Course review · October 2026
Practice the reasoning behind your course materials, then test it in a case.
The Scenario Lab now includes 12 “Course case” entries with 36 scored decisions, feedback and a debrief. Open the app and choose Scenario Lab.
Practice a complete call: scene safety and resources, primary survey, immediate threats, focused history and exam, treatment response, transport and handoff. Record findings and times rather than filling every field with “normal.”
What changed after your intervention, and what would make you escalate care?
Separate what you observed from what someone reported. Describe the complaint, relevant history, findings, treatment, response and transfer of care in chronological order. Use a structured handoff and include trends.
Can another clinician reconstruct the timeline without guessing?
Compare hemorrhagic, distributive, cardiogenic and obstructive causes. Use mental status, skin, pulse, breathing and blood-pressure trends together. A single preserved blood pressure does not exclude poor perfusion.
What evidence supports the suspected cause, and what competing cause remains possible?
Distinguish oxygenation from ventilation. Reassess chest rise, respiratory effort, mental status and available monitoring after each intervention. Match airway support to the patient and your authorized skills.
Is the patient moving enough air, or does the oxygen number hide a ventilation problem?
At standard 25 mm/s, a small horizontal box represents 0.04 seconds and a large box 0.20 seconds. Check calibration first. Analyze rate, regularity, atrial activity, PR relationship and QRS width before naming a rhythm.
For a regular rhythm with four large boxes between R waves, estimate 300 / 4 = 75 beats/min. Why is that shortcut unsuitable for an irregular rhythm?
Check the patient, electrode contact, lead placement and tracing quality. Rhythm names alone do not determine stability. The new Drive ECG workbooks contain schematic practice strips; use the originals for visual exercises.
How would you distinguish artifact from a rhythm change using the patient and other leads?
Use age, appearance, breathing and perfusion together. Record weight in kilograms and its source. Verify the selected protocol, concentration, route, dose maximum and repeat interval before converting a dose to volume.
Was weight measured, reported or estimated, and could the unit have been entered incorrectly?
Prepare equipment and assign roles early. After birth, assess both patients and document separate trends. Newborn resuscitation prioritizes effective ventilation; continue to assess maternal bleeding and perfusion.
Who is responsible for each patient, and what triggers additional help?
For each medication, connect the class and mechanism to its intended effect, major cautions and reassessment. Distinguish recognition of a home or hospital medication from authorization to administer it in EMS.
Can you explain why the drug fits this indication and why the exact formulation matters?
Write the units at every step. Convert pounds to kilograms before weight-based calculations, apply the stated maximum before converting to volume, and distinguish per-minute from per-hour infusion orders.
Does the final unit match the requested quantity, and is the result reasonable?
Altered mental status has many causes. Assess immediate threats and glucose when indicated; document baseline, onset and last known well. Reassess after treatment instead of anchoring on the first explanation.
What finding would challenge your initial working diagnosis?
Prioritize life threats, hemorrhage control, prevention of heat loss and timely destination decisions. Repeat the primary survey after movement or deterioration. Use current regional triage criteria.
Which actions are essential now, and which can occur during transport?
Use this checklist for simulated cases. It is not a patient record and does not save clinical information.
AHA adult resuscitation · AHA neonatal resuscitation · ACEP agitation terminology
Course sources are learning material, not standing orders. Full copyrighted texts and identifiable assessment narratives are not reproduced here. Import your private course-reference file for access to the original Drive materials.