10 free EMT practice questions: Chief Complaint & Life Threats

The swelling and tenderness of the left wrist: A swollen, tender wrist is a genuine injury that begs to be splinted right away because it's visible and painful. It came from the fall, and the fall came from the chest pressure that started before the patient ever stood up. Splinting the wrist treats a downstream injury while the cardiac cause that produced it goes unaddressed.

The abrasion on the patient's forehead: The forehead abrasion is the kind of visible wound a new EMT wants to dress first. It's superficial and does not explain why this patient sagged and collapsed. Treating it addresses a scratch while the chest pressure that caused the collapse continues untreated.

The possibility of a neck injury from the fall: A fall with a brief collapse fits the mechanism for a neck injury, and spinal precautions belong in the workup. The patient is alert, denies neck and back pain, and moves all four extremities, findings against significant spinal injury. Even with precautions, it doesn't address the chest pressure that preceded the fall, the cardiac cause threatening this patient's life.

Swelling and deformity of the right wrist: The complaint the patient states is treated as the priority. An isolated closed wrist injury in an alert patient is not a life threat and is managed after life threats are addressed.

Blood pressure of 168/94 mmHg: It is the most abnormal number in the vital-sign block. An elevated blood pressure by itself is not the threat here; it commonly accompanies an acute neurologic event and pain.

Report of pain at the wrist only: The patient's own report is treated as a complete inventory of the problem. The neurologic deficits were found on examination rather than reported, so what the patient does and does not feel cannot rule them out.

The reading is falsely raised by the cold outdoor air: Cold is known to affect the device. Vasoconstriction from cold results in inaccurate or misleading values rather than raising the number, and the question states the skin is warm and dry.

The reading shows the tissues are receiving enough oxygen: The number is treated as a measure of tissue oxygenation. The device reports the percentage of hemoglobin that is saturated and cannot tell which gas is bound, so a high number does not establish that oxygen reached the tissues.

The reading rules out carbon monoxide as a cause here: A high number is treated as evidence against the exposure. Saturation can read normal in carbon monoxide poisoning while the patient is hypoxic, so the reading cannot exclude the furnace as the source of three people's symptoms.

Severe pain reported from the burned areas: Pain is the loudest part of the presentation. Pain is a symptom that guides comfort care and transport, not a condition that closes an airway, and the question supplies airway findings that will.

Partial-thickness burns of the chest and both arms: Burn size is treated as burn severity. Extent and depth determine the receiving facility and later fluid needs, while the question states the burns are partial-thickness on the chest and arms and the airway findings are already present.

Pulse of 108/min with unlabored breathing: It is the only abnormal number in the vital-sign block. A pulse of 108/min is expected with pain and stress after a fire, and the question states the breathing is unlabored, so this finding is not the threat.

Wait on scene until symptoms begin to appear: A child who is alert and playing looks well enough to watch. The ingestion was 20 minutes ago and many tablets are missing, so the drug is still being absorbed and the current findings say nothing about what the dose will do.

Give water to dilute the tablets in the stomach: Diluting a poison sounds protective. The interventions the EMT has for an ingested poison are activated charcoal where local protocol allows it and prompt transport; water does not remove tablets that have already been swallowed, and stopping to give it delays departure.

Perform a head-to-toe examination before moving: A full examination feels thorough before moving a patient. The primary assessment has found nothing to manage on scene, and a head-to-toe examination spends minutes that matter for a time-critical exposure.

Tension headache: A headache that starts at a desk suggests stress. A tension headache is described as squeezing, dull, or aching and carries no associated findings, while this patient has neck pain, repeated questioning, and marked hypertension.

Bacterial meningitis: Neck pain points to meningeal irritation. Bacterial meningitis presents with fever and sensitivity to light and develops over hours, and the question states there is no fever, no sensitivity to light, and a temperature of 98.4°F.

Migraine headache: The patient has a known migraine history and the diagnosis is already on the chart. A migraine builds over time and is usually described as similar to past episodes, while this one peaked within seconds and the patient states it does not feel the same.

The forearm laceration, because every wound must be fully bandaged before transport: A forearm laceration is exactly the kind of wound you're trained to fully bandage before transport, but this one has already stopped bleeding on its own and is described as minor. With no active blood loss, it belongs to the secondary assessment, not the threat you stop for during the primary assessment.

The decreased level of consciousness alone, which by itself requires ventilation: Responding only to painful stimuli is a real drop in consciousness, the P on the AVPU scale of Alert, Verbal, Pain, Unresponsive, and it explains why this patient can't protect the airway, but altered mental status alone doesn't call for bag-valve-mask ventilation; the gurgling is the airway problem that the LOC change caused, and you treat that effect first.

The absence of any deformity to the extremities: No deformity to the extremities is a normal, negative finding you'd note and move past in a full assessment. It never represents a threat to airway, breathing, or circulation, so it can't be the finding that stops you during the primary assessment.

Any swelling after an insect sting is by definition anaphylaxis: A local allergic reaction produces redness, swelling, and itching confined to the sting site, with no findings anywhere else on the body. This question gives you facial swelling plus wheezing, findings outside the sting site, so a blanket rule that any swelling equals anaphylaxis is not the actual test being applied here.

Wheezing alone is sufficient regardless of any other findings: Isolated wheezing with no other system involved can come from asthma or another respiratory cause and would not by itself meet the anaphylaxis definition. This patient also has hives and facial swelling, so the wheezing is one piece of a multi-system reaction, not a standalone finding carrying the diagnosis.

Anaphylaxis requires the patient to already have a known bee allergy: A known bee allergy raises suspicion but anaphylaxis can occur on a first-ever sting with no prior diagnosed allergy. The question never states this patient has a known allergy, and the diagnosis rests on the hives and wheezing occurring together, not on allergy history.

Simple pneumothorax: A simple pneumothorax causes absent or decreased breath sounds on the affected side from a collapsed lung, but without ongoing pressure buildup it does not produce progressive worsening, hypotension, or JVD.

Pulmonary contusion: causes hypoxia and crackles or diminished sounds from bruised lung tissue, not the one-sided absent breath sounds with JVD seen when trapped air shifts the mediastinum.

Flail chest: identified by paradoxical chest wall movement from multiple adjacent rib fractures, not by absent breath sounds and JVD, and does not itself explain the progressive hypotensive picture described.

Only facial droop is present, with normal arm strength and speech: Isolated facial droop with normal arm strength and speech is the classic single-finding minor stroke, the kind that scores low on the Los Angeles Motor Scale. This patient already has arm drift and slurred speech in addition to the droop, so this finding doesn't match what's given. A low score points toward a smaller vessel stroke, the opposite of what the question asks about.

The patient has a normal blood glucose level: A normal blood glucose only tells you the presentation isn't hypoglycemia mimicking a stroke. It says nothing about how much brain tissue the occlusion affects, so it can't distinguish a large-vessel occlusion from a smaller one. This finding answers the mimic question, not the vessel-size question.

The patient's symptoms began more than 24 hours ago: Symptoms starting more than 24 hours ago matters for treatment eligibility, like the window for fibrinolytics, not for vessel size. This patient's deficits are described as sudden, and duration alone can't tell you whether a large or small vessel is occluded. This confuses the treatment-window decision with the severity finding the question is asking about.