The Nitty-Gritty of Splinting

​One of the most important things you can do as a clinician is to fix a patient’s immediate problem. Mastering certain procedures like splinting allows us to provide immediate solutions to patient problems when they arise. We all want to be masters when it comes to splinting, and here is why.EP splinting a complex distal radial fracture with the help of countertraction. stockinette, fiberglass splinting material, and ACE wrap are utilized.One of the more common mistakes NPs, PAs, and even MDs make is avoiding splinting their own patients. This means they spend less time at the bedside. If you personally splint your patient, studies show that your added bedside experience may shorten your patient's length of stay and could produce higher patient satisfaction scores. (Am J Manag Care 2014;20[5]:393.) When you skip doing the splint, it can disrupt care and limit your interaction with the patient, which is disliked by patients. Splinting the patient yourself is a great way to expedite care, provide patient teaching, set the mold of the splint the way you want it, and connect with your patient. This is true in emergency care areas and primary care offices. Patients may expect similar interactions with caregivers in the ED as they do in the primary care environment, and the added time at the bedside increases their satisfaction. (Arch Intern Med 2001;161[11]:1437.)Understandably, you may not always have time to splint a patient yourself. If this is the case, it's import...
Source: The Procedural Pause - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs