AEMT Chapter 1-4

AEMT

An emergency medical provider who has training in specific aspects of advanced life support, such as intravenous therapy and administration of certain medications.

ALS

Advanced lifesaving procedures, some of which are now being provided by AEMT's.

Americans With Disabilities Act

Comprehensive legislation that is designed to protect people with disabilities against discrimination.

Automated external defibrillator

a device that detects treatable life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias (ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia) and delivers the appropriate electrical shock to the patient.

Certification

a process in which a person, an institution, or a program is evaluated and recognized as meeting certain predetermined standards to provide safe and ethical care.

Continuous quality improvement (CQI)

a system of internal and external reviews and audits of all aspects of an EMS system.

Emergency medical dispatch

a system that assists dispatchers in selecting appropriate units to respond to a particular call for assistance and in providing callers with vital instructions until the arrival of EMS crews.

EMR

The first trained person, such as a police officer, fire fighter, or other rescuer, to arrive at the scene off an emergency to provide initial medical assistance.

EMS

a multidisciplinary system that represents the combined efforts of several professionals and agencies to provide prehospital emergency care to sick and injured people.

EMT

an emergency medical provider who has training in basic emergency care skills, including automated external defibrillation, use of definitive airway adjunct, and assisting patients with certain medications.

Health Information Portability and Accountability (HIPPA)

the legislation enacted in 1996 providing for criminal sanctions and for civil penalties for releasing a patient's protected health information in a way not authorized by the patient.

Licensure

the process whereby a state allows qualified people to perform a regulated act.

Medical control

Physician instructions that are given directly by radio (online or direct) or indirectly by protocols or guidelines (off-line or indirect), as authorized by the medical director of the service program.

Medical director

The physician who authorizes or delegates to the provider that authority to preform health care in the field.

National EMS Scope of Practice Model

A document created by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that outlines the skills performed by various EMS providers.

Paramedic

An emergency medical provider who has extensive training in advanced life support, including intravenous therapy, pharmacology, cardiac monitoring, and other advanced assessment and treatment skills.

Primary prevention

Efforts to prevent an injury or illness from ever occurring.

Primary service area

The designated area in which an EMS service is responsible for the provision of prehospital emergency care and transportation to the hospital.

Public health

Focused on examining the health needs of entire populations with the goal of preventing health problems.

Public safety access point

A call center staffed by trained personnel who are responsible for medical care standards for managing requests for police, fire fighting, and ambulance services.

Quality control

The responsibility of the medical director to ensure that the appropriate medical care standards are met by AEMT's on each call.

Reciprocity

The recognition by one state of another state's licensure, allowing a health care professional from another state to practice in the new state.

Secondary prevention

Efforts to limit the effects of an injury or illness that you cannot completely prevent.

Acute stress reaction

Reaction to stress that occurs during a stressful situation.

Airborne transmission

The spread of organism in aerosol form.

Bloodborne pathogens

Pathogenic microorganisms that are present in human blood and can cause disease in humans. These pathogens include, but are not limited to, hepatitis B virus and human immunodeficiency virus.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The primary federal agency that conducts and supports public health activities in the United States. The CDC is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Communicable disease

Any disease that can be spread from person to person or from animal to person.

Concealment

The use of objects such as shrubs or bushes to limit a person's visibility of you.

Contamination

The presence of infectious organisms on or in objects such as dressings, water, food, needles, wounds, or a patient's body.

Cover

The tactical use of an impenetrable barrier to conceal EMS personnel and protect them from projectiles (for example, bullets, bottles, and rocks.)

Critical incident stress management (CISM)

A process that confronts responses to critical incidents and defuses them.

Cumulative stress reactions

Prolonged or excessive stress.

Delayed stress reactions

Reaction to stress that occurs after a stressful situation.

Designated officer

The person in the department who is charged with the responsibility of managing exposures and infection control issues.

Direct contact

Exposure to or transmission of a communicable disease from one person to another by physical contact.

Exposure

A situation in which a person has had contact with blood, body fluids, tissues, or airborne particles that increases the risk of disease transmission.

Foodborne transmission

The contamination of food or water with an organism that can cause disease.

General adaptation syndrome

The body's three-stage response to stress. First, stress causes the body to trigger an alarm response, followed by a stage of reaction and resistance, and then recovery, or, if the stress is prolonged, exhaustion.

Hepatitis

Inflammation of the liver, usually caused by a virus, that causes fever, loss of appetite, jaundice, fatigue, and altered liver function.

Host

The organism or person attacked by the infecting agent.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is cause by HIV, which damages the cells in the body's immune system so that the body is unable to fight infection or certain cancers.

Immunity

The body's ability to protect itself from acquiring a disease.

Indirect contact

Exposure or transmission of disease from one person to another by contact with a contaminated object.

Infection

The invasion of a host or host tissues by organisms such as bacteria, viruses, or parasites, with or without signs or symptoms or disease.

Infection control

Procedures to reduce transmission of infection among patients and health care personnel.

Infectious disease

A disease that is caused by infection or one that is capable of being transmitted with or without direct contact.

Morbidity

The number of nonfatally injured or disabled people. Usually expressed as a rate, meaning the number of nonfatal injuries in a certain population in a given time period divided by the size of the population.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

The federal regulatory compliance agency that develops, publishes, and enforces guidelines concerning safety in the workplace.

