Vital Vocabulary Flashcards
Advanced EMT (AEMT)
An individual who has training in specific aspects of advanced life support, such as intravenous therapy, and the administration of certain emergency medications.
Advanced Life Support (ALS)
Advanced lifesaving procedures, some of which are now being provided by the EMT.
Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
Comprehensive legislation that is designed to protect people with disabilities against discrimination.
Automated External Defibrillator (AED)
A device that detects treatable, life-threatening cardiac dysrhythmias (ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia) and delivers the appropriate electrical shock to the patient.
Certification
A process in which a person, an institution, or a program is evaluated and recognized as meeting certain predetermined standards to provide safe and ethical care.
Community Paramedicine
A health care model in which experienced paramedics receive advanced training to equip them to provide additional services in the prehospital environment, such as heal evaluations, monitoring of chronic illnesses or conditions, and patient advocacy.
Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)
A system of internal and external reviews and audits of all aspects of an EMS system.
Circular System: Plan, Do, Study, Act
Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD)
A system that assists dispatchers in selecting appropriate units to respond to a particular call for assistance and provides callers with vital instructions until the arrival of EMS crews.
Emergency Medical Responder (EMR)
The first trained professional, such as a police officer, firefighter, lifeguard, or other rescuer, to arrive at the scene of an emergency to provide initial medical assistance.
Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
A multidisciplinary system that represents the combined efforts of several professionals and agencies to provide prehospital emergency care to the sick and injured.
Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)
An individual who has training in basic life support, including automated external defibrillation, use of a definitive airway adjunct, and assisting patients with certain medications.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Federal legislation passed in 1996. Its main effect in EMS is in limiting availability of patients’ health care information and penalizing violations of patient privacy.
Intravenous (IV) Therapy
The delivery of medication directly into a vein.
Licensure
The process whereby a competent authority, usually the state, allows people to perform a regulated act.
Medical Control
Physician instructions given directly by radio or cell phone (online/direct) or indirectly by protocol/guidelines (off-line/indirect), as authorized by the medical director of the service program.
Medical Director
The physician who authorizes or delegates to the EMT the authority to provide medical care in the field.
Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH)
A method of delivering health care which involves providing health care within the community rather than at a physician’s office or hospital.
National EMS Scope of Practice Model
A document created by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that outlines the skills performed by various EMS Providers.
Paramedic
An individual who has extensive training in advanced life support, including endotracheal intubation, emergency pharmacology, cardiac monitoring, and other advanced assessment and treatment skills.
Primary Prevention
Efforts to prevent an injury or illness from happening.
Primary Service Area (PSA)
The designated area in which the EMS agency is responsible for the provision of prehospital emergency care and transportation to the hospital.
Public Safety Access Point
A call center, staffed by trained personnel who are responsible for managing requests for police, fire, and ambulance services.
Quality Control
The responsibility of the medical director to ensure the appropriate medical care standards are met by EMTs on each call.
Secondary Prevention
Efforts to limit the effects of an injury or illness that you cannot completely prevent.
Acute Stress Reaction
Reactions to stress that occur during a stressful situation.
Airborne Transmission
The spread of an organism via droplets or dust.
Bloodborne Pathogens
Pathogenic microorganisms that are present in human blood and can cause disease in humans. These pathogens include, but are not limited to, hepatitis B virus and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
The primary federal agency that conducts and supports public health activities in the United States. The CDC is part of the US department of health and human services.
Communicable Disease
A disease that can be spread from one person or species to another.
Concealment
The use of objects to limit a person’s visibility of you.
Contamination
The presence of infectious organisms on or in objects such as dressings, water, food, needles, wounds, or a patient’s body.
Cover
The tactical use of an impenetrable barrier for protection.
Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM)
A process that confronts the responses to critical incidents and defuses them, directing the emergency services personnel toward physical and emotional equilibrium.
Cumulative Stress Reactions
Prolonged or excessive stress.
Delayed Stress Reactions
Reactions to stress that occur after a stressful situation.
Designated Officer
The individual in the department who is charged with the responsibility of managing exposures and infection control issues.
Direct Contact
Exposire or transmission of a communicable disease from one person to another by physical contact.
Exposure
A situation in which a person has had contact with blood, body fluids, tissues, or airborne particles in a manner that suggests disease transmission may occur.
Foodborne transmission
The contamination of food or water with an organism that can cause disease.
General Adaptation Syndrome
The body’s response to stress that begins with an alarm response, followed by a stage of reaction and resistance , and then recovery or, if the stress is prolonged, exhaustion.
Hepatitis
Inflammatory of the liver, usually caused by a viral infection, that causes fever, loss of appetite, jaundice, fatigue, and altered liver function.
Host
The organism or individual that is attacked by the infecting agent.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is caused by HIV, which damages the cells in the body’s immune system so that the body is unable to fight infection and certain cancers.
Immune
The body’s ability to protect itself from acquiring a disease.
Indirect contact
Exposure or transmission of disease from one person to another by contact with a contaminated object.
Infection
THe abnormal invasion of a host or hose tissues by organisms such as bacteria, viruses, or parasites, with or without signs or symptoms of disease.
Infection Control
Procedures to reduce transmission of infection among patients and health care personnel.
