EMS Systems
The federal agency under the Department of Transportation that is responsible for developing the National EMS Education Standards.
What is the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)?
The all-encompassing CDC term for the infection control practices that assume all blood and body fluids are potentially infectious.
What are Standard Precautions?
Your legal responsibility to provide patient care, which officially begins when you are dispatched to a call or when you initiate care while off-duty.
What is the duty to act?
The independent federal agency that has jurisdiction over all interstate and international telephone, telegraph, and radio communications, including EMS frequencies.
What is the FCC (Federal Communications Commission)?
The directional term meaning "closer to the midline of the body."
What is medial?
The highest level of prehospital care provider, rigorously trained in advanced pharmacology, cardiac monitoring, and advanced airway interventions.
Who is a Paramedic?
The physiological response triggered by the sympathetic nervous system during a stressful call, resulting in the release of epinephrine and increased heart rate.
What is the "fight-or-flight" response?
Providing emergency treatment without a patient's consent, or physically touching them when they have explicitly refused care, opens you up to this criminal charge.
What is battery?
When talking to an anxious patient, physically positioning yourself at this level helps establish rapport and shows that you are actively listening.
What is eye level?
The standard medical prefix "tachy-" indicates this condition.
What is fast or rapid (e.g., tachycardia)?
Standing orders and written protocols that authorize you to perform certain skills without speaking to a physician fall under this type of medical direction.
What is off-line medical direction?
The type of high-visibility safety garment that must be worn by all EMS providers working on or near a federally funded roadway.
What is an ANSI Class 2 (or Class 3) safety vest?
The four distinct elements required to prove legal negligence: Duty, Breach of Duty, Damages, and this final link.
What is causation (or proximate cause)?
Observable, measurable facts—like a heart rate of 110 bpm or a visible laceration—are categorized as this type of information in your narrative.
What is objective information?
The anatomical position where a patient is lying flat on their back with their face pointing upward.
What is supine?
A proactive public health strategy designed to prevent emergencies from ever happening, such as promoting helmet laws or teaching how to set up a diet.
What is primary prevention?
To prevent lower back injury when lifting a stretcher, you should keep your back perfectly straight and lift using the muscles in this part of your body.
What are the legs?
Terminating your care of a patient without officially transferring them to a medical professional of equal or higher training.
What is abandonment?
If you realize you made a spelling or numerical error on a written patient care report (PCR), this is the only legally acceptable way to alter the document.
What is draw a single horizontal line through the error, initial it, and write the correct information?
The medical suffix "-itis," as seen in appendicitis or bronchitis, indicates this specific pathological process.
What is inflammation?
The internal and external review process designed to identify areas of improvement and ensure the public receives the highest standard of care across the EMS system.
What is Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)?
This formal process is designed to help emergency personnel manage acute stress and is typically held 24 to 72 hours after a highly traumatic incident.
What is a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD)?
Writing false, damaging information about a patient in your report, such as documenting that they were "drunk" when you actually had no proof of alcohol consumption.
What is libel?
When transmitting on the radio, this two-word phrase means "I have received and understood your message."
What is "Copy that" (or "Message received")?
This common medical root word specifically refers to the liver.
What is "hepat/o" (as in hepatitis)?