First Aid, Emergency Care, and Disaster Management Merry

Past illnesses The acronym SAMPLE that guides the victim interview means allergies, medications, past illness or pregnancy, last food and drink, and events related to injury.

A nurse follows the protocol of SAMPLE when speaking to a victim of a fall in the parking lot of the hospital. What does the P stand for?

Stridor Signs of severe airway obstruction are poor or no air exchange, poor or no cough, high-pitched noise known as stridor on inhalation, respiratory distress, cyanosis, inability to speak, inability to move air, and clutching the neck.

A patient is present with signs of severe airway obstruction. What term accurately describes the high-pitched noise the patient is exhibiting with inhalation?

Do nothing at this point as long as air is exchanged. When a person is choking but alert enough to attempt to cough and force the obstruction up and out by himself, allowing him to do so alone is best because more expelling force occurs that way. Only when the person shows signs of not being able to breathe beyond the obstruction should abdominal thrusts be applied.

Standing in a fast-food line, the person in front, while munching on a cookie, begins to cough heavily, takes deep inspirations, and waves his arms around wildly. What should be the nurse's first action?

Call for assistance. With one-person CPR, when the patient is unconscious and not breathing, the first thing to do is to call for help.

What is the initial intervention for an unconscious patient who is not breathing according to one-person CPR principles, as taught and practiced by professional nurses?

4 minutes Without adequate perfusion, the brain cells begin to die in 4 minutes.

While ambulating, a patient gasps and drops to the floor unconscious with no pulse or respiration. When is the nurse aware that brain cells begin to die?