Patient Assesment

I kicked off the day driving an ambulance around the academy track. The sole advice was this: get us to the hospital as fast as possible, while eight classmates and an instructor perform CPR in the back. I obliged.

The rest of the day was spent in class learning the most important thing a firefighter will use to respond to calls... the primary assessment. Since nearly 50% of calls are medical-related, we most often need to care for a patient until more advanced medical care arrives. The primary assessment is the tool that helps us do this.