Tag: secondary assessment
- 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 […]
- Assessing A Patient With Labor Contractions ()
Initial management of the patient will be guided by the primary survey. Generally, obstetric patients are conscious and able to communicate their problems with EMS. In order to get to the problem, a focused history and physical exam will be completed. The focused history and physical exam answers the question, “why am I here?” Despite […]
- The Focused History & Physical Examination ()
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 […]
- How To Look For Injuries ()
When a serious mechanism of injury is the cause of the patient’s condition or the patient is unresponsive for reasons unknown (after looking for an explanation of the loss of consciousness by using the NACHOS pneumonic), the ambulance crew needs to look for injuries. The EMS crew needs to look for injuries that could be […]