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Emergency care and transport of the sick and injured textbook > Chapter 9-patient Assessment > Flashcards

Chapter 9-patient Assessment Flashcards

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Royal College: Emergency Medicine flashcards
1
Q

Name the components of a scene size up

A
  • ensure scene safety
  • determine MOI or NOI
  • take standard precautions
  • determine number of patient
  • consider additional/special resources
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2
Q

Name the components of the primary assessment

A
  • form a general impression
  • assess level of consciousness
  • ABC (see below)
  • assess the airway (identify and treat life threats)
  • assess breathing (identify and treat life threats)
  • assess circulation (identify and treat life threats)
  • perform primary assessment
  • determine of patient care and transport
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3
Q

Name the five steps in patient assessment

A
  1. Scene size up
  2. Primary assessment
  3. History taking
  4. Secondary assessment: (medical or trauma)
  5. Reassessment
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4
Q

List components of the history taking portion of a patient assessment

A

Investigate the chief complaint (history or present illness)
Obtain SAMPLE history

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5
Q

List components of secondary assessment: medical or trauma

A

Systematically assess patient

Secondary assessment and focused assessment, assess vital signs using the appropriate monitoring device

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6
Q

List the components of the reassessment portion of the patient assessment

A 
Repeat the primary assessment
Reassess vital signs
Reassess the chief complaint
Recheck interventions
Identify and treat changes in the patient's condition
Reassess the patient
* unstable patients: every five minutes
* stable patients: every 15 minutes
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7
Q

Symptom

A

A subjective condition that the patient feels and tells you about

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8
Q

Sign

A

And objective finding that you can observe or measure

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9
Q

Scene size up

A

your evaluation of the conditions in which you will be operating. This is what you focus on when you first approach a scene

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10
Q

Situational awareness

A

Paying attention to the conditions and people around you at all times and the potential risks these conditions or people pose

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11
Q

What do you do if a scene is unsafe to enter?

A

Do what you can to make it safe, or call for additional resources

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12
Q

Mechanism of injury (MOI)

A

The type of outside force, how long it was applied and where it was applied to.
The MOI can be used as a guide to help you focus your assessment

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13
Q

Nature of illness (NOI)

A

The general type of illness that a patient is experiencing

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14
Q

Chief complaint

A

The most serious thing the patient is concerned about, the reason EMS was activated

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15
Q

personal protective equipment (PPE)

A

Clothing or equipment that protects the wearer. Generally gloves and safety glasses are worn at all scenes

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16
Q

Standard precautions

A

Protective measures that have been recommended from the CDC (centers for disease control and prevention for use in dealing with objects, blood, body fluids, and other potential exposure risks or communicable disease

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17
Q

Incident command system

A

A flexible system implemented to manage a variety of emergency scenes

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18
Q

Triage

A

The process of sorting patients based on the severity of their conditions

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19
Q

What questions can you ask yourself to know whether to call for additional resources?

A
  • Does the scene pose a threat to you, your patients, or others?
  • how many patients are there?
  • do we have the resources to respond to their conditions?
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20
Q

Primary assessment

A

To identify and begin treatment of immediate or imminent life threats.
Identify LOC, and ABC (airway, breathing, circulation)

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21
Q

General impression

A

The general impression is formed to determine the priority of care and is the first part of your primary assessment. It includes noting things like age, sex, race, level of distress and overall appearance.
Overall visual assessment while approaching patient
Make sure to introduce yourself after and ask about the chief complaint once your at the patient

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22
Q

What are the theee categories to place patients in while determining loc

A
  • unconscious
  • conscious with an altered loc
  • consious with unaltered loc
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23
Q

Perfusion

A

The circulation of blood within an organ or tissue to provide necessary oxygen and nutrients and to remove waste

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24
Q

AVPU scale (assessing LOC)

A

A-awake and alert: watch the patients eyes as they track you, and there awareness of the situation

V-response to verbal stimuli: the patient is not alert and awake, and they don’t respond to normal voice, but they respond to loud yelling

P-response to painful stimuli: the patient doesn’t respond to questions, but the patient moans or twitches when you cause pain to them

U-unresponsive: the patient doesn’t respond to verbal or painful stimuli. Usually no cough or gag reflex and lack ability to protect their airway

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25
Q

Orientation

A

If a patient is alert and can respond to verbal stimuli, evaluate orientation. This tests patients mental status
*person (the patient is able to remember his or her name)
*place (the patient knows where they are
*time (the patient is able to tell you the year date and month
*event (the patient can describe what happened)
You note this as the amount of questions they get correct by saying “alert and oriented times n) for example, if someone knew three of these, you would say “alert and oriented times three”

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26
Q

Altered mental status

A

Any deviation from alert and oriented regarding person place time and event or from a patients normal baseline

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27
Q

Distracting injury

A

Any injury that distracts the patients attention from other injuries he or she may have, even if they are severe injuries

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28
Q

What are signs of airway obstruction in an unconscious patient?

