10 free EMT practice questions: Medication & Supply Inventory

Epinephrine auto-injectors expire sooner than other medications: An EMT doing a supply check does watch expiration dates, and epinephrine auto-injectors carry a defined shelf life like any other medication. Nothing in this finding says the devices are expired or close to it; the problem is the strength stocked, not how long it's good for. This answers a different question than the one the finding raises.

The 0.3 mg strength may be given only by an advanced provider: Some medications on a unit are restricted to advanced providers, so scope-of-practice limits point here. Epinephrine auto-injectors at both the 0.3 mg and 0.15 mg strengths are a basic skill, and an EMT can administer either one to a patient in anaphylaxis. The strength carried has nothing to do with who is allowed to give it.

Two auto-injectors would be needed for every adult patient: This one sounds like it belongs to the same dosing conversation as the correct answer, which makes it tempting. 0.3 mg seems low, so stacking two injectors looks like the way to reach an adult dose. But 0.3 mg IM is the full adult dose, not a half dose; no adult patient needs a second device for the same episode.

Delivery of low-flow oxygen to an adequately breathing patient: still covered by the nasal cannula that's on the unit. That capability isn't affected by the missing NRBs.

Measurement of the oxygen saturation of an adequately breathing patient: Measurement of oxygen saturation doesn't depend on oxygen delivery devices at all. That's a separate piece of equipment, a pulse oximeter, unrelated to what masks are stocked.

Ventilation of a patient whose breathing is inadequate: still covered by the BVMs on the unit, which is a completely different device from the NRBs that are missing.

Pediatric pads are unnecessary, because adult pads fit every patient: This comes from the idea that AED pads are one-size-fits-all, but pediatric pads with an attenuator exist specifically to lower the energy delivered to a child under 8 years or under 55 pounds, which is exactly the population this elementary-school unit needs to be ready to treat.

The defibrillator may not be used on a child until pediatric pads arrive: Refusing to shock a child until pediatric pads show up sounds like following the pediatric-pad rule, but that rule is a preference, not a prohibition: guidelines call for using adult pads rather than withholding defibrillation entirely, so treating this as a hard stop delays lifesaving care over a stocking gap.

Pediatric pads are needed only for patients under 1 year of age: Narrowing pediatric pad use to patients under 1 year of age misreads the actual cutoff, which runs through age 8 or 55 pounds, well past infancy.

Continue using them until they expire; replacement is not needed until after expiration: Using stock right up to its expiration date is exactly what you do when replacements are already in motion: the drug is fully potent until that date, and pulling it early just wastes it. What fails is the second half of the option, that replacement is not needed until after expiration. Waiting for the date to pass guarantees a window where the unit carries an expired auto-injector or none at all. The key beats it because it keeps using the current stock while starting the replacement now, so there is never a shift without in-date epinephrine.

Inspect them for visible changes and use them if they appear normal: Visual inspection is a real and required check. You look through the window for discoloration and particulate matter, and cloudy or brown epinephrine gets pulled regardless of its date. What inspection cannot do is verify potency, because a drug degrades chemically long before it changes appearance. The key beats it because dating and inspection are two independent checks, and this option uses one of them to override the other.

Discard them immediately and report the supply shortage to administration: Immediate removal is correct for a medication that is already expired, damaged, discolored, or recalled. That stock cannot stay on the unit another shift. These auto-injectors are in date for four more weeks and are the epinephrine this unit is carrying, so discarding them now creates the shortage rather than reporting one. The key beats it because it keeps a usable drug available while the replacement is arranged, and epinephrine is not a drug you can afford to be without.

Recap the bottle, add a desiccant packet, and return it to service with a note to monitor: Desiccant and a tight cap are the right approach to preventing this problem. That is exactly why the packet and the cotton are in the bottle to begin with. Prevention does not work retroactively: once the tablets have absorbed water and begun to hydrolyze, drying the air around them cannot reverse the chemistry or restore lost potency. Returning it to service with a note to monitor also leaves a questionable drug on the truck, where the next person to grab it will not stop to read the note.

Use the tablets for patients who refuse liquid medication; discard them if the patient declines: Matching the medication form to what a patient will accept is real clinical reasoning: chewable versus swallowed, oral versus sublingual. It has nothing to do with whether the product itself is safe to give. Degraded medication is off-limits for every patient regardless of preference, and discarding it if the patient declines concedes the whole point: if it is not good enough to keep, it was never good enough to administer.

