What to study?

T

ThatGuy559

Forum Ride Along
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Hey guys first post here. Forgive me if I'm lacking anything.

I started my EMT course about 3 weeks ago. Were using the Brady textbook. I started off making flashcards for anything I thought was important. Then I ask my instructor and he said I should just do the "key terms". Is there a happy medium between the two? My method had me studying a lot of stuff I probably didn't need to know and just knowing the key terms could leave me lacking.

Pretty much I want to spend my time studying what matters and leave the fluff behind. Any help would be awesome!
 
What are you considering fluff? For registry, most anything is fair game. Also, wouldn't you want to learn as much of it as possible, considering that you will, you know, actually be using the knowledge on real people...
 
What is fluff? Anything that wouldn't be on the registry. Are you saying an EMT needs to remember everything in a 1500 page textbook to pass the registry and be knowledgeable is the field?

An example something I would assume to be fluff (but I don't want to run on my assumptions, that's why I'm here asking) would be "The Emergency Medical Services Act of 1973" and all the other documents in the first chapter. I want to know as much as possible but with the overload of information in a textbook this large I can't remember everything so I need to know what information is a must and what isn't.
 
I apologize, I should have clarified. If it pertains to patient care, learn it. It's EMT-Basic. The material is not that difficult.
 
No worries and yeah that makes sense. To be honest even though its not difficult to UNDERSTAND the information. I have a hard time REMEMBERING all the information. Which means I have to pick and choose what I can spend time memorizing.
 
The "DOT objectives" are what you're tested on. They're listed at the beginning or end of each chapter. If you can answer the questions there, you'll have the stuff you need.
 
Memorize normal vital sign ranges for all ages, if you don't know these you are going to struggle with scenario questions.

Memorize the signs and symptoms and treatment for pretty much every medical and trauma emergency in the book, from Cardiac tamponade and pneumothorax to COPD, Head and spinal trauma, to cardiac emergencies and CVA to spider bites and anaphylaxis to hypothermia and hyperthermia to ectopic pregnancy, eclampsia and diabetic emergencies and on and on.

Know your BLS CPR/AED and airway stuff inside and out, because you will see plenty of it on the exam. Know when its appropriate to bag a patient and when supplemental O2 will suffice, and when airway adjuncts and advanced airways are called for.

If anything can be considered fluff, its probably the well being of the EMT stuff, EMS history, and maybe some operations, communications and documentation and ALS assist stuff in the book, at least from the standpoint of the NREMT exam. Not that you wont see any questions on those either. Operations and documentation are more important when you actually work as an EMT.

Memorize the rule of nines, and it wouldn't hurt to memorize APGAR and GCS as well.

You should also know cardiac and respiratory A&P inside and out, and A&P terms like proximal and distal, ventral and dorsal etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top