Medical Emergencies: Airway, Breathing, and Circulation

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/medical-emergencies-airway-breathing-circulation

Introduction

### Course Review: Medical Emergencies: Airway, Breathing, and Circulation on Coursera In the fast-paced world of healthcare, understanding medical emergencies is vital for anyone involved in patient care. For those looking to bolster their emergency response skills, the "Medical Emergencies: Airway, Breathing, and Circulation" course available on Coursera is an invaluable resource. This course not only provides essential knowledge but also trains participants to respond effectively to critical situations. #### Course Overview The "Medical Emergencies: Airway, Breathing, and Circulation" course is designed for healthcare professionals and first responders, focusing on the crucial aspects of patient assessment and stabilization for transport. By the end of the course, learners will have developed competencies in several key areas, including: 1. **Assessing Basic Medical Patients:** Understand how to conduct a systematic assessment of various medical complaints. 2. **General Pharmacologic Principles:** Gain insight into medication administration and its fundamental principles. 3. **Airway Physiology and Management:** Learn techniques for assessing and managing a patient's airway effectively. 4. **Respiratory Emergency Stabilization:** Identify and implement plans for stabilizing patients experiencing respiratory distress. #### Course Syllabus Highlights The course is structured into five comprehensive modules, each targeting a specific area of medical emergencies: 1. **Pharmacology Basics:** - This module lays a solid foundation for understanding medication management. Learners will grasp the essential pharmacological principles, including drug forms, administration routes, and the critical steps to ensure safe medication delivery—known as the "five rights." 2. **Airway and Breathing:** - Here, participants delve deep into the anatomy and physiology of the respiratory system. This module emphasizes recognizing normal versus abnormal respiratory conditions and equips learners with the tools necessary for improving respiratory care in patients. 3. **Respiratory Emergencies:** - Expanding on the prior module, this section focuses on classifying and triaging respiratory symptoms, understanding acute and chronic conditions, and mastering primary and secondary surveys to address a range of respiratory complaints effectively. 4. **Cardiovascular Emergencies:** - This module covers the cardiovascular system's anatomy and physiology, emphasizing common diseases and the appropriate assessment and treatment strategies for patients with cardiac complications—particularly those presenting with acute coronary syndromes. 5. **Neurological Emergencies:** - The final module introduces assessment techniques for patients with neurological issues, including altered mental status. Learners will understand pertinent anatomical and physiological concepts and will be equipped to perform thorough assessments for patients presenting with stroke-like symptoms, headaches, and seizures. #### My Recommendation I highly recommend the "Medical Emergencies: Airway, Breathing, and Circulation" course on Coursera to anyone interested in enhancing their knowledge and skills in emergency medical response. The course content is well-structured and progressive, allowing learners to build upon previous knowledge as they advance through the modules. Additionally, the practical application of concepts is emphasized through real-life scenarios, which helps bridge the gap between theory and practice. The course is suitable for varying levels of healthcare experience, making it ideal for both novice responders looking to boost their confidence and seasoned professionals seeking to refresh their skills. In conclusion, if you are dedicated to improving patient outcomes during emergencies and wish to master critical assessment and stabilization techniques, this course is a worthy investment in your professional development. Enroll now to enhance your emergency response capabilities and make a significant impact in the medical field!

Syllabus

Pharmacology Basics

At the end of this module, you will be able to: 1) apply a systematic approach of patient assessment specifically to a patient with a medical complaint, 2) explain the basic principles of pharmacology including forms of medications, routes of medication administration, and to define the basic components of a drug profile and, 3) organize the appropriate steps when administering any medication including the five rights, premedication evaluation and post administration evaluation.

Assessment of and management of the airway is critical in patient care. This module is all about the airway. In this module you will 1) identify the most important anatomic and physiologic portions of the respiratory system, 2) distinguish between normal and abnormal in the setting of airway and breathing 3) learn how and when to use the various tools you will have as an EMT to stabilize or improve the respiratory conditions in diverse patients.

In this module, we will dig a little deeper into the respiratory system now that you have an overview of how this system works and its importance. By the end of this module you will 1) start to classify types of symptoms and triage them on scene 2) distinguish between an upper and lower airway issues 3) Develop the framework to assess acute and chronic respiratory diseases. 4) Work through the primary and secondary surveys you will perform when faced with a patient with many different respiratory complaints.

In this module we cover a system closely related to the respiratory system- the cardiovascular system. In this module you will learn 1) the intricacies of the anatomy and physiology of the cardiovascular system. 2) a few of the most common diseases that affect the cardiovascular system 3) how to approach and assess patients with cardiac complaints with an emphasis on patients with possible acute coronary syndromes 4) the differences in treatment for various cardiac complaints.

This module encompasses the neurological and endocrine systems. While these may not initially sound related, in this module you will learn how to assess patients with altered mental status and primary neurological complaints. To get to that point, you will: 1) learn the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system and the endocrine system. 2) learn about specific diseases or symptoms of diseases that affect the brain and mental status of a patient. 3) apply this background knowledge to the completing the primary and secondary assessments of a patients with stroke like symptoms, headaches, seizures and with altered mental status.