The Sandpiper Bag contents

The Sandpiper Bag is aimed to provide a standardised set of equipment to perform a limited suite of meaningful interventions on the prehospital scene.

Importantly the role of the Sandpiper Clinician is NOT to replace existing ambulance expertise, but to complement it. This is especially useful in rural areas where ambulance resources may be limited, bth by available crews and treatment ceilings.

Similarly, the raison d’être of retrieval services is to bring advanced procedures to the prehospital scene. Given the tyranny of distance, time to arrive may be hour in rural & remote Australia. Having equipment and training to allow rural clinicians to ‘value add’ is the key to a rural responder network.

The Sandpiper Bag Checklist and Sandpiper Bag Example Layout documents indicate typical bag configurations.

A retrospective study of over 10 years of South Australia’s Rural Emergency Responder Network has helped shape kit contents, based upon case mix and clinical interventions. This forms the basis of the current Sandpiper Australia bag configuration.

We recognise that clinicians may wish to modify contents according to local needs, (eg addition of an AED, O2 cylinder etc) especially if the clinician is more likely to operate as a first responder prior to ambulance arrival vs. operate as an emergency responder in support of ambulance.

Most common interventions reported in the RERN SA retrospective study include:

– early SITREP, decisions on disposition
– decisions to cease resuscitation
– obtain or upgrade access (IV/IO)
– use of advanced analgesia eg fentanyl, ketamine via IV, IO or IN routes
– chest decompression (needle or finger thoracostomy)
– airway support
– splinting, reduction of fractures, nerve blocks
– assistance with ambulance &/or retrieval team tasks, as directed

In essence, “doing the basics, well”

Click to see the Sandpiper Bag Checklist

Click to see the Sandpiper Bag Layout (example)