10 free EMT practice questions: Equipment Readiness & Ambulance Check

Change the battery in the portable unit and try it again: Changing the battery and trying the portable unit again spends time troubleshooting a failed device when a working second source is already available inside the ambulance.

Clear the mouth with a gloved finger sweep: A gloved finger sweep isn't an appropriate substitute for suction and doesn't address liquid vomitus the way suction does.

Ask the driver to stop so the portable unit can be checked: Asking the driver to stop so the portable unit can be checked delays clearing an airway with liquid in it, when the mounted unit can provide suction immediately without stopping.

A rigid pharyngeal suction tip: the delivery end of the suction system. It doesn't generate vacuum on its own and is useless if there's no power source driving it.

A large-bore suction catheter: also just a delivery component, not a source of vacuum. It depends on a working powered or manual unit behind it.

A spare collection canister and tubing: A spare canister and tubing are parts that carry and collect what's suctioned. They don't generate suction themselves if the powered unit fails.

The stretcher straps tightened across the child: Stretcher straps tightened across a small child are spaced and shaped for an adult torso, leaving the child able to move inside the restraint during a crash.

A caregiver holding the child on the bench seat: provides no crash protection at all and risks the child being crushed between the caregiver and the vehicle interior during a collision.

A pediatric backboard strapped to the bench seat: isn't a substitute for a proper child passenger restraint system designed and tested for securing a child during transport.

Wait for the receiving hospital to confirm the order: The receiving hospital is not part of confirming an online medical control order.

Ask the physician to send the order in writing: Orders are given verbally over the radio, not in writing, in this scenario.

Document the order in the patient care report before acting on it: Documentation occurs as part of the patient care report but is not the step used to confirm the order was understood correctly before acting on it.

The NRB worn by the patient: This is the misconception that anything that sat against a patient's face and carried exhaled breath counts as contaminated by body fluids. The question states the mask is free of blood; the rule that sends an item to the biohazard container is that the item is bloody or contaminated by body fluids, not that it was near the airway.

The outer wrapper from the dressing package: This is the misconception that packaging inherits the status of what it contained. The wrapper came off before the dressing touched the patient and the question states it is dry, so it never contacted blood; most disposable items generated on a call are handled as general trash.

The emesis basin handed to the patient: This is the misconception that any item offered to a patient during care has to be treated as contaminated. The question states the basin was not used, so nothing was deposited in it, and an unused item cannot meet a contamination-based standard.

Attach the regulator, then open the valve briefly and close it: This is the misconception that the brief opening is a leak test performed once the regulator is on. Its purpose is to blow debris out of the valve opening before anything is attached; performed afterward, whatever was in the opening has already been driven into the regulator, which is what the step exists to prevent.

Attach the regulator and open the valve fully to read the gauge: This is the misconception that reading the pressure is the next step and the brief opening is optional. Checking the gauge does come later in the sequence, once the regulator is firmly attached and the cylinder is opened fully, but it does not replace clearing the opening first.

Attach the regulator and open the flowmeter to clear the opening: This is the misconception that running gas through the assembled system flushes it. Once the regulator is attached, gas leaving the flowmeter has already passed through the regulator, so any debris in the valve opening has been carried into the equipment rather than out of it.

Add a second box of road flares to the compartment: This is the misconception that flares are simply the warning device and that carrying more of them covers the gap. Flares work by burning, which is the reason they can ignite flammable liquids or gases, and on a highway where crashes often involve spilled fuel adding more of them increases the ignition source at exactly the scenes where it is least wanted.

Add a second fire extinguisher beside the flares: This is the misconception that the answer to a fuel hazard is more extinguishing capacity. Carrying a second extinguisher does nothing about the missing warning devices, and it treats an ignition that has not happened yet as inevitable instead of removing the ignition source that makes it likely.

Move the flares into the patient compartment cabinet: This is the misconception that the problem with the flares is where they are kept. Moving them into the patient compartment leaves the outside compartment still without any warning device and takes an item stored for use at the roadway out of the compartment that is reachable from outside the vehicle.

A stable patient with a minor ankle injury who lives 10 minutes from the hospital: Air transport for an isolated extremity injury makes sense only when access is the problem rather than the injury, as in a wilderness, water, or off-road rescue where a ground unit physically cannot reach the patient. This patient is stable, has a minor injury, and is 10 minutes from the hospital by ground. The key requires both a time-critical condition and a long ground time, and this option has neither.

A patient who simply requests helicopter transport because of personal comfort: Patient preference legitimately shapes some decisions, including hospital choice within reason and position of comfort. It is not a clinical indication, and aircraft are a finite regional resource, so committing one to a flight nobody needs makes it unavailable for the call that does. The key is a criterion about the patient's condition and the clock, not about what the patient would prefer.

Poor weather conditions that would otherwise delay a ground transport slightly: Weather is a real reason to change the plan, usually by driving more carefully, taking a different route, or accepting a slightly longer ground time. It runs the opposite direction from what this option claims, since low ceilings, icing, and wind are what ground helicopters in the first place. It also fails the key's other half, because a slight delay is nowhere near the long ground transport that makes flight worth it.

Transport to the closest hospital because minimizing transport time takes priority: A shorter transport time only matters when the closer facility can deliver the definitive care the patient needs; protocol directs the closest appropriate facility, and a 10-minute difference is an acceptable trade for direct access to cardiac catheterization.

Transport to the closest hospital and request a later transfer if needed: Delaying definitive cardiac care for an interfacility transfer defeats the purpose of bypassing to the appropriate center in the first place.

Ask the patient which hospital they would prefer, and transport there instead: Facility selection for a time-critical cardiac emergency is a clinical decision based on protocol, not patient preference.

Withhold resuscitation based on the family's statement: Withholding resuscitation without a produced, valid DNR risks denying appropriate care based on an unverifiable claim.

Call medical control and follow whatever the family ultimately decides: Family preference does not override the requirement to resuscitate when a DNR's validity is in question; the default is to treat.

Wait until the document is found before beginning any care: Waiting to begin care delays time-critical resuscitation and is not the correct response to an unconfirmed DNR.