Category: EMT
- Mental Status Exam ()
Level of Consciousness Medical illness, traumatic brain injury, alcohol intoxication, drugs, and poisonings may all lead to aberrations in a patient’s neurological and physiological status in ways that cause an abnormal level of consciousness. AVPU is a straightforward scale that is useful to rapidly grade a patient’s gross level of consciousness, responsiveness, or mental status. It comes into […]
- The Cardiovascular Exam ()
Taking A Closer Look At Vital Signs When the patient is complaining of chest pain or their complaint causes the medics to consider a cardiovascular cause of the patient’s complaint, the focused physical exam must address the possibility of cardiac dysrhythmias. A cardiac dysrhythmia is an irregularity in the patient’s heart rhythm. A very common […]
- Respiratory Exam ()
Easily Assess The Patient’s Respiratory Complaint And Figure Out The Underlying Condition Let’s be honest, is it really that difficult to just go to somebody’s house and with very little effort determine they are having shortness of breath? And if all the medics did was give some oxygen and transport to the hospital, that would […]
- Physical Exam – The Basics ()
The focused history and physical exam answers the question, “why am I here?” When the EMS crew is confronted with a patient who has a medical problem but there is no mechanism of injury, the medics have to figure out the complaint and formulate a differential diagnosis. A differential diagnosis is a temporary or working […]
- Non Invasive Blood Pressure ()
Best Piece Of Equipment Ever Put On An Ambulance Since both, hypotension and hypertension, can potentially impair the function of vital organs such as heart, brain, or kidneys, monitoring of arterial blood pressure (BP) is a mainstay of hemodynamic monitoring in acutely or critically ill patients. Arterial BP can either be obtained invasively via an […]
- CO-Oximeter ()
It’s Like A Pulse Oximeter, But It Measures Carbon Monoxide A CO-oximeter is a device that measures the oxygen carrying state of hemoglobin in a blood specimen, including oxygen-carrying hemoglobin (O2Hb), non-oxygen-carrying but normal hemoglobin (HHb) (formerly, but incorrectly, referred to as ‘reduced’ hemoglobin), as well as the dyshemoglobins such as carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) and methemoglobin […]
- What Does OPQRST Mean? ()
The Basics The interview is always the same and follows a set pattern of questions. Questions that occur to the ambulance crew after this conversation would be referred to as a follow up question. Subjective – This is the patient’s chief complaint as defined in terms of onset, provocation, quality, radiation, severity, and time. The […]
- History Taking ()
Collect The Right Information The best source of information about the patient is the patient. The patient knows what hurts and how bad. Just ask. In lieu of the patient, ask the family. Rarely does EMS experience patients who are completely alone. EMS is responsible for collecting the following information on all patients encountered: Correct […]
- Patient History For The Frequent Flier ()
SAMPLE History The focused history and physical exam answers the question, “why am I here?” When the EMS crew is confronted with a patient who has a medical problem but there is no mechanism of injury, the medics have to figure out the complaint and formulate a differential diagnosis. A differential diagnosis is a temporary […]
- Managing The Patient History ()
The Basics The interview is always the same and follows a set pattern of questions. Questions that occur to the ambulance crew after this conversation would be referred to as a follow up question. Subjective – This is the patient’s chief complaint as defined in terms of onset, provocation, quality, radiation, severity, and time. The […]