PLATINUM EMT STUDY GUIDE 2026 QUESTIONS AND
SOLUTIONS RATED A+
✔✔OPQRST - ✔✔Onset, Provocation, Quality, Region/Radiation, Severity, Timing.
✔✔DCAP-BTLS - ✔✔A mnemonic for assessment in which each area of the body is
evaluated for Deformities, Contusions, Abrasions, Punctures/penetrations, Burns,
Tenderness, Lacerations, and Swelling.
✔✔Diagnosis - ✔✔a description or label for a patient's condition that assists a clinician
in further evaluation and treatment
✔✔Knife Wounds - ✔✔Questions an EMT should ask, if possible, should include info
about the size and type of knife that created the wound.
✔✔Breath Sounds - ✔✔An indication of air movement in the lungs, usually assessed
with a stethoscope.
Always assess for presence and equality first.
✔✔Cerbrospinal Fluid (CSF) - ✔✔Plasma-like clear fluid circulating in and around the
brain and spinal cord.
✔✔Halo Sign - ✔✔Blood stain surrounded by a clear or yellowish stain. Created from
cerebrospinal fluid mixed with blood coming from ears in a trauma patient.
✔✔Nitroglycerin Administration - ✔✔1. Perform a focused assessment for the cardiac
patient.
2. Take the patient's blood pressure. (Systolic pressure must be above 90 to 100.)
3. Contact medical direction, if no standing orders.
4. Ensure the right patient, right time, right medication, right dose, and right route.
Check the expiration date.
5. Ensure the patient is alert.
6. Question the patient on the last dose taken and effects. Ensure understanding of the
route of administration.
7. Ask the patient to lift his tongue, and place the tablet or spray dose under the tongue
(while wearing gloves) or have the patient place the tablet or spray under the tongue.
8. Have the patient keep his mouth closed with the tablet under the tongue (without
swallowing) until dissolved and absorbed.
9. Record the administration, route, and time.
10. Recheck the patient's blood pressure within 2 minutes.
11. Reassess the patient, making sure to ask the patient his current pain level to
determine if a second dose is needed.
✔✔Reassessment - ✔✔A step within the patient assessment process that is performed
at regular intervals to identify and treat changes in a patient's condition, A patient in
, unstable condition should be reassessed every 5 minutes, whereas a patient in stable
condition should be reassessed every 15 minutes.
A reassessment would not be possible in a patient that is needing life saving
interventions.
✔✔Medical Radio Report - ✔✔units identification and level of providers, estimated time
of arrival, patient's age and sex, chief complaint, brief, pertinent history of the present
illness, major past illnesses, mental status, baseline vital signs, pertinent findings of the
physical exam, emergency medical care given, response to emergency medical care,
contact medical direction if required
✔✔Aspirin - ✔✔Also known as as ASA, acetylsalicylic acid.
Aspirin reduces the bloods ability to clot.
✔✔Epinephirine - ✔✔Used to treat a severe allergic reactions. Epi constricts blood
vessels.
✔✔Albuterol (Proventil, Ventolin) - ✔✔Inhaled (short-acting), few minutes for onset.
Used for acute bronchospasm such as asthma. This is a bronchiodilator.
✔✔Nitroglycerin - ✔✔A nitrate drug used in the treatment of angina. It can relieve pain
by dilation of the blood vessels, allowing more blood to enter the heart muscle.
A side effect of the vasodilation is a decrease in blood pressure.
✔✔After medication administration: - ✔✔Document the administration.
Evaluate patient's response to the medication and report to the receiving facility.
✔✔Agonal Respirations - ✔✔Slow, shallow, irregular respirations or occasional gasping
breaths; sometimes seen in patients just prior to respiratory arrest.
✔✔Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) - ✔✔A group of lung diseases that
block airflow and make it difficult to breathe.
Most commonly caused by cigarette smoking.
✔✔Pulmonary Edema - ✔✔An accumulation of fluid in the lungs that prevents adequate
breathing.
✔✔Palpations - ✔✔Sensation of feeling a fluttering sensation in the chest.
✔✔Congestive Heart Failure - ✔✔A condition resulting from the heart's inability to pump
out all the blood that returns to it; blood backs up in the veins leading to the heart,
causing an accumulation of fluid in various parts of the body.
Common symptoms might be a productive cough, weight gain, increased heart rate,
peripheral edema and jugular vein distention.
