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.
Harris County ESD11 Mobile Healthcare developed 10 commandments to set initial expectations while onboarding 200 paramedics
Our cohosts tackle system design, enhancing education standards and personal accountability
Steve Whitehead asks, does your pulse ox probe fail you, or do you fail it?
A brother and sister are recovering after the gas from a generator permeated the trailer where they were living
Medics donned PPE before carrying the feverish girls from their home; the scare reassured responders they’re equipped to manage the disease
The medic spent 41 minutes with the sick girl and believed her symptoms “of a mundane nature”
You respond to a man with shallow respirations and a weak pulse; what is your ‘must not miss’ diagnosis?
A flight photographer’s PR assignment quickly changes as he captures the response to a serious medical call
Luckily, EMS arrived behind firefighters to a call for difficulty breathing and evacuated the building when their carbon monoxide monitors went off
The rain was so heavy EMTs had to wade through ankle-deep water to find a man in cardiac arrest; Jessica Galvin sized up the situation and treated him on the scene
He fled from a psychiatric hospital as he was being loaded into an ambulance, and was hit by several cars when he ran onto a nearby busy highway
We need to modify our thinking to include serial 12-lead ECGs as part of our reassessment, just like we would reassess vital signs or pain scale
Follow this five-question framework to set the direction for your agency’s future, watch the system, and support vital processes
Pain is one of the primary reasons people call 911; there’s a growing concern in EMS that providers aren’t doing enough to assess, treat and relieve pain
Thom Dick, a paramedic, caregiver and advocate for patients and providers, discusses his more than 40 years in EMS
New Jersey is the only state with a law requiring hospitals to accommodate brain dead patients who belong to a religion that does not accept the diagnosis as a final verdict for death
Triage is a cold and calculating decision; to make the correct decision, you have to subvert a bit of your humanity.
Doctors said her symptoms were stress related, until she returned with a recording of herself describing the numbness and slurred speech as it was happening
The new transport procedure recognizes the negative effects of long spine boards and says a cervical collar without immobilization is now acceptable
Receptionists turned her away when she asked them to call her an ambulance; she dug for her cell phone outside the clinic
The patient had a blood clot, and filed a complaint after the crew stopped for the pair because they were on a dangerous road
The PIC arrived on scene, took one look at my superstar c-spine and started laughing. “Kid,” he said, “You’re gonna make one hell of a medic!”
There is nothing like doing a trauma assessment in heels and heading to your EMT basic graduation late, with bloody knees
You arrive on scene to find staff performing CPR; what are your priorities during this resuscitation?
Read the response and add your own thoughts in the comments
The lawsuit may be a bunch of crapola, but you need to take precautions to make sure it goes away as fast as it comes up
She eventually died from a closed head wound; her husband questions if her life could have been saved had the EMT not determined she was DOA
The $3.1M lawsuit says she suffered brain damage after doctors let hours pass before treating her with clot-busting medication, and instead gave her Ativan
Medics can use a new sensor and app to get ECG data on-the-fly from electrical impulses in patients’ fingertips
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