It is after midnight and you are dispatched to "laceration to the arm" you arrive to find a young man who tells you he was cut. you notice that his bleeding is controlled, and his vital signs are within acceptable ranges.As you apply dressing to his wound, another dispatch comes over radio for " unconscious assault victim, police officers on the scene." you are one block away. what do you do?
I found the question difficult as the student is in Palestine (the country)...the state EMS laws don't apply outside of the US.....and US nurses are not usually outside of the hospital setting working the streets.
Agreed -- my answer was as a 17 year practicing U.S. paramedic
wonder why an emergency nurse in Palestine would be studying from a U.S. paramedic text?
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Agreed -- my answer was as a 17 year practicing U.S. paramedic
wonder why an emergency nurse in Palestine would be studying from a U.S. paramedic text?
Because it's available...... I think the questions are made up by the instructors....in Europe they specialize in school...she indicated that she was specializing in EMERGENCY NURSING and she lives in Palestine. Triage and street medicine is probably the norm for them.
Here in the US, you wouldn't leave your first patient until his needs have been met completely, including turning over care to a facility who can continue his care.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Nurses in the triage areas triage ALL the time. Those nurses decide in what order according to acuity these patients are seen an frequently take vitals apply simple drsg and move on to the next patient. Patients are triaged according to acuity. The stable wait the acute get seen.
If this was a triage situation in the ED the triage nurse would have the patient inn the triage office....a family comes rushing to the window that a patient is unconscious in the car. You apply a simple drsg to the stable superficial laceration to finish a more thorough triage later if not already done.......and respond to the acute situation in the parking lot.
That is triage in Emergency medicine......http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/systems/hospital/esi/esihandbk.pdf
This situation is different....this person is asking for information outside of the US. They are in nursing school specializing in emergency medicine. Nurses in the US specialize after school and commonly do not have responsibilities in the streets of the city.
Your response would also be different in a mass causality situation which I am sure is more frequent in Palestine than here in the US.
Frequently in these situations the walking wounded are released from the scene to seek ambulatory care for resources for the more serious/critical injured is needed......http://www.cdc.gov/fieldtriage/pdf/triage%20scheme-a.pdf
Again these are protocols for the US with US laws, response teams, and resources.
I would think they would send someone else to work on the second patient. But agreed it sounds like an EMS dispatch situation more than anything. EMS doesn't leave a patient to go to another patient...communications (dispatch) just sends another close by unit. Wow...sorry they seem to make this confusing by using a US book and not even going by US protocols. HECK...I'm confused and I'm out of school. Welcome to AN
203bravo, MSN, APRN
1,213 Posts
Agreed -- my answer was as a 17 year practicing U.S. paramedic
wonder why an emergency nurse in Palestine would be studying from a U.S. paramedic text?