SOLUTIONS RATED A+
✔✔OPQRST - ✔✔Onset, Provocation, Quality, Region/Radiation, Severity, Timing.
✔✔DCAP-BTLS - ✔✔A mnemonic for assessment in which each area of the body is
evaluated for Deformities, Contusions, Abrasions, Punctures/penetrations, Burns,
Tenderness, Lacerations, and Swelling.
✔✔Diagnosis - ✔✔a description or label for a patient's condition that assists a clinician
in further evaluation and treatment
✔✔Knife Wounds - ✔✔Questions an EMT should ask, if possible, should include info
about the size and type of knife that created the wound.
✔✔Breath Sounds - ✔✔An indication of air movement in the lungs, usually assessed
with a stethoscope.
Always assess for presence and equality first.
✔✔Cerbrospinal Fluid (CSF) - ✔✔Plasma-like clear fluid circulating in and around the
brain and spinal cord.
✔✔Halo Sign - ✔✔Blood stain surrounded by a clear or yellowish stain. Created from
cerebrospinal fluid mixed with blood coming from ears in a trauma patient.
✔✔Nitroglycerin Administration - ✔✔1. Perform a focused assessment for the cardiac
patient.
2. Take the patient's blood pressure. (Systolic pressure must be above 90 to 100.)
3. Contact medical direction, if no standing orders.
4. Ensure the right patient, right time, right medication, right dose, and right route.
Check the expiration date.
5. Ensure the patient is alert.
6. Question the patient on the last dose taken and effects. Ensure understanding of the
route of administration.
7. Ask the patient to lift his tongue, and place the tablet or spray dose under the tongue
(while wearing gloves) or have the patient place the tablet or spray under the tongue.
8. Have the patient keep his mouth closed with the tablet under the tongue (without
swallowing) until dissolved and absorbed.
9. Record the administration, route, and time.
10. Recheck the patient's blood pressure within 2 minutes.
11. Reassess the patient, making sure to ask the patient his current pain level to
determine if a second dose is needed.
✔✔Reassessment - ✔✔A step within the patient assessment process that is performed
at regular intervals to identify and treat changes in a patient's condition, A patient in
, unstable condition should be reassessed every 5 minutes, whereas a patient in stable
condition should be reassessed every 15 minutes.
A reassessment would not be possible in a patient that is needing life saving
interventions.
✔✔Medical Radio Report - ✔✔units identification and level of providers, estimated time
of arrival, patient's age and sex, chief complaint, brief, pertinent history of the present
illness, major past illnesses, mental status, baseline vital signs, pertinent findings of the
physical exam, emergency medical care given, response to emergency medical care,
contact medical direction if required
✔✔Aspirin - ✔✔Also known as as ASA, acetylsalicylic acid.
Aspirin reduces the bloods ability to clot.
✔✔Epinephirine - ✔✔Used to treat a severe allergic reactions. Epi constricts blood
vessels.
✔✔Albuterol (Proventil, Ventolin) - ✔✔Inhaled (short-acting), few minutes for onset.
Used for acute bronchospasm such as asthma. This is a bronchiodilator.
✔✔Nitroglycerin - ✔✔A nitrate drug used in the treatment of angina. It can relieve pain
by dilation of the blood vessels, allowing more blood to enter the heart muscle.
A side effect of the vasodilation is a decrease in blood pressure.
✔✔After medication administration: - ✔✔Document the administration.
Evaluate patient's response to the medication and report to the receiving facility.
✔✔Agonal Respirations - ✔✔Slow, shallow, irregular respirations or occasional gasping
breaths; sometimes seen in patients just prior to respiratory arrest.
✔✔Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) - ✔✔A group of lung diseases that
block airflow and make it difficult to breathe.
Most commonly caused by cigarette smoking.
✔✔Pulmonary Edema - ✔✔An accumulation of fluid in the lungs that prevents adequate
breathing.
✔✔Palpations - ✔✔Sensation of feeling a fluttering sensation in the chest.
✔✔Congestive Heart Failure - ✔✔A condition resulting from the heart's inability to pump
out all the blood that returns to it; blood backs up in the veins leading to the heart,
causing an accumulation of fluid in various parts of the body.
Common symptoms might be a productive cough, weight gain, increased heart rate,
peripheral edema and jugular vein distention.
