Crashcart Backboard

The number one search term that finds my blog?
Crashcart Backboard

Is this a new fad? Did I overlook something on Alexa? Is that the answer to a test question? WTF?

What is a crashcart backboard anyway?
In a hospital, when someone is trying to die, we do our best not to let them. In other words, we start CPR.

There is a big box on wheels (think of a craftman toolbox) that is full of all the equipment that is most commonly used to save someone. There are cardiac drugs in there, needles, syringes, iv supplies, breathing tubes, suction devices, a defibrilator, and of course, the infamous crashcart backboard.

Did you ever see someone doing CPR on TV?
What do they do? You get up over the person and press down on the chest to compress the heart and pump the blood. 1-2-3-4-5, breath, 1-2-3-4-5, breath.... and so on.
But where are most people located in hospitals? In hospital beds.
Think about when you were a kid and your parents were in the other room. What is a bed really good for? Boing, boing, boing.
The matress on the bed is exceptionally springy.

Now think of trying to press down on a person's chest while they are lying in bed.
Boing, boing, boing.

You get the idea.

On the back of the crashcart is a detachable plastic board that you put up under the patient's body to give a firm surface so you can do compressions without the matress absorbing all of the force.

If there is no backboard, pull the footboard off of the bed (I've never seen a hospital bed that didn't have a detachable footboard) and use it instead.

Hope that helps in people's quest for information on crashcart backboards.

Oh, BTW, I saved another life last Sunday. I am a nurse.