Question from a quiz in my class

[Katy]

my teacher told me there wasn't anything saying that the cause was diabetes or heart.
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You can't know that until you successfully evaluate the patient for those causes, you can't automatically rule them out because you weren't handed the info on a silver platter. But, I'm glad you learned something.

 

[Handsome Robb]

It was a multiple choice when I took the test I put medical trauma. But the correct answer was trauma when I asked why it wasn't both my teacher told me there wasn't anything saying that the cause was diabetes or heart.

Yay for NREMT prep and not actual teaching. No offense.

 

[Scott33]

It was a multiple choice when I took the test I put medical trauma. But the correct answer was trauma when I asked why it wasn't both my teacher told me there wasn't anything saying that the cause was diabetes or heart. But by posting this thread I know know that if I actually had this as a call that my answer on the test would have been correct if I did treat as a medical/trauma
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What do you mean when you say "treat as a trauma"?

 

[SHESCOOL]

I agree. You don't know if the fall was caused by the medical condition. You would have to further assess the patient

 

[rmabrey]

Yay for NREMT prep and not actual teaching. No offense.

^^^^^ this. There is the NREMT then there is the right way. You have to differentiate the two, especially if you do a lot of ride time (more than the ridiculous requirement)

 

[emergancyjunkie]

What do you mean when you say "treat as a trauma"?

The question stated that the patient had a deformity on the radial side of his right wrist. So the NREMT says that is a trauma call. But the patient also had a history of diabetes and multiple heart attacks. So when I answered the question i said it was both medical and trauma because of all the info I got from the question.

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[bigdogems]

Yay for NREMT prep and not actual teaching. No offense.

I think the instructor should have done more teaching to real world. But the tests do need to be geared towards how registry will be written. It really doesn't matter if you learn a ton of stuff in class but can never pass registry to get your state cert. Im not saying this is right but its how it is. Personally I thing National Registry needs a complete overhaul of their testing process. Their written doesn't measure knowledge. It measures test taking skills

 

[emergancyjunkie]

I think the instructor should have done more teaching to real world. But the tests do need to be geared towards how registry will be written. It really doesn't matter if you learn a ton of stuff in class but can never pass registry to get your state cert. Im not saying this is right but its how it is. Personally I thing National Registry needs a complete overhaul of their testing process. Their written doesn't measure knowledge. It measures test taking skills

I haven't taken it yet but from what I hear about it I agree

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[DesertMedic66]

My call in to the hospital would more then likely say trauma. Just because the patient has a medical history doesn't mean that was the cause of the fall, BUT it also could be the cause. I'm going to treat the trauma first and as I'm doing that I'm going to be assessing to see if there may be a medical reason to the fall.

Based off the limited info in the test question I would have said just trauma.

 

[d0nk3yk0n9]

I'd say that in a testing scenario, especially a multiple choice question, the best way to decide whether they want you to think of it as trauma or medical is to say to yourself, "What's the chief complaint likely to be?" In this case, the chief complaint is probably that the patient hurt his wrist when he fell, so it's a trauma.

In the real world, obviously, this distinction is useless and contrived, as many people have already said.

 

[Wes]

And this is but another outstanding example of what's wrong with EMS education and BLS "training" in particular.