Patient Assesment Trauma

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JohnH

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Hello everyone,

I took my practical exam yesterday. Just got a few questions about the trauma assessment. I was under the impression that everything was to be voice treated. They even told me in my class that everything will be voice treated and that we would not have to back board. Anyway I walk into the station and find a lot of equipment including the backboard. I ask the examiner if I could voice back boarding and he told me to do it as in the field. The 2 other emts I had had no idea what they were doing, I instructed them to backboard, so we did it but one of the emts did not get a good grip and totally let go during the boarding and the manikin's spine was compromised. So I continue with my assessment and at the end my 2nd vitals were resp 44, a very low BP, and a HR of like 120. So at that point I knew I failed because of the compromised spine. After the station I went to the main coordinator and told her how one of the emts let go and she made a note of that, so hopefully I did not fail. I am just wondering, did anyone have to physically do all treatment during the trauma assessment? I was under the impression that it would all be voiced.

Thanks
 
Was is just the trauma station ? or a trauma/c-spine station ? If it was only the trauma station, the block "Consider the need for spinal immobilization" is the only graded criteria for that. I voiced it for the NREMT. Good luck man..
 
It was just the trauma station. Say I did fail, is there a set limit of how many times I can retake the station?
 
I think you get 1 retest for that station maybe 2. Was this basic or medic trauma assessment? When I did my basic practical if you failed the station you could retest that day.
 
I believe in the instructions the tester says "assume your partners are carrying out all instructions properly," or something of that nature so you shouldn't be penalized for their mistakes. When I tested, I was allowed to voice spinal immobilzation. If for some reason you did fail, you are allowed 2 re-tests per station, up to 3 stations. If you have to retest try saying "can I consider it done?" when you need to immobilize, that's what I was taught.
 
For mine it was a trauma assessment/backboarding. But we didn't really have to treat anything. It was just do the full assessment (you find nothing). Then for vitals we just had to say "my partner is getting a set of vitals and SAMPLE and OPQRST" (no actual numbers were handed out for vitals and no info was given for SAMPLE and OPQRST). Then just roll them on the board strap em down and recheck a couple of things and your done.

I don't see you failing from your EMT partner dropping the backboard. There is nothing you really could have done to prevent that.

Hmmm the amount of re test attempts seems to be different lol. We were only given 1 other chance to make up a station and pass. And the evaluators just read a paragraph of info before you started then they had to remain silent. You could not ask any questions or get any kind of hints.
 
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firefite said:
For mine it was a trauma assessment/backboarding. But we didn't really have to treat anything. It was just do the full assessment (you find nothing). Then for vitals we just had to say "my partner is getting a set of vitals and SAMPLE and OPQRST" (no actual numbers were handed out for vitals and no info was given for SAMPLE and OPQRST). Then just roll them on the board strap em down and recheck a couple of things and your done.

I don't see you failing from your EMT partner dropping the backboard. There is nothing you really could have done to prevent that.

Hmmm the amount of re test attempts seems to be different lol. We were only given 1 other chance to make up a station and pass. And the evaluators just read a paragraph of info before you started then they had to remain silent. You could not ask any questions or get any kind of hints.
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You couldn't ask any questions about the patient?
 
Tommerag said:
You couldn't ask any questions about the patient?
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You could but the evaluators would just stare at you blankly and not say anything.
 
That doesn't seem like a very productive test of competency.
 
Tommerag said:
That doesn't seem like a very productive test of competency.
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It was just focused only on trauma assessment and C-spine. There were no injuries on the "patient" so that means nothing to treat.
 
firefite said:
It was just focused only on trauma assessment and C-spine. There were no injuries on the "patient" so that means nothing to treat.
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Like I said, doesn't seem like a very productive test of knowledge of being able to adapt your assessment as you find things wrong.
 
Tommerag said:
Like I said, doesn't seem like a very productive test of knowledge of being able to adapt your assessment as you find things wrong.
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Like I said lol, it wasn't about trying to adapt your assessment to what you may or may not find. If you don't know how to do a trauma assessment then how would you be able to find what may be wrong? This was a test about what all the trauma assessment includes "muscle memory". For training there was always something wrong. For testing purposes it was just to make sure you know how to do a trauma assessment.
 
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