Assume the discoloration is from normal storage and use the bottle until the expiration date passes: Expiration dating is the usual trigger for pulling stock, and checking dates belongs to the same rig check that caught this. The printed date assumes the drug was stored as intended: sealed, dry, within its temperature range, and this bottle was not. Degradation from moisture can outrun the date by a wide margin, so what you can see in the tablets outranks what is printed on the label.

Place the ambulance in service immediately with the expired epinephrine and replace it during the next scheduled equipment maintenance: An EMT might defer this to routine maintenance, the way a burned-out light or a low oxygen tank gets logged for later service. The epinephrine is already three weeks expired, not a wear item, so waiting risks a subpotent dose during an actual anaphylaxis call. Fix it before responding, not on the next maintenance cycle.

Place the ambulance in service with expired epinephrine but notify dispatch that this unit cannot respond to anaphylaxis calls: Flagging a unit as unable to handle a specific call type is a real dispatch practice when equipment like a cardiac monitor is down. Anaphylaxis isn't the only condition epinephrine treats, and restricting call types doesn't remove the deeper problem: this ambulance is carrying medication it cannot use at all.

Contact medical control to request permission to carry and administer expired epinephrine in life-threatening emergencies: Requesting an online order to cover an unusual intervention is standard when a protocol doesn't clearly apply to a situation. Expiration dating is a manufacturer stability standard, not a clinical judgment call medical control has authority to override, and no physician order restores degraded epinephrine's potency.

Strap the cylinder to the stretcher frame with the patient straps: This accepts any strong strap as enough to hold a cylinder. Securing a tank to the stretcher or bench is specifically excluded unless a commercially manufactured device designed for that purpose is used, and the question states no such device is on the unit. The patient straps are made to hold a patient on the stretcher, and the stretcher itself moves in and out of the ambulance.

Lay the cylinder on the floor behind the airway seat, out of the walkway: This reads low and out of the way as secured. Keeping the cylinder out of the walkway addresses tripping, not the hazard that governs here: an unsecured tank becomes a projectile in a collision regardless of where in the compartment it started.

Stow the cylinder in the outside compartment with the extrication tools: This moves the cylinder outside the patient compartment and calls the risk to the crew gone. The requirement to secure tanks by fixed clasps or housings applies regardless of where they are carried, and an unsecured cylinder among loose extrication tools is also exposed to damage to its valve-gauge assembly.

Place it in service, since the gauge reads full: This makes a full gauge the whole readiness check for a cylinder. Pressure describes how much oxygen is inside; the collar stamp describes when the cylinder itself was last tested, and those are separate questions. A cylinder can read 2,000 psi and still be overdue for the test that establishes it is safe to hold that pressure.

Crack the valve to confirm it holds pressure: This substitutes a field pressure check for the periodic test. Cracking the valve is a step for clearing debris from the opening before the regulator is attached, and holding pressure for a few seconds on the station floor is not the test that the collar stamp records.

Keep it as the backup and use the newer one: This accepts an overdue cylinder as long as it is not the first one reached for. The backup cylinder is the one carried for the second patient or the long transport, so demoting it to backup does not take it out of use; it just delays the moment it is relied on.

Top off the sterile water and leave it in place: This counts the water as the consumable and the bottle as the equipment. Humidification equipment is disposable and is used on one patient only; refilling it keeps the same used bottle in the oxygen path for the next patient, which is the transmission route the single-patient rule exists to close.

Empty and air-dry the bottle before the next patient: This dries a disposable item back into service. Emptying and air-drying is a reasonable instinct drawn from reusable equipment, but a single-use humidifier is not returned to service by any cleaning step short of replacement, and the question states it has already been used on a patient.

Keep the bottle for the next transport over 1 hour: This allows reuse so long as the next run also meets the threshold that justified humidification. The 1-hour figure decides whether a humidifier is used at all, not how many patients one bottle may serve; a second long transport is a second patient.

There is no concern, since one size fits all adult patients: Saying there's no concern because one size fits all adult patients is incorrect: patients vary in neck size and a single collar size can't properly fit every one of them.

Cervical collars are not required equipment on an ambulance: Saying cervical collars aren't required equipment misstates their role. They're a standard part of spinal motion restriction equipment that should be available in appropriate sizes.

The concern only applies if a pediatric patient is anticipated: Saying the concern only applies if a pediatric patient is anticipated understates the problem, even among adult patients, a single collar size can't fit the full range of neck sizes encountered.