EMT Exam: Expert Guides and Resources

This Cheat Sheet is a quick summary of facts you should know about becoming a certified emergency medical technician (EMT), including certification steps, computer adaptive testing, and exam preparation.Getting and maintaining an EMT certificationThe requirements for becoming a certified emergency medical technician (EMT) vary from state to state.

Toxicology is the study of toxic or poisonous substances and their effects on the body and a topic you should know for the EMT exam. The signs and symptoms associated with toxic exposure and poisoning range very widely, from simple annoyances to life-threatening conditions. As an EMT, your primary goals are to ensure your own safety and identify the possibility of a toxic exposure while preserving the patient’s airway, breathing, and circulation.

You will need to know about obstetrics and gynecology for the EMT exam. Obstetrics studies the pregnancy process, from fertilization to delivery. Gynecology is the study of diseases that can affect the reproductive system. Together, they represent a variety of conditions specific to the female. The female reproductive system consists of several organs.

The EMT exam evaluates your ability to assess patients quickly and formulate a treatment plan even if you don’t have all the information yet. You can adopt certain assessment approaches that can rapidly identify signs that identify life-threatening situations or serious medical conditions. Look at the Whole Patient As an EMT student, it’s easy to get hung up on one finding.

Before you decide to study for and take the EMT exam, you should decide if you are fit for the job. Lifting and moving patients can be difficult. Unconscious patients are literally dead weight that is difficult to control. Injured patients may need to be immobilized to a long backboard and carried down several flights of stairs.

One responsibility that you have as an emergency medical technician (EMT) is to document your assessment and management of the patient. Such documentation can take time to complete if you write out everything that you found and performed. Medical abbreviations can help speed up the process. You can use literally dozens of abbreviations; here are ten (or so) that are commonly used when documenting your assessment and care, plus a few symbols that you can use as shorthand for common words.

You will need to know when it is necessary to oxygenate for the EMT exam. EMTs used to give oxygen to everyone, regardless of what the complaint was. Chest pain? Give oxygen. Toe pain? Yep, give that gas too! Medical experts have since discovered that inhaling more oxygen than necessary can be harmful for certain conditions, and it isn’t helpful in situations where it isn’t necessary.

The following practice questions are similar to the EMT exam’s questions about cardiology and resuscitation. Read each question carefully, and then select the answer choice that most correctly answers the question. Sample questions A 68-year-old male has chest pressure and shortness of breath after climbing a flight of stairs.

You will need to be familiar with all types of injuries for the EMT exam. The injuries you will find here require rapid identification and, in some cases, immediate action on your part. These are conditions that either block (obstruct) the airway or somehow impair the patient’s ability to breathe adequately. Without the ability to move air well, the patient’s ability to survive any injury is severely compromised.