Patient Assessment in Depth Flashcards
(35 cards)
What are the five main parts of patient assessment?
- Scene size up
- Primary assessment
- History taking
- Secondary assessment
- Reassessment
What questions help you determine if you require additional resources?
- Does the scene pose a threat to you, your patient, or others?
- How many patients are there?
- Do we have the resources to respond to their conditions?
What are the categories for gross LOC?
- Unconscious
- Conscious with an altered LOC
- Conscious with an unaltered LOC
What should you focus your initial assessment on of a patient who is unconscious?
Problems with airway, breathing, and circulation (critical life threats)
What is the AVPU scale and what does it stand for?
AVPU scale tests a patient’s responsiveness.
- Awake and alert
- Responsive to verbal Stimuli
- Responsive to pain
- Unresponsive
What is A&O x 4? Describe
Alert and oriented times 4:
- Name
- Place (do they know where they are)
- Time (day of the week, year, season)
- Event (what happened to you?)
What should you keep in mind while testing A&Ox4?
Take into account who you are interviewing. What is their standard capability? (ex. mental disability, elder, etc.)
What are the indications for spinal immobilization?
- Either blunt or penetrating trauma with any of the following:
- Pain or tenderness on palpation of the neck or spine
- Patient report of pain in neck or back
- Paralysis or neurologic complaint (numbness, tingling, partial paralysis of the legs or arms)
- Priapism (male patients) (a painful, tender, persistent erection of the penis) - Blunt trauma with any or the following:
- Altered mental status
- Intoxication
- Difficulty or inability to communicate - Distracting injury
What are the few general conditions that cause sudden death?
- airway obstruction
- respiratory failure
- respiratory arrest
- shock
- severe bleeding
- primary cardiac arrest
How should you open an airway if there is a potential for trauma?
Jaw-thrust maneuver
Signs of airway obstruction in an unconscious patient
- Obvious trauma, blood, or other obstruction
- Noisy breathing, such as snoring, bubbling, gurgling, crowing, stridor, or other abnormal sounds
- Extremely shallow or absent breathing
What are the signs of respiratory distress?
- Agitation, anxiety, restlessness
- Stridor, wheezing
- Accessory muscle use
- Tachypnea
- Mild tachycardia
- Nasal flaring
What are the signs of respiratory failure?
- Lethargy, difficult to rouse
- Tachypnea with periods of bradypnea or agonal respirations
- Inadequate chest rise/ poor excursion
- Bradycardia
- Diminished muscle tone
How long should a rapid exam take in the primary assessment?
60 to 90 seconds
for detection of life threats
What does DCAP-BTLS stand for?
- Deformities
- Contusions
- Abrasions
- Punctures
- Burns
- Tenderness
- Lacerations
- Swelling
What is included in the rapid exam?
Its like a trauma secondary exam, but fast, feeling for DCAP-BTLS and looking for life threats.
What patients are considered high priority and should be transported immediately?
- Unresponsive
- Poor general impression
- Difficulty breathing
- Uncontrolled bleeding
- Responsive but unable to follow commands
- Severe chest pain
- Pale skin or other signs or poor perfusion
- Complicated childbirth
- Severe pain in any area of the body
What is the golden hour?
The time during which treatment of shock or traumatic injuries is most critical and the potential for survival is best
Breakdown the golden hour
0-20 minute: Discovery of incident and activation of EMS
20-30 minute: The platinum 10 minutes; initial assessment, intervention, and packaging
30-60 minute: EMS transport and initial hospital stabilization
Other than sample and OPQRST, what should you document about patient?
- Date of the incident
- Patient’s age
- Patient’s gender
- Patient’s race
- Past medical history: medical problems, traumatic injuries, surgeries
- Patient’s current health status: diet, meds, drug use
What questions go with OPQRST?
Onset- What were you doing when the symptoms began?
Provocation- Does anything make the symptoms better or worse?
Quality- What does the symptoms feel like? Dull, sharp, crushing, tearing?
Radiation- Where do you feel the symptom? Does it move anywhere?
Severity- 0 to 10
Timing- Has the symptom been constant or does it come and go
What is inspection?
Inspection is simply looking at your patient for abnormalities.
What is palpation?
Describes the process of touching or feeling the patient for abnormalities.
What is auscultation?
The process of listening to sounds the body makes by using a stethoscope
