Assessment Flashcards
The first thing you do when arriving on the scene is…
Complete a scene assessment
List 6 key considerations when completing a scene assessment
- Hazards and Environment
- Mechanisms of Injury “MOI” and Chief Complaint
- Number of patients
- Additional Resources Required
- Forming a General Impression
- Donning PPE
What are you looking for when checking for hazards?
Things that can threaten your safety or that of bystanders or the patient.
Don’t put yourself at risk, if needed wait for help, additional personnel,
List 3 key things to do when you consider the MOI
LOOK AR THE WHOLE SCENE, look for clues to what happened such as as fallen ladder, drug paraphanalia
If there is a possible spinal injury approach in such a way they do not need to turn their head
ALWAYS…LOOK FOR MORE THAN ONE PATIENT the person screaming may get noticed first but there may be an unresponsive victim nearby
Ask BYSTANDERS for info as to what happened, any medications even to help keep the area free even help direct additional personnel to the scene if needed
Should you move a patient
NO
Unless it is to move them away from danger OR
If you need to move one person with minor injuries to get to someone with life threatening injuries
Forming a general impression includes
The chief complaint, injury or illness age and sex
What is the last thing you do before commencing Primary Assessment
Donning PPE… make sure you have the correct PPE that you will need
List the steps of the primary assessment
Chief complaint Level of responsiveness "LOR" Spinal Motion Restriction ABC's Pulse Oximetry " SpO2" Rapid Body Survey "RBS" Transport Decision Patient Positioning
What is the Chief Complaint?
The injury or condition the patient verbally tells you. If the patient is unresponsive the chief complaint is “unresponsive”
The patient is unresponsive and what Chief Complaint will you report?
Unresponsive
True or false the mechanism of injury and the chief complaint are the same thing?
FALSE. the mechanism of injury is NOT the chief complaint ( see page 82)
What are the four levels of Responsiveness or “LOR” ?
ALERT - eyes open able to verbalize
VERBAL - Patient responds to commands/questions
PAINFUL - Exhibits facial grimaces, flexing groaning withdrawl of body part
UNREPONSIVENE - patient makes no response
You arrive at an MVA and after competing the scene assessment you begin your primary assessment and find a patient who appears to be lapsing in and out of consciousness but they can answer direct questions what is her LOR
VERBAL
Why do you avoid pinching above the collarbone to try and stimulate a pain response
It could trigger a head turn which should be avoided and aggravate a spinal cord injury
Why might you pinch an unresponsive patient?
To help determine the level of consciousness