A
  • obvious trauma, blood, or other obstruction
  • noisy breathing such as snoring, bubbling, gurgling, crowing, stridor, or other abnormal sounds
  • extremely shallow or absent breathing
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29
Q

Spontaneous respirations

A

A patient who is breathing without assistance is said to have spontaneous restorations

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30
Q

What are questions you can ask yourself as you assess a patient’s breathing?

A
  1. Is the patient breathing
  2. Is the patient breathing adequately?
  3. Is the patient hypoxic?
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31
Q

Shallow respirations

A

Little movement of the chest wall or poor chest excursion

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32
Q

Retractions

A

Indentations above the clavicles and the spaces In between ribs

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33
Q

Accessory muscles

A

Accessory muscles include the neck muscles, the chest pectoralis major muscles, and the abdominal muscles. Using accessory muscles is a sign of inadequate breathing

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34
Q

Nasal flaring

A

Flaring of the nostrils usually in pediatrics is a sign of inadequate breathing

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35
Q

Two to three word dyspnea

A

When a person can’t speak more than 2 to 3 words without having to pause to take a breath

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36
Q

Tripod position

A

A position where a patient is sitting and leaning forward on outstretched arms with the head and chin trust slightly forwards. This indicates that a patient is trying to increase airflow

37
Q

Sniffing position

A

Usually seen in children, the patient sits upright with the head and chin thrust slightly forwards and the patient appears to be sniffing. This shows that a patient is trying to increase airflow

38
Q

Labored breathing

A

Labored breathing is characterized by the patient’s position, concentration on breathing, and the increased effort and depth of each breath

39
Q

Pulse

A

The pressure wave that occurs as each heart beat creates surge in the blood circulating through the arteries

40
Q

Palpate

A

To feel

41
Q

What three things should you assess when you are looking at skin condition

A

Skin color, skin temperature, skin Moisture

42
Q

Conjunctiva

A

The delicate membrane lining of the eyelids, and it covers the exposed surface of the eye

43
Q

Cyanosis

A

A patient with insufficient air exchange and low levels of oxygen in the blood, the blood and vessels become blue, and the lips, mucous membranes, nail beds, and skin over the blood vessels appear blue or gray

44
Q

Jaundice

A

Liver disease or dysfunction may cause Jaundice, resulting in the patient’s skin or sclera turning yellow

45
Q

Sclera

A

Is normally the white portion of the eye and may show color changes even before skin color change is visible

46
Q

What is normal body temperature?

A

98.6°F

47
Q

Diaphoretic

A

When the skin is bathed in sweat, like if the patient is in shock, then the skin is described as a wet or diaphoretic

48
Q

Capillary refill

A

Is often evaluated in pediatric patients to assess the ability of the capillary system to perfuse the capillary system in the fingers and toes

49
Q

Hypothermia

A

Exposure to a cold environment, including frozen tissue (frostbite) and vasoconstriction

50
Q

Frostbite

A

Frozen tissue

51
Q

Vasoconstriction

A

Narrowing of a blood vessel

52
Q

Coagulate

A

To clot (for example, direct pressure stops the bleeding and helps the blood to coagulate)

53
Q

DCAP-BTLS

A

Mnemonic to help you remember deformities, contusions, abrasions, punctures, burns, tenderness, lacerations, and swelling

54
Q

Crepitus

A

The sound or feeling a fractured bone ends rubbing or grinding together

55
Q

Golden hour

A

Is the time during which treatment of shock or traumatic injuries is most critical and the potential for survival is the best

56
Q

History taking

A

Provides details about the patient’s chief complaint and account of the patient signs and symptoms

57
Q

What information should you document while history taking?

A
  • date of the incident
  • patient’s age, gender and race
  • past medical history, including any pertinent information about the patient’s condition, such as medical problems, traumatic injuries, and surgical procedures
  • patient’s current health status, including diet, medications, drug use, living environment and hazards, physician visits, and family history
58
Q

what’s the purpose of OPQRST

A

It’s a pneumonic for gathering additional information about a patient’s history of present illness and current symptoms

59
Q

OPQRST

A

Onset-what were you doing when the symptoms began?
Provocation. Does anything make the symptoms better or worse? How are you most comfortable?
Quality – what does the symptom feel like? Is it sharp, dull, crushing, tearing? Does it come in waves?
Region-where do you feel the symptom? Does it move anywhere?
Severity- on a scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate your symptoms?
Timing-has the symptom been constant or does it come and go? How long have you had the symptoms, when did it start?

