Well, actually... don't!

There's no doubt that we've got to master the signs and symptoms, and associated interventions, of both respiratory and cardiac emergencies. Every situation we face starts with assessing the ABC"s -- Airway, Breathing, and Circulation -- as these represent true emergencies, where it really can be a matter of life-or-death.

Respiratory and cardiac emergencies are very closely related, as issues in one area can have a detrimental, even fatal, impact to the other.

While the heart is responsible for pumping blood through the lungs for oxygenation, and then moving the oxygenated blood itself to the tissues and organs throughout the body, it is itself a muscle that also requires oxygenated blood to effectively pump. So any disruption in how the body is obtaining and utilizing air through the upper and lower airways (including the lungs) can cause issues for the heart as well.

And things roll downhill quickly from there on... Because having to perform CPR means that someone is having a really, really, really bad day....

Part of the practical skills we've been focusing on in class are the primary and secondary assessments that EMTs do on patients. While the primary assessment is done on scene, and focuses on managing life threats, the secondary assessment can be done on scene or in the back of the ambulance while we are transporting a patient to the appropriate medical center.

The secondary assessment, if we aren't still actively managing life threats (like performing CPR), allows for a more through inspection of the patient, either for a specific injury or illness symptom (assuming they are conscious and alert enough to talk with us), or a full-body scan intended to ensure we don't miss any additional injuries (which is especially important with an unconscious or unresponsive patient, or even a conscious one with an altered mental status).

This also includes taking critical vital signs, including pulse and blood pressure, in order to determine if our interventions are producing the right positive results, or whether our patients are sliding towards dangerous grounds, such as shock.

So ... Who would have thought that one of the best study aids I could get for this stuff would be my 8-year old son and his imagination?

The keys to providing effective care, however, requires us to understand human anatomy and how all the systems within our bodies both work and inter-relate. And while it is a major amount of stuff to learn, it's probably not much more than the average 8th grade health class or high school biology class.