Pathogen

A microorganism that is capable of causing disease in a susceptible host.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Personal protective equipment that OSHA requires to be made available to EMS providers. In the case of infection risk, PPE blocks entry of an organism into the body.

Posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD)

A delayed stress reaction to a previous incident. This delayed reaction is the result of or more unresolved issues concerning the incident.

Standard precautions

Protective measures that have traditionally been developed by the CDC for use in dealing with objects, blood, body fluids, or other potential exposure risks of communicable disease.

Transmission

The way in which an infectious agent is spread: contact, airborne, by vehicles (for example, food or needles), or by vectors.

Tuberculosis

A chronic bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that usually affects the lungs but also can affect other organs such as the brain or kidneys.

Vector-borne transmission

The use of an animal to spread an organism from one person or place to another.

Defamation

Making an untrue statement about someone's character or reputation without legal privilege or consent of the individual.

Dependent lividity

Blood settling to the lowest point of the body, causing discoloration of the skin; a definitive sign of death.

DNR (do not resuscitate) order

Written documentation giving permission to medical personnel not to attempt resuscitation in the event of cardiac arrest.

Durable power of attorney for health care

A type of advance directive executed by a competent adult that appoints another individual to make medical treatment decisions on his or her behalf in the event that the person making the appointment loses decision-making capacity.

Duty to act

A medicolegal term relating to certain personnel who by statute or by function have a responsibility to provide care.

Emancipated minor

A person who is under the legal age in a given state but, because of other circumstances, is legally considered an adult.

Emergency

A serious situation, such as injury or illness, that threatens the life or welfare of a person or group of people and requires immediate intervention.

Emergency medical care

Immediate care or treatment.

Ethics

Principles that identify conduct deemed morally desirable.

Expressed consent

A type of consent in which a patient gives express authorization for provision of care or transport.

False imprisonment

The confinement of a person without legal authority or the person's consent.

Forcible restraint

The act of physically preventing a person from taking physical action.

Good Samaritan laws

Statutory provisions enacted by many states to protect citizens from liability for errors and omissions when giving good faith emergency medical care, unless there is wanton, gross, or willful negligence or acceptance of remuneration.

Gross negligence

Conduct that constitutes a willful or reckless disregard for duty or standard of care.

Health care proxy

A type of advance directive executed by a competent adult that appoints another individual to make medical treatment decisions on his or her behalf in the event that the person making the appointment loses decision-making capacity. Also known as durable power of attorney for health care.

HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that enacted in 1996, providing for criminal sanctions as well as for civil penalties for releasing a patient's protected health information in a way not authorized by the patient.

Implied consent

A type of consent in which a patient who is unable to give consent is given treatment under the legal assumption that he or she would want treatment.

Informed consent

Permission for treatment given by a competent patient after the potential risks, benefits, and alternatives to treatment have been explained.

Kidnapping

The seizing, confining, abducting, or carrying away of a person by force, including transporting a competent adult for medical treatment without his or her consent.

Libel

False statements about a person made in writing or through the mass media.

Licensure

The process by which a governmental agency, such as a state medical board, grants permission to an individual who meets established qualifications to engage in the profession or occupation.

Medicolegal

A term relating to medical jurisprudence (law) or forensic medicine.

Morality

A code of conduct that can be defined by society, religion, or a person, affecting character, conduct, and conscience.

Negligence

Failure to provide the same care that a person with similar training would provide under similar circumstances.

Negligence per se

A theory that may be used when the conduct of the person being sued is alleged to have occurred in clear violation of a statute.

Precedence

Basing current action on lessons, rules, or guidelines derived from previous similar experiences.

Protected health information (PHI)

Any information about health status, provision of health care, or payment for health car that can be linked to an individual. This is interpreted rather broadly and includes any part of a patient's medical record or payment history.

Protocols

Precise and detailed plans for a regimen of therapy (for example, advanced cardiac life support [ACLS] algorithms).

Proximate causation

When a person who has a duty abuses it and causes harm to another individual, the AEMT, the agency, and or the medical director may be sued for negligence.

Putrefaction

Decomposition of body tissues; a definitive sign of death.

Rigor mortis

Stiffening of the body; a definitive sign of death.

Slander

False verbal statements about a person.

Standard of care

Accepted levels of medical care expected by reason of training and profession; determined by legal or professional peer organizations so that patients are not exposed to unnecessary risk or harm.

Standing orders

Local protocols, usually pertaining to a particular service or area.

Tort

A wrongful act that gives rise to a civil suit.

Base station

Any radio hardware containing a transmitter and receiver that is located in a fixed place.

Cellular telephone

A low-power portable radio that communicates through an interconnected series of repeater stations called "cells"

Channel

An assigned frequency or frequencies that are used to carry voice and/or data communications.

Closed-ended questions

Questions that can be answered in short or single word responses.

Communication

The transmission of information to another person-verbally or through body language.

Cultural imposition

When one person imposes his or her beliefs, values, and practices on another because he or she believes his or her ideals are superior.

Dedicated line

A special telephone line that is used to specific point-to-point communications; also known as a "hot line".

Documentation

The written portion of the AEMT's patient interaction; becomes part of the patient's permanent medical history.

Duplex

The ability to transmit and receive simultaneously.