find out that 1- the patient knows what half of them do and 2-cannot remember their names if the list is taken away.
Something as simple as asking if a person has allergies can avoid a catastrophic event.

So what are we going to discuss in this series you ask? A lot. Not “exciting” things like suturing (a doctor’s task), or digging out bullets. We will discuss basic things with twists you have not thought of.

The various discussions may follow closely the seasons-such as the summer in North America and problems with dehydration for example. Prevention and health maintenance; nutrition; simple first aid; and what to expect in a field environment as compared to being in a air conditioned home reading a book. And much, much more.

Until next time, Ed signing off.