Tag: patient assessment
- History & Physical Of Acute Abdomen Patients ()
Ok, So Where Does It Hurt? Just figuring out exactly where the patient is experiencing pain is a logical first move to being able to figure out the nature of the patient’s problem. Unfortunately, the emergency department is not really in a position to perform definitive test for conditions related to the abdomen. They are […]
- Getting SPASTIC With Pediatric Altered Mental Status ()
What is altered mental status? Altered mental status (AMS) is a disruption in how your brain works that causes a change in behavior. This change can happen suddenly or over days. AMS ranges from slight confusion to total disorientation and increased sleepiness to coma. What causes AMS? AMS can be caused by physical, psychological, and […]
- Isolated Physical Exams ()
- Diabetic Exam ()
Patient With Diabetes Have Lots Of Problems, Start With the Blood Sugar A glucose meter, also referred to as a “glucometer”, is a medical device for determining the approximate concentration of glucose in the blood. It can also be a strip of glucose paper dipped into a substance and measured to the glucose chart. It […]
- The Secondary Survey ()
The Context Of The Secondary Survey After the medics have assessed the patient for burns bleeding and broken bones, they package the patient. While enroute to the hospital, the medics job is not over. There is another assessment to perform while they are underway: The In Ambulance Secondary Survey The In Ambulance Secondary Survey follows […]
- 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 […]
- 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 […]