At FDIC on Tuesday, March 22, Saratoga County, New York, EMS Coordinator and Fire Engineering Technical Editor Mike McEvoy taught students the importance, protocols, and logistics of setting up proper on-scene rehab for firefighters; the specifics of NFPA 1584; and some vital firefighter nutritional facts which can contribute to the nature of the rehab required at an incident.
McEvoy said, “The class offered a real-world perspective on firefighter rehab, not some pie-in-the-sky strategy that ends up wasting firefighter’s time with senseless measurements of vital signs and impractical demands for rest. Properly conducted firefighter rehab should allow a firefighter to spend more time on the fireground, work harder, longer, and avoid injuries that often occur with fatigue. Rather than diminishing the staffing pool on scene, good rehab should increase available staffing. When those goals are not being achieved, rehab is probably not being done properly or efficiently.”
He continued, “The biggest head-butting in rehab often occurs with medical monitoring. This session dealt specifically with the vital signs that have value to firefighters and how those assessments can be done by firefighters themselves with minimal involvement by EMS personnel on scene.”
McEvoy also spoke at length on NFPA 1584, Standard on the Rehabilitation Process for Members During Emergency Operations and Training Exercises, 2008 edition, and how it shapes all departments’ rehab processes on and off the fireground as well as all preincident preparation.
He also reviewed hydration and the science behind what and how much a firefighter should drink, how to best measure fluids consumed, and why incorrectly prepared sports drinks make firefighters sick. He stated, “Performance athletes have a strong grasp of concepts of rest, nutrition, and hydration; firefighters are performance athletes; they need to understand these concepts as well.”
According to McEvoy, water is the much preferred choice over the common sports drink when a firefighter needs to rehydrate. He explained that studies show that the electolytes common to sports drinks are not required to be replenished in the body until about 2-3 hours after strenuous physical activity, whereas small amounts of water will take care of a firefighter’s common rehydration need.
“In a perfect world, firefighters would understand what rehab they need; the department would provide the equipment, supplies, and medical expertise on scene; and firefighters would rehab themselves. This session demonstrated how such a process can (and has) been implemented in both very small and in major metropolitan fire departments.”