A soft sling in seconds.
If you’ve ever had to wear a sling, you know that the strap can chafe your neck in a most annoying way. Here’s something you can do in the ED, before sending your patient out, to relieve this particular problem.
Take an infant arm board (the kind you use for IVs). Cut off both ends and slide the cardboard out, leaving the padding in place. Then, feed the strap of the sling through the opening you’ve created so that the padded arm board now sits against the patient’s neck. Instant cushion! Your patients will thank you for this.
Amy Levine, MD is an assistant professor of pediatric EM at UNC Chapel Hill.