Patient Assessment and Triage Flashcards
7 cards from real AEMCA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Patient Assessment and Triage flashcards as text
Which of the following best describes the purpose of the scene size-up in patient assessment?
Answer: Identify hazards, determine mechanism of injury, and estimate number of patients
The scene size-up establishes scene safety, identifies the mechanism of injury or nature of illness, and determines how many patients require care.
A patient is alert and oriented to person, place, and time but not to event. Using the AVPU scale, this patient would be classified as:
Answer: Alert (A)
A patient who is alert and oriented, even partially, is classified as 'A' (Alert) on the AVPU scale.
In mass casualty triage, a patient with a radial pulse, normal respirations, and who can follow commands should be tagged:
Answer: Delayed (Yellow)
A patient with a radial pulse present, normal respirations, and ability to follow commands in START triage is classified as Delayed (Yellow).
When assessing skin color, temperature, and condition (CTC) in a patient, pale, cool, and diaphoretic skin most likely indicates:
Answer: Shock or hypoperfusion
Pale, cool, diaphoretic skin is the classic presentation of sympathetic activation in shock, indicating hypoperfusion.
The OPQRST mnemonic is used during patient assessment primarily to:
Answer: Characterize a patient's chief complaint, especially pain
OPQRST (Onset, Provocation, Quality, Radiation, Severity, Time) is used to fully characterize the patient's pain or chief complaint.
During a focused assessment of a patient complaining of chest pain, the AEMCA should evaluate for paradoxical chest wall movement, which indicates:
Answer: Flail chest from multiple rib fractures
Paradoxical movement (inward motion during inhalation) of a chest wall segment indicates a flail chest caused by multiple consecutive rib fractures.
When documenting a patient's mental status using the AVPU scale in the field, 'V' indicates the patient:
Answer: Responds only to verbal stimulation
'V' on the AVPU scale means the patient responds to verbal stimulation but is not spontaneously alert.