Youve studied, tested, practiced, cried, laughed, missed sleep, secretly wondered if you have a learning deficit, dreamed of it and now you are officially an EMT, wow awesome! Now, for the first 50 patients you respond to, listen to breath sounds regardless of the chief complaint. Then, write a descriptive assessment of this and go over it with the paramedic. I hope you only hear all healthy lung sounds. Why? Because for the rest of your career when you come across that patient with a small pneumothorax, you will be the one that found it! The other thing I would suggest during those first 50 patient responses is to mark the radial, brachials, carotids and pedal pulses with a small ‘X’. Why? Well you just performed a circulatory assessment and know more about your patient as far as how sick they are. What does the systolic pressure have to be in order to create these pulses? And…it is scary how many EMT’s (and some medics) that cannot find pulses. Practice these two skills and you are on your way to becoming THE best EMT you can be, trust me :) Read ‘Signs of Life’ to find more of these tips.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 22:37:48 +0000
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