10 free AEMT practice questions: Specialized Transport Considerations

Removing a door to widen the opening: Gaining access is a real phase of extrication, and it is the phase students picture first because it is the visible part with tools and noise. Access comes after hazard control and stabilization, so widening the opening first only puts a crew member alongside a vehicle that can still move.

Disconnecting the positive battery cable first: Disconnecting the battery is a real step, and students who remember the step often reverse the order. The negative cable comes off first, not the positive one. Powering the vehicle down also follows stabilization rather than standing in for it.

Cutting the orange high-voltage cabling: Orange cabling on a hybrid marks high voltage, and students who know the color think cutting it is how the hazard gets removed. That cabling is never cut. Recognizing it and leaving it alone is the correct handling, and it is not a step that precedes entry.

Slow to a roll and proceed once the siren is heard: The exemption for controlled intersections is real, and students read it as permission to roll through. The exemption is what makes crossing against the light lawful at all, while due regard governs how it is done. A complete stop followed by a lane-by-lane clearing is how the two fit together.

Hold the siren tone steady while crossing: A steady siren feels like the loudest and clearest signal, so students leave the tone alone. Drivers habituate to a continuous wail and stop registering it, which is why the tone is changed on approach. A yelp cuts through where a wail no longer does.

Pass the stopped traffic on the right shoulder: The shoulder looks like open road when three lanes are stopped, and students take it to keep moving. Passing on the right and using the shoulder are both practices to avoid, because a driver yielding correctly pulls to the right and ends up in that same space.

Accept the transport and titrate the norepinephrine to the ordered pressure: This is tempting because accepting a transfer feels like accepting the whole patient, and the sending physician has already written the order. Titrating a vasopressor is a Paramedic skill, and taking the assignment does not stretch your scope to cover it.

Accept the transport after the sending nurse stops the norepinephrine infusion: This is tempting because removing the problem does make the rest of the transport yours. Stopping a drip a physician started is a treatment decision that belongs to the sending facility, and the patient is on that medication because the blood pressure needs it during the ride.

Ask the sending nurse to write the infusion rate on the transfer paperwork: This is tempting because documentation genuinely matters on a transfer, and a written rate looks like authorization. A number on paper does not change who is legally allowed to manage the infusion once the doors close.

50 feet by 50 feet on firm ground, with the corners marked by cones: This is tempting because 50 feet is a real number in landing zone teaching and it sounds like a safe distance on an open field. That figure describes the distance from the center to the edge of a 100 foot square, not the size of the zone itself.

75 feet by 75 feet on firm ground, with the corners marked by cones: This is tempting because it sits between two numbers a student half remembers, and splitting the difference feels cautious. A zone this size leaves the rotor disc closer to the perimeter than the standard allows.

120 feet by 120 feet on firm ground, with the corners marked by cones: This is tempting because it is a real landing zone dimension and bigger sounds safer. The 120 foot square is the preference for larger aircraft, and the question names a light helicopter, which is the standard 100 foot square.

Bystanders at least 100 feet back and vehicles at least 50 feet back: This is tempting because both figures are real landing zone numbers and the relationship between them looks right. The values are swapped low, and vehicles at 50 feet would be sitting inside the perimeter of a 100 foot square rather than outside it.

Bystanders at least 150 feet back and vehicles at least 150 feet back: This is tempting because a single generous distance for everyone is easier to enforce on a chaotic scene. The two groups carry different numbers on purpose, since people move and vehicles do not.

Bystanders and vehicles both at least 50 feet back from the center: This is tempting because 50 feet is the distance from the center of the zone to its edge, so it feels like a boundary. Standing at the edge of the landing area is standing in it, which is the exact error the 100 foot vehicle number exists to prevent.

The trauma center, because a helicopter can shorten the transport time: This is tempting because air transport is genuinely faster over distance and the trauma center is far away. Speed is only worth buying when the destination is the right one, and a helicopter for a closed forearm fracture adds a landing zone and a transfer to a patient who needs neither.

The trauma center, because a fracture qualifies as a trauma activation: This is tempting because the word trauma appears in both the injury and the destination, which makes the pairing feel automatic. Trauma center criteria rest on physiology, anatomy, and mechanism, and an isolated closed forearm fracture with normal vital signs meets none of them.

The community hospital, but only if the patient asks to go there: This is tempting because a stable patient's preference does carry weight in destination selection, so waiting to be asked feels respectful. Preference decides between two appropriate hospitals, and it is not what makes the community hospital correct here, since this injury needs nothing the trauma center alone can provide.

The community hospital, because it is the closest appropriate facility: This is tempting because it uses the correct phrase, and a hospital that can start care does look appropriate. Appropriate means capable of treating the problem through, and a general emergency department stabilizes a burn of this size and then sends it on.

The community hospital, because burn care can be started at any hospital: This is tempting because initial burn care genuinely does begin anywhere, including in your ambulance. Starting care is not the same as providing it, and the destination decision is about where the patient's definitive treatment happens.

Whichever hospital the patient's family names on the way out of the scene: This is tempting because family preference does matter and honoring it feels respectful. Preference is honored for a stable patient when the chosen hospital can treat the condition, and deep burns over the chest and both arms need a capability the family cannot supply by naming a building.

Prone with the wrists secured behind the back and the head turned to one side: This is tempting because turning the head looks like it solves the airway problem that prone positioning creates. Prone restraint compresses the chest against the surface regardless of head position, and that is the mechanism of positional asphyxia.

Prone with the ankles and wrists drawn together and padding under the chest: This is tempting because padding under the chest sounds like it protects breathing, and drawing the limbs together looks secure. Drawing the wrists and ankles together is the hobble position, which is ruled out for the same asphyxia risk that rules out prone.

Seated upright on the bench seat with the wrists secured to the cot frame: This is tempting because upright seating keeps the airway open and looks comfortable. A seated patient restrained to a frame is not secured for a crash, and the bench seat gives a combative patient leverage that a cot does not.

Lift with the two crew members present and move slowly down the stairs: This is tempting because two providers can physically move a great deal and calling for help feels like an admission. Weight that exceeds what two people can control on a stairwell is where crews and patients get hurt, and moving slowly does not reduce the load on your back.

Move the patient to the floor and drag the patient out on a blanket: This is tempting because a blanket drag is a legitimate emergency move and it avoids a lift entirely. Emergency moves are for scene danger, and dragging a patient down a flight of stairs on a blanket trades a lifting injury for a fall.

Call for a lift assist only if the first attempt at the stairs fails: This is tempting because trying first and escalating later sounds efficient, and sometimes the first attempt works. A failed attempt happens with the patient already off the surface and the crew already loaded, which is the worst moment to discover you need more hands.

The name and dose, since the written report carries the rest: Name and dose without route and time leaves the receiving team unable to judge when a repeat is due or how the drug was delivered. The written report arrives with the patient, not ahead of them, so it cannot fill the preparation window.

The name only, with the details given at the bedside: Bedside detail arrives after the preparation window has already closed, which is the exact window the radio report exists to fill. By then the team has already decided what to have ready.

Nothing, since the written report will list the medication: Omitting the medication entirely risks a duplicate dose from a team that does not know one was given, and it withholds the only information about the patient's response to treatment that anyone has.