60
Q

Pertinent negatives

A

The signs and symptoms that a patient does not have That would be expected from their chief complaint

61
Q

What is the Purpose of a SAMPLE history

A

A mnemonic used to help question patience to gather information from them

62
Q

SAMPLE

A

Signs and symptoms: what signs and symptoms occurred at the onset of the incident? Does the patient report pain?
Allergies,: is the patient allergic to any medication, food, or other substance? What reactions did the patient have to any of them? If the patient has no known allergies you should note it
Medications. What medication is the patient prescribed? What is the dosage? How’s the patient taking it in the last 12 hours? Recreational drugs?
Pertinent past medical history: does the patient have any history of medical, surgical, or trauma occurrences? Is the patient had a recent injury? Important family history that I should know?
Last oral intake. When did the patient last eat or drink? What did the patient eat or drink, and how much was consumed? Did the patient take any drugs or drink alcohol? Has there been any other oral intake in the last four hours?
Events leading up to the injury or illness: what are the key events that led up to this? What occurred between the onset of the incident in your arrival? What was the patient doing when the illness started? What was the patient doing with this injury happened?

63
Q

What are the three components to critical thinking

A

Gathering: gather information that involves finding facts to help your decision making seen management

evaluating: what the information gathered means
synthesizing: putting together the information that you have gathered and synthesizing it into a plan to manage the scene and care for the patient

64
Q

What do you do during a physical examination?

A
  • inspection-look at your patient for abnormalities
  • palpation- touching or feeling your patient for abnormalities
  • Auscultation- The process of listening to sounds the body makes by using a stethoscope
65
Q

Auscultate

A

To listen

66
Q

Focused assessment

A

Generally performed on patients who have sustained nine significant mechanism of injury’s or on responsive medical patients. Your assessment can focus on a particular body part that has been affected, such as abrasions to the elbow, or a particular body system that has been affected such is the cardiovascular system

67
Q

Wheezing

A

A high-pitched whistling sound that is most prominent on expiration

68
Q

Crackles

A

Wet, crackling breath sounds (usually on inspirations and expirations) indicate fluid in the lungs

69
Q

Rhonchi

A

Congested breath sounds may suggest the presence of mucus in the lungs. Expect to hear a little pitched, noisy sounds that are most prominent on expiration

70
Q

Stridor

A

May indicate that the patient has an airway obstruction in the neck or upper part of the chest. Expect to hear a crowing sound that is most prominent on inspiration

71
Q

Tachycardia

A

A pulse rate that is greater than 100 bpm

72
Q

Bradycardia

A

A pulse rate that is less than 60 bpm

73
Q

Blood pressure

A

The pressure of circulating blood against the walls of the arteries

74
Q

Systolic blood pressure

A

The increased pressure that is caused along the artery with each contraction of the heart

75
Q

Diastolic blood pressure

A

The pressure that remains in the arteries during the relaxing phase of the heart cycle

76
Q

What is the medical term for a Blood pressure cuff with a gauge

A

Sphygmomanometer

77
Q

Hypotension

A

When the blood pressure is lower than normal range

78
Q

Hypertension

A

When the blood pressure is higher than the normal range

79
Q

What is the mnemonic PEARRL and what is it used for

A 
Pupils
Equal
And
Round
Regular in size
React to LIGHT

This mnemonic is a useful guide in assessing the pupils

80
Q

Subcutaneous emphysema

A

air bubbles under the skin

81
Q

Paradoxical motion

A

when only one section of the chest rises on inspiration while another area of the chest Falls

82
Q

Pulse oximetry

A

Pulse oximetry an assessment tool used to evaluate the effectiveness of oxygenationp

83
Q

Metabolism

A

Metabolism refers to the chemical reactions that occur in the body or cells to maintain life

84
Q

Carbon dioxide (cO2)

A

The byproduct of aerobic cellular metabolism reflects the amount of oxygen being consumed during the process

85
Q

Capnography

A

Shows a graph that indicates out easily, how frequently, and how much the patient is exhaling carbon dioxide

86
Q

You are assessing a 72-year-old man with abdominal pain. The patient is sitting in a chair, he is conscious alert and calm. As you’re talking to the patient your partner discreetly direct your attention to a handgun, which is located on a nearby table. What should you do

A

Position yourself in between the patient and the gun and ask your partner to request law enforcement assist

87
Q

When approaching somebody who is complaining of Trumatic neck pain, what should you do

A

Ensure that the patient can see you approaching him or her

88
Q

An elderly patient has fallen and hit her head. Your initial care should focus on

A

Airway, breathing, and circulation

89
Q

You should expect that a patient is experiencing respiratory fail if he or she

A

Has BradyCardia and diminished muscle tone

Emergency care and transport of the sick and injured textbook (37 decks)

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