Test Day
I took my EMT Basic Practical Exam today. Those who passed my EMT class went up to Abbott Ambulance District today to sit around for 5 hours and wait to be tested in a patient assessment and two skills.
In the assessment, the EMT is supposed to analyze the patient, identify the chief complaint or any life threats, and prepare the patient for transport to a hospital. I got a medical assessment. My patient (they use actors) was a 40 year old man with the complaint of shortness of breath. I checked his airway, breathing, and circulation, his vitals, and asked him about his symptoms, any allergies, medications he was taking, when the event started, if anything triggered it, if anything like this had happened before, did the pain move, what did the pain feel like, did anything make it better or worse, etc. I made my patient a rapid transport and finished the rest of my assessment in about 8 minutes.
I think I hit all the critical criteria: Put patient on oxygen, etc. but at the end my evaluator did say, don't forget to assess their skin to check if they are pail or sweaty. Did I miss something by forgetting that?
For my skills station, I had airway adjuncts and the long board. I know I hit every point on the airway station. I'm not so sure about the long board. I fumbled around with the straps quite a bit because I was not used to the type of belt used and the fact that we had always practiced with 5 belts, not 4. My other concern was that the evaluator asked about when manual stabilization of the head could be released. I said after the C-collar was put in place. He asked me this several times. Should I have said "When the head is secured to the board."? I checked and it wasn't listed under the critical fail points. However, excessive movement of the patient is a fail point. I wonder if he would see releasing stabilization as allowing too much movement of the patient?
I will know Monday...
In the assessment, the EMT is supposed to analyze the patient, identify the chief complaint or any life threats, and prepare the patient for transport to a hospital. I got a medical assessment. My patient (they use actors) was a 40 year old man with the complaint of shortness of breath. I checked his airway, breathing, and circulation, his vitals, and asked him about his symptoms, any allergies, medications he was taking, when the event started, if anything triggered it, if anything like this had happened before, did the pain move, what did the pain feel like, did anything make it better or worse, etc. I made my patient a rapid transport and finished the rest of my assessment in about 8 minutes.
I think I hit all the critical criteria: Put patient on oxygen, etc. but at the end my evaluator did say, don't forget to assess their skin to check if they are pail or sweaty. Did I miss something by forgetting that?
For my skills station, I had airway adjuncts and the long board. I know I hit every point on the airway station. I'm not so sure about the long board. I fumbled around with the straps quite a bit because I was not used to the type of belt used and the fact that we had always practiced with 5 belts, not 4. My other concern was that the evaluator asked about when manual stabilization of the head could be released. I said after the C-collar was put in place. He asked me this several times. Should I have said "When the head is secured to the board."? I checked and it wasn't listed under the critical fail points. However, excessive movement of the patient is a fail point. I wonder if he would see releasing stabilization as allowing too much movement of the patient?
I will know Monday...
posted by sejgirl at
8:25 PM
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