Diabetes

EMS providers frequently assess geriatric patients with altered mental status. This EMS1 training video reviews two common conditions — hyperglycemia and sepsis — that can cause changes in a patient's mental status.

After watching Steve Whitehead discuss these conditions, learn more about sepsis assessment and treatment in articles from Kelly Grayson and Rom Duckworth. Then share your geriatric assessment tips in the comments.

Measuring a patient's blood sugar is an increasingly common assessment, performed on any patient with an altered mental status or reduced level of consciousness. Watch for two reminders about the importance of using a spring-loaded lancet and using gravity or a tourniquet to obtain a capillary blood sample.

Watch two more videos on glucometer use:
Remember 2 Things: How to avoid common glucometer mistakes
Remember 2 Things: How to obtain an accurate glucometer reading

To get the most accurate reading from a glucometer avoid making the two common mistakes described by Steve Whitehead. Watch the video to learn the difference between intravenous blood and capillary blood samples. And listen to Whitehead's description of hypoglycemia as a relative finding.

Watch another episode of Remember 2 Things to learn more about acquiring a high-quality blood sample for the glucometer.

EMS providers frequently assess patient's blood sugar with a glucometer. Steve Whitehead gives two things EMTs and paramedics need to remember about preparing the site and sampling the second drop of blood instead of the first. Share your glucometer tips in the comments.

Watch part 2 to learn more about accurate glucometer use by avoiding two common mistakes.

A 911 caller reported her husband was having a medical emergency while driving, but didn't know where; the dispatcher had units from D.C. to Clinton, Md. searching for him on a highway, and they found him just in time