10 free AEMT practice questions: Scene Safety, Personal Protection, and Infection Control

Enter the yard and walk around behind the dog: Walking around behind the dog treats a loose, barking dog as safe to pass. The dog is still loose and uncontrolled when you enter. Going in puts you inside biting range before the hazard is contained.

Enter the yard while a partner distracts the dog: Having a partner distract a dog can work once someone is actively managing the dog. Here the dog is still loose and barking. A distraction just spreads the risk across two providers instead of removing the hazard.

Enter the yard holding a blanket to shield the crew: A blanket can soften a bite from a small dog or a dog that is already restrained. A blanket does nothing to contain a loose dog barking at the crew from inside the gate.

Begin the assessment of the patient with the leg injury: Assessing the patient with the leg injury is the next step once the scene is safe. Starting there leaves three people standing in moving traffic while you work nearby. The patient is already on the shoulder, and the bystanders are not.

Ask the uninjured occupants to help move the patient: Asking the occupants to help move the patient gives them a job while they are still standing in the hazard. Getting them off the roadway comes before giving them any task.

Have the uninjured occupants wait inside their vehicles: Telling the occupants to wait in their vehicles does not get them off the roadway. They are standing in a live travel lane beside the damaged vehicles right now. They need to be moved off the roadway immediately, not just told to go somewhere.

Open the backpack to determine whether it is a hazard: Opening a bag makes sense when you need to confirm a hazard before you act. An unattended backpack near an explosion is the one bag you never open. Handling a secondary device is a known way to set it off.

Carry the backpack to an empty area at the end of the platform: Carrying the backpack away fits a normal lost-and-found bag. This bag showed up after an explosion. Picking the backpack up can set off the device in the AEMT's hands, and the AEMT becomes one more patient.

Continue triage and post a crew member near the backpack: Posting a crew member by the backpack treats the backpack as something to watch, not as a threat. A device going off 15 feet away still reaches that crew member and the whole triaged group. The distance has to change, not just who is watching.

Apply an alcohol-based hand rub to the area: An alcohol-based hand rub is for routine hand hygiene between patients when your hands are not visibly soiled. A hand rub does not lift visible blood off the skin. Visible blood is exactly what landed on this forearm.

Cover the area and report it at the end of the shift: Reporting the exposure is a required step. Covering the area and waiting until the end of the shift puts off the washing. The blood would sit on your skin for hours when it needs to come off right away.

Scrub the area with a dilute bleach solution: Bleach solution is a disinfectant for equipment and counters, not for skin. Dilute bleach on intact skin can cause a chemical injury. Plain soap and water does the job safely.

Chemical-resistant suit and respirator: A chemical-resistant suit and respirator belong in the warm zone. Responders there handle patients who still have product on the skin or clothing. This patient was already decontaminated, so the product is gone.

Self-contained breathing apparatus: protects you from an active airborne or vapor threat in the hot zone. Decontamination was done to remove that kind of exposure before the hazmat team handed the patient off.

N95 respirator and gown: An N95 respirator and a gown protect you from infections spread through the air or by droplets. This patient had a dry chemical exposure. Nothing in this call points to an infectious disease.

Gown and examination gloves: A gown and gloves are for body fluid exposure, like blood or vomit during hands-on care. Nothing in this question describes fluid exposure. The hazard is flying glass and metal from the cutting tools, and a gown leaves your head and eyes exposed to the glass and metal.

Surgical mask and eye protection: A surgical mask and eye protection cover splash and droplets, like when you suction an airway or care for a patient with a productive cough. The eye protection part fits this call. The surgical mask does nothing against a shifting roof or thrown metal, and your head is still unprotected.

Respirator and examination gloves: A respirator is for airborne illness like suspected tuberculosis, or for heavy dust. This call is a trauma extrication. The danger is glass and metal thrown by cutting tools, not particles in the air. A respirator and gloves still leave your head unprotected during the cut.

An additional ambulance crew for lifting: An extra ambulance crew helps once you are at the patient's side, for a heavy lift or a hard carry down the stairs. The problem here is the locked door. Extra hands do nothing until someone gets inside.

The building's on-call maintenance service: Maintenance fits a routine lockout, like a resident stuck outside their own apartment. Maintenance staff do not carry forcible entry tools or have the training for forcible entry. A caller who went silent behind a locked door needs entry now.

A supervisor to authorize entry: A supervisor is who you call when policy requires a sign-off before you step outside a protocol. You do not need anyone's approval to call the fire department for forcible entry. A supervisor also cannot open the door.

Triage the six people where they are standing: Triage where patients stand is the normal first move at a mass casualty incident. These six have not been through the decon corridor yet. Sorting them where they are spreads contaminated patients around the scene. At a hazmat release, triage waits until after decon.

Give oxygen to the people who are coughing: Oxygen is the right treatment for the breathing irritation chlorine causes. Giving oxygen before decon puts your hands on contaminated skin and clothing. The regulator and mask get contaminated too.

Load the two worst affected people for transport: Loading the two worst affected people looks like the fastest way to get them to definitive care. None of the six have gone through decon. Loading them now contaminates the ambulance and takes the unit out of service for the rest of the scene.

Apply direct pressure to the wound and resume transport to complete patient delivery: Direct pressure is what you do for bleeding you need to stop. The patient in the back still needs to get to the hospital, too. Going back to transport without washing the wound or notifying anyone uses up time you do not have. The prophylaxis decision has to happen within hours, not at the end of the shift.

Apply a sterile bandage and postpone notification until the end of the shift: A sterile bandage is fine for a clean minor injury with no exposure risk, like a scrape from a cabinet edge. This injury came from a contaminated needle, and nobody knows the source patient's bloodborne pathogen status. The exposure control plan exists for this exact situation. The bigger problem is waiting until the end of the shift to notify anyone. That delay can push you past the window when prophylaxis still works.

Rinse with alcohol-based hand sanitizer and document the incident in the PCR: Alcohol-based hand sanitizer is for routine hand hygiene between patients when your hands are not visibly soiled. Sanitizer cannot help a puncture. The needle put the contamination under the skin, and a product on the surface cannot reach under the skin. The patient care report is also the wrong record. A work exposure gets its own exposure report and notification chain, and that chain is what starts the prophylaxis evaluation.

Use latex gloves because they provide superior fit, tactile sensitivity, and barrier protection: Latex gloves are fine for a patient with no latex allergy. They fit well, give good tactile feel, and block blood and body fluids. This patient has a documented severe latex allergy. Any latex contact can cause the exact reaction you are trying to prevent.

Avoid wearing gloves altogether to completely eliminate any latex contact risk: Going without gloves does keep latex off the patient. It also leaves your bare hands in contact with the patient's blood and body fluids. Standard precautions still apply to you. A latex allergy calls for a different glove material, and nitrile is right there in the bag.

Use latex gloves initially; if the patient shows signs of allergic reaction, switch to non-latex gloves: Starting in latex and switching later does end with nitrile gloves on. The switch only comes after the patient is already reacting. You already know about the allergy before contact. Waiting for hives or airway trouble exposes the patient to a reaction you could have prevented.