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Cheat Sheet

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This is a quick reference guide over skills, prodedures, medications, and assesment that a EMT is capable of doing.

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You have to remember that not everyone is a medical professional so go off of what you are given in regards to signs, symptoms, and vitals

Assessment​

The assessment is something that can be done as you are walking up on a scene by taking in the initial patient presentation. Everyone has heard of the ABCs in EMS and assessing a patient's ABCs you don't even have to touch them.

Airway: When you walk up to a patient and start talking to them, if they are conscious and see what is going on and what the problem is, and if they talk back to you or are having a hard time talking in general you know there is an airway problem. If they are unconscious, it’s simple to just RP check the patient’s airway.

Breathing: When assessing someone's breathing you can also easily do this by talking to them and usually by the way they are talking you can adequately tell if they are breathing ok or not.

Circulation: Circulation is essentially the presentation of the patient. Do they look pale? What’s their temperature? What circulation means is the patient’s blood going throughout their body adequately.

When you walk up to a patient and start talking to them, if they are conscious see what is going on and what the problem is, and if they talk back to you or are having a hard time talking in general you then know there is an airway problem. If they are unconscious, it's simple to just RP check the patient's airway. If they are responding back to you, then you know they are breathing as well.

Circulation is essentially the presentation of the patient. What circulation means is the patient's blood going through their body adequately

Do they look pale? - What's their temperature?

Patient's LOC​

The second thing to determine is the patients level of consciousness or LOC. If the ABC's don't show an immediate life threat then the LOC can help with solving the medical mystery or at least give clues to the severity of injuries. This can usually help determine the severity of patients overall. This is done by using the AVPU scale

  • Alert: patients are patients that are awake and able to communicate with you. These patients can still have severe injuries that are life threatening but due to shock or adrenaline have yet to go unconscious or have a decrease in LOC. This category is subdivided by orientation. To determine this ask the patient basic questions: Who are you? Do you know where you are? Can you tell me what happened? And also the "with it" questions, which are used to determine how the patients reasoning is affected. Those questions are usually one of the following: How many quarters are in a dollar and fifty cents? (6) What kind of Cat or Dog is Minnie Mouse (Subjective answer but accept anything that isn't dog or cat related)? What city are we in? (Los Santos...)

  • Verbal: This patient only responds to verbal stimuli. If you say their name or attempt to get their attention via speaking they may turn to you and open their eyes but that's about it.

  • Pain: If the patient doesn't respond to verbal stimulation then a patient stimulation is needed. This comes in three waves: First attempt to use light pain (pinch earlobe or use a finger tip to poke them), then use moderate pressure (pinch the pressure point located between the shoulder and neck), and then finally the severe stimulus is to be used. To perform this task make a fist and allow one knuckle to rise above the rest, rub that knuckle vigorously up and down the patient's sternum a couple of times. This is painful and will look harsh to bystanders so use discrimination. The patient should react to one of these stimuli by either moving away from pain, groaning, or attempting to swat the source of pain. Should the patient wake up and verbal reassess LOC.

  • Unresponsive: The patient does not respond to any stimuli. Begin immediate efforts to determine the cause of this (Respiratory/Cardiac Arrest, Severe Injury, Blood Sugar Emergency, Temperature Emergency (Hypo/Hyperthermia, Fever, etc..) ). You may not be able to determine the cause. However immediate transport back to home base is always the best treatment as our role is not to cure but to attempt to stabilize in route to the highest level of care.

The next thing you should do when you get to a patient is get a baseline set of vitals, because depending on what is wrong this will dictate what you do going forward. This can be done by hooking the patient up to a monitor or getting a manual set. Most important part of patient assessment is talking to your patient. A lot of information that will help determine what is wrong with them can be gained from just talking to them. When at a patient you may not always receive accurate info, and that is okay because not everyone is a medical professional or has the knowledge needed for anything in the medical field.

Authorized Equipment​

Glossary for Medications:

  • [P] - Primary Medication - prioritized medication before secondary medication.
  • [S] - Secondary Medication - used as an alternative to primary medication due to allergies, conflicting medications, etc.
  • IM - Intramuscular - Via the muscle tissue.
  • IV - Intravenous - Via the vein.
  • IO - Intraosseous - Via the bone marrow.
  • IN - Intranasal - Via the nasal entrance

Airway/Pulmonary​

  • Bag-Valve-Mask (BVM) - mask which can be operated without an oxygen flow from a tank but can be connected in situations which require it. This method is commonly used in situations where there is oral access available for quick administration and as an alternative for ‘breath’ during respiratory arrest or immediate respiratory failure.
  • Non-Rebreather Mask - mask which is specifically used to supply oxygen to the patient from an existing oxygen source (such as an on-board oxygen tank or portable oxygen tank).
  • Portable Suction Apparatus - used to remove fluids from areas to which (E.g. blood) may be flooding a site or accessway (E.g. Throat filled with saliva or throat which may cause obstruction to the airway system).
  • Pulse Oximeter - used to detect and read the oxygen saturation levels of a person.
  • Ventilator - used by paramedics to mechanically move air into the lungs of a patient who is not breathing, typically used in conjunction with tracheostomy procedures as well as intubation.
  • Stethoscope - used to listen to the breathing sounds of the lungs, and can also be used to listen to specific heart sounds for cardiac purposes.

Medications & Fluids​

Medication​

  • Activated Charcoal (Oral - Bottled Liquid) - used to treat orally ingested poisons & alcohol poisoning.
  • Aspirin [S] (Oral - 300 mg per tablet) - an oral medication used to reduce pain, inflammation and fevers.
  • Epinephrine 1;10,000 [P] (Intravenous - 0.5 - 1.0 mg per dose) - used to treat cardiac arrest.
  • Lactated Ringers (Intravenous - 500 ml IV-Drip) - used commonly for fluid restoration with patients suffering from traumatic burns or burns in general, and in patients who are generally dehydrated.
  • Insulin (Intramuscular - Pre-Filled Auto-Injector) - used to treat type-1 diabetic situations where a diabetic patient has not taken their diabetes-based medication.
  • Narcan (Intranasal) - used to treat respiratory depression caused by overdosing in relation to opioid usage.
  • Nitroglycerin (GTN (Glyceryl Trinitrate) - Sublingual) - used to treat chest pains, and heart-attacks.
  • Oral Glucose (Oral) - used to treat diabetic patients by raising their blood sugar levels.
  • Saline Fluid (Intravenous - 500 ml 5% Solution IV-Drip) - used commonly for fluid restoration with patients, as well for rehydration efforts in a dehydrated individual, or individuals facing mineral deficiencies and patients who have narcotics/drugs in their systems.
  • Versed (Midazolam) (Intramuscular - 2 - 5 mg per dose) - used for seizing patients when an IV route can’t be established, and can also be used post-intubation where the patient bucks the tube, used for hypothermic patients to reduce shivering.
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ECG 12-Lead Lifepak 15 Usage - To begin usage of the Lifepak, Cut the patients shirt off, connect all 12 leads to the patients body, a diagram will be below, Check the Lifepak, and enable the built-in defibulator. It can shock a patient up to 360J(oules) for resuscitation or pace-maker usage in extreme arrhythmia situations (bradyarrhythmia or tachyarrhythmia). Once turned on, take the AED paddles out of the side pockets and put both hot sides together. This will allow the system to charge up, Set paddles on the patient's chest and click once. It will shock the patient one, if no