Premergency First Aid, CPR and AED Manual

2 PREmergency Scene Management

This is your first opportunity to determine the patient’s chief complaint, the reason this person may be in need of assistance. As a first aider you may respond to patients with an injury. Injury With injuries or trauma, patients experience an external physical force that damages or hurts the body. This is the mechanism of injury (MOI). It may be a scraped knee or a small cut from a tool. It may also be a fall from a ladder or a motor vehicle accident. When you examine a scene and question any witnesses, try to imagine the MOI and the possible resultant injuries to help guide your care. Patients with a MOI of greater force require special considerations, due to the possibility to hidden injury, such as those to the head or spinal cord.

Illness Patients enduring a medical condition that damages the body’s organ systems but is not caused by external physical force. For a medical patient, you must look at the nature of illness (NOI). Like your assessment of the MOI, when you examine the patient, you will need to piece together a picture of what happened to cause the problem. The fastest source of this information is the patient, potentially wearing a medic alert bracelet. The information may also be obtained from family, friends, or bystanders.

Injury

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