Patient Assessment
Patient assessment is the process an EMT or paramedic follows to evaluate an injured or ill patient. The process includes a scene size-up, which is the identification and mitigation of risks, a primary assessment to find and fix life threats and a secondary assessment to perform a focused history and physical exam of the patient. Each step is an opportunity to collect information that will guide treatment and inform a transport decision. In the EMS1 Patient Assessment topic find the latest news about patient assessment and top resources to improve your patient assessment skills.
New research explores how point-of-care lung ultrasound can improve prehospital identification of acute heart failure
Complacency can creep in after routine calls, but true emergencies don’t wait
Educate your community on how to stay safe and assist emergency responders after a violent MCI
On-the-job advice culled from interviewing EMTs and paramedics with more than 30 years of field experience
Using an altered version of a protein found in the brain called neuroglobin, researchers were able to reverse the effects of a lethal dose of carbon monoxide in mice
Responders arrived to the scene, but had to be airlifted to a medical facility with specialized equipment for treating carbon monoxide poisoning
Your patient takes a medication you aren’t familiar with and needs to be treated using a protocol you haven’t reviewed recently; do you have the right apps on your phone to assist?
You are dispatched to a report of a patient suffering from a seizure
Understanding the underlying cause of a patient’s behavioral changes is necessary to assure accurate treatment is started
Capnography guided care gives EMS providers the information they need to improve survival for patients who experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
This damage can result in long-term impairment, such as behavioral abnormalities, reduced impulse control, emotional outbursts, violence and even suicide
Dr. Stanley Phillips III was killed in a 2013 ambulance crash while transporting a neonatal patient
RSI can be lifesaving when appropriately applied or deadly if not performed with a high-level of proficiency and accuracy
Conn. judge and jury find that Good Samaritan immunity protects paramedics, not employers
Acute flaccid myelitis is a condition that affects the nervous system, specifically the spinal cord
How will you care for a teenager who intentionally asphyxiated himself and is now unresponsive with agonal respirations?
Acute altered mental status is often the first clinical sign of a disruption to ATP production
In-hospital cardiac arrest research shows strong association between epinephrine and decreased odds of ROSC and good neurologic outcome
Your patient has an apparent hip fracture after a fall and needs to be packaged for transport; did you make the right call?
You are dispatched to an independent living facility for a senior citizen who has fallen
Understand how capnography identifies respiratory and cardiovascular compromise in restrained patients
Law enforcement and SAR K-9s are public safety personnel who may require the emergency care of EMS providers
Here are five smartphone apps EMTs and paramedics can use during patient assessment and treatment
Point-of-care devices can supplement but not replace history-taking and physical examination during fireground rehab patient assessment
Understand why dextrose given during prehospital resuscitation from cardiac arrest may actually decrease the chance of survival to hospital discharge
The ambulances will carry CT scanners, cameras for communicating with stroke neurologists and medication that can begin to dissolve clots and restore blood flow to the brain
Recognize the signs and symptoms of heart failure and understand how capnography can be used to guide treatment
The hospital failed to follow proper patient identification protocols by checking birth dates
A man came running up to the emergency department’s reception area just as I sat there finishing paperwork from a simple chest pain call
“He has your eyes” were the words of comfort for a frazzled mom of a boy with special health care needs
Prehospital ultrasound, the latest patient assessment technology to transition from the hospital to EMS, discussed at EMS World Expo
