INTRODUCTION AND HOW TO USE THE GUIDE

The main idea which lead to printing this Guide was so it could be used for medical consultations at a distance. In addition, it should allow the use of the first aid kit in case of emergency or when, due to technical reasons, it is not possible to communicate with the Medical Radio Centre. It should also serve as a reminder and, in many cases, as a first source of information, of the preventive measures to be adopted in ships in order to keep healthy and, if the case should arrive, know what to do when faced with a death on board.

By publishing this Guide on the Internet, in a Spanish and English version, we want to contribute to the diffusion of this Guide's contents, given the great quality achieved in its elaboration and the enormous benefit it provides, even for those who have no type of medical knowledge whatsoever. We hope it will serve mainly as a consultation tool, but we should not forget its eminently practical character, thanks to the simple language and the explanatory illustrations employed.

Next, the content of the Guide is explained. The work is divided into four thematic blocks (plus ten technical Appendix at the end):

1. Actions in a life-threatening situation.
This is made up of two chapters, focusing on those situations in which immediate action is required and it is not possible to wait for instructions to be given by a medical consultation via radio. In these chapters there is a schematic description of how to recognise such situations and how to act. The intention is that, by means of basic advice and self-explanatory pictures, these chapters may refresh and guide Anterior knowledge acquired on healthcare training courses. In each section, a life-threatening situation is given, showing how to recognise it, what to do, and what not to do.

The difference between the two chapters is based on the response time. Life-threatening emergency situations are those demanding immediate action within the first five minutes (cardiopulmonary resuscitation, haemorrhage control), and urgent situations are those that can be dealt with beyond the five minute limit, but should not be delayed much longer to avoid irreversible damage or even death.

Chapter 1. Life threatening emergencies
Chapter 2. Urgent situations

2. Medical consultation via radio.
It includes four chapters. This topic focuses on the medical consultation via radio and all that it entails: patient examination, how to arrange a medical consultation via radio, first aid kits and ongoing care.

Chapter 3. Patient examination
Chapter 4. Medical consultation via radio
Chapter 5. On board first aid kit
Chapter 6. Nursing care

3. First aid on board.
It is divided into four chapters. They explain how to treat the sick and accident victims, the management of psychiatric patients, female diseases and childbirth. It has been devised to handle those non-emergency situations when it is not possible to make a medical consultation via radio from the ship. Moreover, it can provide additional information to that given when consultation via radio is possible.

Chapter 7. Assisting accident victim
Chapter 8. Assisting the sick
Chapter 9. Psychiatric care
Chapter 10. Female diseases and delivery

4. Prevention, hygiene and death at sea.
For this topic, which contains five chapters, a brief mention of prevention and hygiene rules on board the ship is made, together with the procedures to deal with death at sea.

Chapter 11. Prevention of chronic and contagious diseases
Chapter 12. Prevention of accidents and professional conditions
Chapter 13. Crewmember hygiene
Chapter 14. Environmental health on board
Chapter 15. Death at sea

The printed edition of this Guide should always be kept in its place (DRAWER 11) so it can be found quickly. The person responsible for health on board should be familiar with the content of this Guide and its use. The printed edition is the one which should be used for consultation when on board.

WEB BROWSING AND STRUCTURE OF THE GUIDE:

The On Board Health Guide on Internet, published on the Social Security web page, in the "Workers" divider, section "Specific activities of the sea workers", has mainly two visual blocks of information, called frames:

Index frame: the index of the Guide is located in this frame, allowing each of the content blocks to be opened when clicked on. Once they are open, we can click on a chapter to visualise, in the content frame, the index of that chapter. In addition, in the upper part of this frame there is a link to the General Index of the Guide (Guide Map) and another one to the Alphabetic Subject Index (Glossary).

Content Frame: in this space we can visualise the content of each of the chapters of the Guide. Generally, the first page of each chapter is an index with all its sections. Pressing on these sections we can go directly to the content of each one.

Browsing through the Guide is simple and intuitive: one must simply press on each of the links available in order to access the information. When we place the cursor over a certain phrase or word, and a hand appears with the index finger stretched out, this means that a link is available.

At the end of each page of the Web Guide, there are three buttons which, when pressed, allow us to go to the Anterior section, the following section, or the chapter's index. These buttons are not found in the first chapter of the Guide (Emergencies) since the content of the chapter itself has corresponding links to the different sections, and it is not necessary to read each one sequentially. Similarly, at the end of each of the content pages of the guide there is also a button to go to the top of the page. In addition, all Internet browsers include two buttons which allow the user to go back to the Anterior page or go on to the Siguiente page visualised.

Within the content frame of the Web Guide, when there is a reference to an object (chapter, section, or figure) which is not found in the page the user is looking at, there is generally an active link which takes him to the page where the mentioned object is located.

It is of great use to browse through the Glossary of the Guide. This is done by clicking on any of the letters found in the upper part of the content frame, which takes us to the page with all the subjects beginning with that letter. To go to the content of one of those subjects, simply press on the desired subject.

To print any of the pages of the Guide, one must do it directly from the Internet browser used for visualisation. If one wishes to print only the content frame, it is necessary to place the cursor on any object found within the frame, press the keys "Control + P" and indicate that we only wish to print the frame chosen. To print several pages, this operation must be done for each one.