Infectious Disease
A medical condition cause by the growth and spread of small, harmful organisms within the body.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
The federal regulatory compliance agency that develops, publishes, and enforces guidelines concerning safety in the workplace.
Pathogen
A microorganism that is capable of causing disease in a susceptible host.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Protective equipment that blocks exposure to a pathogen or a hazardous material.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
A delayed stress reaction to a prior incident. Often the result of one or more unresolved issues concerning the incident, and may relate to an incident that involved physical harm or the threat or physical harm.
Transmission
The way in which an infectious disease is spread: contact, airborne, by vehicles, or by vectors.
Standard Precautions
Protective measures that have traditionally been developed by the CDC for use in dealing with objects, blood, body fluids, and other potential exposure risks of communicable diseases.
Vector-Borne Transmission
The use of an animal to spread an organism from one person or place to another.
Auscultate
To listen with a stethoscope
Palpate
To feel
Bradypnea
Respiratory rate < normal
Tachypnea
Respiratory rate > normal
Abandonment
Unilateral termination of care by the EMT without the patient’s consent and without making provisions for transferring care to another medical professional with the skills and training necessary to meet the needs of the patient.
Advance Directive
Written documentation that specifies medical treatment for a competent patient should the patient become unable to make decisions; also called a living will or health care directive.
Applied Ethics
The manner in which principles of ethics are incorporated into professional conduct.
Assault
Unlawfully placing a patient in fear of bodily harm.
Battery
Unlawfully touching a patient or providing emergency care without consent.
Bioethics
The study of ethics related to issues that arise in health care.
Breach of confidentiality
Disclosure of information without proper authorization.
Certification
A process by which a person, an institution, or a program is evaluated and recognized as meeting certain predetermined standards
Compensatory Damages
Damages awarded in a civil lawsuit that are intended to restore the plaintiff to the same condition that he or she was in prior to the incident.
Competent
Able to make rational decisions about personal well-being.
Consent
Permission to render care.
Contributory Negligence
A legal defense that may be raised when the defendant feels that the conduct of the plaintiff somehow contributed to any injuries or damages that were sustained by the plaintiff.
Credentialing
An established process to determine the qualifications necessary to be allowed to practice a particular profession, or to function as an organization.
Decision-making capacity
Ability to understand and process information and make a choice regarding appropriate medical care.
Defamation
The communication of false information about a person that is damaging to that person’s reputation or standing in the community.
Dependent lividity
Blood settling to the lowest point of the body, causing discoloration of the skin; a definitive sign of death.
Depositions
Oral questions asked of parties and witnesses under oath.
Discovery
The phase of a civil lawsuit where the plaintiff and defense obtain information from each other that will enable the attorneys to have a better understanding of the case and which will assist in negotiating a possible settlement or in preparing for trial. Discovery includes depositions, interrogatories, and demands for production of records.
DNR Order
Do not resuscitate Order. Written documentation by a physician giving permission to medical personnel not to attempt resuscitation in the event of cardiac arrest.
Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
A type of advance directive executed by a competent adult that appoints another individual to make medical treatment decisions on his or her behalf, in the event that the person making the appointment loses decision-making capacity.
Duty to Act
A medicolegal term relating to certain personnel who either by statute or by function have a responsibility to provide care.
Emancipated Minors
A person who is under the legal age in a given state by, because of other circumstances, is legally considered an adult.
Emergency
A serious situation, such as injury or illness that threatens the life or welfate of a person or group of people and requires immediate intervention.
Emergency Doctrine
The principle of law that permits a health care provider to treat a patient in an emergency situation when the patient is incapable of granting consent because of an altered level of consciousness, disability, the effects of drugs or alcohol, or the patient’s age.
Emergency medical care
Immediate care or treatment.
Ethics
The philosophy of right and wrong, of moral duties, and of ideal professional behavior.
Expressed consent
A type of consent in which a patient gives verbal or nonverbal authorization for provision of care or transport.
False Imprisonment
The confinement of a person without legal authority or the person’s consent.
Forcible Restraint
The act of physically preventing an individual from initiating any physical action.
Good Samaritan Laws
Statutory provisions enacted by many states to protect citizens from liability for errors and omissions in giving good faith emergency medical care, unless there is wanton, gross, or willful negligence.
Governmental Immunity
Legal doctrine that can protect an EMS provider from being sued or which may limit the amount of the monetary judgment that the plaintiff may recover; generally applies only to EMS systems that are operated by municipalities or other governmental entities.
Gross Negligence
Conduct that constitutes a willful or reckless disregard for a duty or standard of care.
Health Care Directive
A written document that specifies medical treatment for a competent patient, should he or she become unable to make decisions. Also known as an advance directive or living will.
Health Care Proxies
A type of advance directive executed by a competent adult that appoints another individual to make medical treatment decisions on his or her behalf in the event that the person making the appointment loses decisions making capacity. Also known as a durable power of attorney for healthcare.
Implied Consent
A type of consent in which a patient who is unable to give consent is given treatment under the legal assumption that he or she would want treatment.
Informed Consent
Permission for treatment given by a competent patient after the potential risks, benefits, and alternatives to treatment have been explained.
In loco parentis
Refers to the legal responsibility of a person or organization to take on some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent.