I know when Pre-Hospital Providers get together we
tend to speak in terms, abbreviations, and acronyms.
For laymen this can be disconcerting to say the least especially if they are the patient!
So, in an effort to help
you understand a little bit more of the language you here, and to take some of the
scariness away, I am
compiling a list of things to translate. If anyone has any to add, please email me , and I'll add it to the list!
We use lots of acronyms and abbreviated words to
save time and help us remember things in the field. Here
are some of the more common terms that we use. For a list of the more humorous terms, see
Instructor Sue's
site in my favorite links section.
DCAPBTLS: (Pronounced as Decap BTLS)Used to
remember what we are looking for on physical exams. Comes from the BTLS
exam (Basic Trauma Life Support) and is now being used in the EMT-Basic classes.
D-Deformities
C-Contusions
A-Abrasions
P-Punctures, Penetrations, or Paradoxical motion (look in definitions for that one!)
B-Burns
T-Tenderness
L-Lacerations
S-Swelling
SAMPLE-Used to remember all the information needed to help both pre-hospital and in hospital providers:
S-Signs/symptoms -Signs are things we the caregiver can see, symptoms the patient tells us about.
A-Allergies
M-Medicines-ALL meds prescribed and non-prescription that the patient has on hand, and when they were taken last.
P-Pertinent Past Medical History-not "I scraped my knee ten years ago" but things like past surgery, long term medical problems, and any recent illness or injuries.
L-Last Oral Intake-this is that glass of water 10 minutes ago, or the pizza and pickled garlic 6 hours ago..whatever the last stuff you ate or drank was..also, mention if it was a new dish or item for you, just so we can rule out or consider reactions.
E-Events leading up to-what were you doing before
you or someone called us? Mowing the lawn and now ya have chest pain? things like that can
be critical!
AVPU-Used to rate a patients LOC (level of consciousness)
A-Alert- eyes open on their own, patient (pt) observant of surroundings.
V-Verbal-pt opens eyes or responds when spoken to by rescuer.
P-Pain-Pt responds to pinching of skin or other painful stimuli
U-Unresponsive-pt is unresponsive to anything we do
to stimulate them.
OPQRST-yes, there are even more letters we use!
O-Onset-what were you doing when the problem started?
P-Provokes-what starts this or makes this worse(this being whatever the patient is complaining about)
Q-Quality-what kind of pain, dull, sharp, etc...
R-Radiates-Does it travel or spread through your body?
S-Severity-usually asked on a scale such as "on
a scale of 1-10 with 1 being no pain and 10 being childbirth (for a woman with kids) what
do you rate your pain as right now?" Obviously we ask the question differently for
males!
T-Time- when did the problem start?
Do these look familiar? a lot of the same
information is covered in SAMPLE, but we ask it again to verify the information, also to
make sure we miss nothing of any importance.
Pt or pt-Patient not PT-which is Physical Therapy
CAOx3- Pt is conscious, alert and oriented to person, place and time.
MAEX4-this means the pt has moved all extremities with purpose (not uncontrolled motion)
lungs=and clear- no abnormal lung sounds, and the lungs are inflating and deflating equally
EMS-Emergency Medical Services
EMT - Emergency Medical Technician- can be followed
by a B(Basic), a P(Paramedic) or an I(Intermediate)
In PA only EMT-B and EMT-P are currently approved, although a few EMT-M(Mast) may still be
around.
Rig-Our vehicles! They come in many shapes and sizes, but they are all rigs! At Hempfield we run 3 box rigs, and one Van Ambulance. That means just what is sounds like, one is built out of a van body (no exterior storage) the other 3 have outside compartments, and are more like a box attached to a cab.
Board or LBB, or Spine board- all mean the same thing! It means a Long Back Board, usually a plastic or wood board which we secure people to in order to protect the spine in case there is a risk of spinal injury. We don't have X-Ray eyes in the field and can only guess based upon Mechanism Of Injury (that's the "what happened") if there is a spinal injury. Therefore we play it safe rather than sorry and treat patients as if they have significant injury to the spine or other body parts being treated.
Of course there are tons more, and I will work on adding to the collection as time and space permits!
