There is one thing that you need to remember more than anything else.
TREAT THE PATIENT, NOT THE MONITOR
It doesn't matter what the monitor says, it matters what s/s your patient is showing. I have seen a patient that has been in a 3rd degree heart block that have been almost totally fine except for being bradycardic. He didn't need to get any adenosine, just some atropine. It's all about how your patient is feeling and what you see in him that will determine what your treatment is. Reading what monitor a monitor says or hearing muffeled heart tones with a tension pneumothorax are associated symptoms or pertinant negatives that help out making your differential field diagnosis.
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Originally Posted by Maple Flag
Firebeef, I use the word "diagnosis" with some caution, and only with "provisional" put in front. I'm well aware that diagnosis is not done in the field, at least by me.
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As for your statement above, I don't agree with it. You NEED to make a diagnosis, otherwise, how would you treat your patient? While doing your initial assessment and general impression you start to form your differential diagnosis. If you are called to a scene with a patient with trouble breathing you should be thinking: OK, what could it be? Astham attack, end stage COPD pt, O2 deficient environment, thorasic trauma? You have to make a dx. And don't listen to the doctors and nurses ( especially ) when they say that you can't diagnose in the field. If that were the case, then we may as well throw away our licenses and go back to having the funeral home hearse drivers picking up all 911 callers.