Special Populations & Pediatric Care Flashcards
6 cards from real NREMT practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 Special Populations & Pediatric Care flashcards as text
An elderly patient is taking warfarin (Coumadin) and sustains a minor head injury in a fall. The EMT's assessment should account for which specific risk?
Answer: Warfarin anticoagulation significantly increases the risk of intracranial hemorrhage even from minor head trauma
Anticoagulant therapy (warfarin, NOACs) significantly increases intracranial hemorrhage risk from head trauma. Even seemingly minor impacts can cause serious bleeding in anticoagulated patients. A low threshold for transport and CT imaging is essential.
A 70-year-old patient presents with a fever of 103°F, confusion, and flank pain. The EMT should suspect:
Answer: Urosepsis from urinary tract infection
Fever, altered mental status, and flank pain (costovertebral angle tenderness) in an elderly patient is a classic presentation of urosepsis — bacterial infection originating in the urinary tract that has spread systemically. This is a life-threatening emergency.
Which of the following is a unique consideration when providing care to a patient who is pregnant?
Answer: Medications may affect both the mother and fetus, and physiological changes alter normal vital sign ranges
Pregnancy causes significant physiological changes: heart rate increases, blood pressure may decrease, and plasma volume expands. Normal vital sign ranges are different, and medications administered to the mother cross the placenta and affect the fetus.
A patient who is visually impaired is being transported to the hospital. Which accommodation demonstrates best practice?
Answer: Verbally describe all procedures before performing them and narrate the environment and what is happening during transport
Visually impaired patients rely on verbal information to understand their environment and what is happening to them. Narrating procedures, findings, and the transport process reduces anxiety and builds trust.
A 75-year-old nursing home patient presents with altered mental status. The staff reports this is a change from their baseline. Which of the following is the most common and important consideration?
Answer: Acute change in mental status in elderly patients is often the only presenting sign of a serious underlying illness
In elderly patients, acute mental status change is frequently the only sign of serious conditions like sepsis, MI, stroke, or medication toxicity. It should never be attributed to 'just being old' and always warrants thorough evaluation.
Which of the following describes a key difference in pain assessment for pediatric patients compared to adults?
Answer: Pediatric patients may underreport pain due to fear, unfamiliar environment, or developmental stage; age-appropriate pain scales (FLACC, Wong-Baker) should be used
Children's pain assessment requires age-appropriate tools. Preverbal and young children cannot reliably use adult numeric scales — the FLACC scale (Faces, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability) and Wong-Baker Faces scale are validated for pediatric pain assessment.