1. Introduction
  2. You must assess each patient to detect possible illness or injury and determine the most appropriate emergency care for the patient.
  3. In this lesson, you will learn how to complete a thorough and methodical patient assessment.
  4. Patient Assessment—Assessment-Based Care
  5. Emergency Medical Responders are trained to identify, prioritize, and care for major signs and symptoms.
  6. A typical patient assessment contains four major components.
  7. Scene size-up—
  8. Primary assessment—
  9. Secondary assessment—
  10. History—
  11. Physical exam—
  12. Reassessment—
  13. Concerns
  14. Patient Assessment—Scene Safety
  15. Patient Assessment—Immediate Life Threats
  16. The primary assessment is a set of steps meant to detect and correct life-threatening problems.
  17. Unresponsive medical patient

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  1. Unresponsive medical patient

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  1. Trauma patients who have a significant mechanism of injury (MOI)

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  1. Trauma patients who do not have a significant MOI

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  1. Scene Size-Up

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  1. Scene Size-Up—BSI Precautions
  2. Scene Size-Up—Scene Safety

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  1. Scene Size-Up—Mechanism of Injury or Nature of Illness
  2. In most instances, the nature of illness (NOI) will be directly related to the patient’s chief complaint.
  3. Scene Size-Up—Number of Patients and Need for Additional Resources
  4. Scene Size-Up—Arrival at the Patient’s Side
  5. Ask the patient, “May I help you?” Gain consent from the patient to provide care.
  6. If someone is already providing care to the patient when you arrive, identify yourself as an Emergency Medical Responder.
  7. Primary Assessment
  8. The primary assessment is designed to help Emergency Medical Responders detect and correct immediate life threats.
  9. Seven components of primary assessment

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  1. Look for life-threatening problems in three main areas (ABCs).
  1. The Primary Assessment—The General Impression

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  1. The Primary Assessment—Mental Status
  2. Categorize the level of responsiveness based on the AVPU scale.

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  1. Alert—
  2. Verbal—
  3. Painful—
  4. Unresponsive—

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  1. The Primary Assessment—Airway and Breathing
  2. The Primary Assessment—Circulation
  3. Check for a pulse.
  4. Locate the patient’s larynx.

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  1. You do not need to determine the exact rate of the pulse.
  1. Check for serious bleeding.

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  1. The Primary Assessment—Patient Priority
  2. The Primary Assessment—Special Considerations for Infants and Children

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  1. Check capillary refill when assessing an infant’s or child’s circulation.
  1. The Primary Assessment—Alerting Dispatch
  2. Include the following information in an update.

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  1. Secondary Assessment

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  1. Important terms associated with patient assessment
  2. Patient history—
  3. Rapid secondary assessment—
  4. Focused secondary assessment—
  5. Vital signs—
  6. Symptoms—
  7. Signs—
  1. Secondary Assessment—The Trauma Patient
  2. To assess a trauma patient with no significant mechanism of injury

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  1. To assess a trauma patient with significant mechanism of injury

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  1. Significant mechanism of injury for an adult

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  1. Significant mechanisms of injury for a child

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  1. Secondary Assessment—The Medical Patient
  2. For the unresponsive medical patient

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  1. For the responsive medical patient

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  1. Secondary Assessment—Patient History
  2. Interviewing the patient
  3. Questions for patient who is alert

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  1. Remember to use the acronym SAMPLE to help you (signs/symptoms, allergies, medications, pertinent past medical history, last oral intake, and events leading up to the illness or injury).
  1. Interviewing bystanders
  2. Questions to bystanders

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  1. Secondary Assessment—Vital Signs

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  1. Use vital signs to determine which patients are a high priority for transport.
  1. Secondary Assessment—The Physical Exam

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  1. Rapid secondary assessment—Trauma patient with significant MOI

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  1. Performing the secondary exam

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  1. Secondary assessment—Trauma patient with no significant MOI
  2. Rapid secondary assessment—Unresponsive medical patient

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  1. Neck—
  2. Chest—
  3. Abdomen—
  4. Pelvis—
  5. Extremities—

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  1. Secondary assessment—Responsive medical patient

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  1. Completing the exam
  1. Reassessment
  2. Reassess the patient, watching closely for any changes in his condition (trending).
  3. When additional EMS providers arrive at the scene, give the responding EMTs a verbal report that includes the following.

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  1. Define the following terms:
  2. ABCs
  1. Brachial pulse:
  1. BP-DOC:
  1. Carotid pulse:
  1. Crepitus:
  1. Dorsalis Pedal pulse:
  1. Mechanism of Injury (MOI):
  1. OPQRST:
  1. Patient assessment:
  1. Primary Assessment:
  1. Rapid Secondary Assessment:
  1. Scene size-up:
  1. Trauma Patient:

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