Blog

Your partner reports that he has found some small areas of bruising to the abdomen of a patient who takes insulin. He is puzzled by the finding. Which response would be most appropriate?

You are called to an outpatient clinic to transfer a 39-year-old male patient in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) to an acute-care hospital. When assessing this patient, which sign or symptom would you expect to find?

A patient with an unknown medical problem is responsive to painful stimuli and breathing poorly at a rate of 8 breaths/min. The airway is patent and the skin warm and moist. The patient’s radial pulse is strong and irregular. Breath sounds are absent over the bases of the lungs. Vital signs are pulse, 84; blood pressure, 256/120 mmHg; and SpO2, 81%. The best treatment for this patient’s breathing difficulty would be:

You are assisting a paramedic who is administering glucagon to a patient. Based on your understanding of how glucagon works in the human body, what is the therapeutic goal of this treatment?

You have been called to a residence for a patient with altered mental status. On arrival, a neighbor informs you that he saw the patient washing windows several minutes earlier and then suddenly saw him lying on the ground. He also mentions that the patient has diabetes and has been in and out of the hospital lately because his blood sugar has been dropping suddenly. Your scene size-up reveals the patient to be lying next to a ladder propped up to the second-story window. Water from a bucket is spilled on the side of the house and yard. The patient is supine and unresponsive. What should be your next most immediate action?

When assessing an elderly patient with upper back pain, which of these assessment findings would make you very suspicious of a thoracic aortic dissection?

A patient with diabetes who took insulin earlier is found unresponsive with a blood glucose level of 29 mg/dL. Which piece of information provided by family gives the best explanation for the patient’s altered mental status?

An alert and distressed 72-year-old male patient with a history of pulmonary edema from heart failure is in severe respiratory distress, breathing 28 to 32 times per minute. His airway is patent, respirations are labored, crackles are heard in the bases of the lungs, and skin is found to be diaphoretic with a rapid radial pulse. Other vital signs are pulse, 136; blood pressure, 202/110 mmHg; and SpO2, 83%. Cyanosis is evident in the fingertips. The best treatment for this patient’s breathing difficulty would be:

A 71-year-old female patient complains of the sudden onset of shortness of breath and rapid breathing. She also states that she is experiencing some chest pain that seems to worsen when she takes a deep breath. The primary assessment shows her to be alert and oriented with a patent airway and rapid breathing that is adequate. Her pulse rate is 92 and her blood pressure is 116/68 mmHg. When obtaining a history, which of these statements made by the patient should raise your suspicion that the patient may be experiencing a pulmonary embolism?

A glucometer reads 50 mg/dL. The EMT would recognize this reading as: