Under pressure

As class heads in to our third quarter, the materials and skills shift from understanding medical emergencies and associated Nature of Illness (NOI) to traumatic injuries and their associated Mechanism of Injury (MOI).

Trauma is generally considered the gorier part of EMS, and deals with direct bleeding, fractured bones, and other physical injuries to the body that generally result from the application of an outside force on the patient. As such, there are a wide number of practical skills involved in providing interventions to our patients, including proper techniques for bandaging and tourniquet application.

But trauma isn't always obvious. Car accidents, sports injuries, slips and falls can all cause traumatic injuries to bones, muscles and internal organs, often with no visible external injuries. Some of these internal injuries are treated almost exactly the same as internal bleeding caused by medical issues, such as acute abdominal pain due to appendicitis, or altered mental status due to stroke. .

But the effects of the MOI are supposed to guide us to an index of suspicion that there may be more going on with our patients, concerns that may require more care and a deeper assessment for injuries that just simple pain or confusion would appear to warrant.

So we get a bit more touchy-feely with our fellow students, and start learning to look for DCAP-BTLS. 

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