Patient Assesment

Assessing vital signs is an important EMT function. You will take vital signs on every patient you encounter. These vital signs are typically the first one's taken in the emergency situation and are often used as the baseline from which the medical team gauges changes in the patients condition. You will take several sets of vital signs to attempt to identify trends in the patients condition and if he is improving or deteriorating.

The six vital signs you will be taking are respiration's, pulse, skin, pupils, blood pressure, and pulse oximetry.

If the patient is stable you assess every 15 mins. For an unstable patient, you assess every 5 mins.

Obtaining history is important in determining the condition of the patient and what emergency care is necessary, especially in the medical patient.

Closed-ended questions are used in the trauma patient.
Open-ended questions are used for a medical patient.