Mar 29, 2024  
2022-2023 College Catalog 
    
2022-2023 College Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

EMT 222 - ALS Patient Assessment and Assessment Based Management

2 Credits, 3 Contact Hours
1.5 lecture periods 1.5 lab periods

Skills to take a proper history and perform an advanced physical assessment on an emergency patient, and communicate the findings to the patient and others. Includes the physical exam, integrative and on-going exams, communications and documentation. Also includes the implementation of a management plan for patients with common complaints and injuries, dispatch scenarios, scene size-up and forming impressions.

Information: Acceptance into the Paramedic  program is required before enrolling in this course.
  button image Prior Learning and link to PLA webpage

Course Learning Outcomes
  1. Perform an advanced physical assessment on an emergency patient.
  2. Perform integrative and on-going exams after treatment modalities have been administered,
  3. Communicate the findings to the patient and others health care providers
  4. Document the findings and your treatment.

Performance Objectives:
  1. Utilize the appropriate techniques to obtain a medical history from a patient, addressing age-specific considerations.
  2. Explain the significance of physical exam findings commonly found in emergency situations and address age-specific considerations.
  3. Integrate the principles of history taking and techniques of the physical exam to perform a patient assessment on an emergency patient.
  4. Apply a process of clinical decision making to use the assessment findings to help form a field impression.
  5. Identify an accepted format for the dissemination of patient information in verbal form, over the radio and in person.
  6. Document the essential elements of patient assessment, care, and transport, along with special considerations and operations.
  7. Demonstrate the ability to integrate your role and responsibilities by formulating a field impression and implementing simulated patient care following guidelines, protocols, and standing orders.
  8. Properly communicate, prepare for, and respond to an emergency based on the dispatch information.
  9. Perform a scene size-up, stage for safety, call for the necessary resources, and gain safe access to the patient(s).
  10. Form a generalized impression and make a transport decision based on the initial patient size-up.
  11. Utilize assessment findings to formulate a field impression and implement the treatment plan for the patient suffering from an illness and injury.
  12. Communicate and document the assessment and management of a patient suffering from an illness and injury.

Outline:
  1. Patient Assessment Introduction and the Focused History Assessment
    1. The flow of a patient exam and transport decision making
    2. Human growth and development
    3. Therapeutic communications
    4. The scene survey
    5. Obtaining a focused history involving specific age and developmental considerations, as well as utilizing historians, scene evidence, alert devices, documentation and advanced directives
    6. Forming a general field impression and developing and implementing a treatment plan for a patient based on the historical findings
  2. The Physical Exam
    1. The initial exam (primary and secondary)
    2. Age-specific initial vital signs
    3. The focused physical exam and secondary vital signs
    4. The on-going physical exam
    5. Medical emphasis in performing the physical exam
    6. Performing the physical exam on a trauma patient
    7. The integrative physical patient exam
  3. The Integrative and On-going Exam
    1. Preparatory activities
    2. Integrative history, initial, physical, and on-going exams
    3. Unexpected changes in patient condition
    4. Transport considerations
  4. Clinical Decision Making and Formulating a Field Impression
    1. The dispatch
    2. Special scene hazards and operations
    3. Infectious diseases and body-substance isolation
    4. The mechanism of illness/injury
    5. The focused history and physical findings
    6. The medical emergency
    7. The trauma patient
    8. Integration
  5. Communications
    1. The patient cycle, chain of survival and the importance of communication
    2. Communications equipment/systems
    3. Emergency medical dispatch
    4. Radio communications techniques, terminology and codes
    5. Biotelemetry
    6. The patient report
    7. Special considerations in communications
    8. Medical-legal considerations
  6. Documentation
    1. Purpose
    2. The patient report and format
    3. Attachments, amendments, and transfer
    4. Legal abbreviations, correct spelling, and legibility
    5. Special considerations and scene operations
    6. Medical-legal considerations
  7. Integration
    1. Current trends
    2. Changes
  8. Demonstration of Skills and Knowledge Competencies
    1. Proper communications
    2. Prepare the proper resources
    3. Prepare age-specific criteria involving anticipated patient care
  9. The Scene Size-up
    1. Call for and utilize the proper resources
    2. Approach and safely gain access to the patient with the proper equipment
  10. Forming a Generalized Impression
    1. Determine patient stability
    2. Make a transport decision
  11. Field Impression and Treatment Implementation
    1. Formulate a field impression
    2. Implement a treatment plan based on the mechanism(s) of illness and injury
  12. Assessment and Management of Patient Care
    1. Communication
    2. Documentation