10 free Paramedic practice questions: Ambulance Operations and Equipment Readiness

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.

Tighten the yoke screw with an adjustable wrench: Tightening the yoke screw with an adjustable wrench tries to force a seal the gasket is supposed to make: over-tightening a fitting with a bad or missing gasket doesn't fix the actual seal problem.

Apply a thin film of lubricant to the fitting: Applying a thin film of lubricant to the fitting is dangerous: oxygen supports combustion, and any petroleum-based lubricant at a pressurized oxygen fitting adds a fire risk rather than fixing the leak.

Wrap the connection with waterproof tape: Wrapping the connection with waterproof tape doesn't restore an actual seal at the valve outlet and adds another fire risk at a fitting carrying pressurized oxygen.

Use the expired strips because they are stored in a sealed container: Even in a sealed container, the chemical reagents in test strips deteriorate over time after the expiration date, compromising accuracy regardless of storage method.

Try the expired strips; if the result is abnormal, recheck per medical control guidance: Attempting a check with expired strips and treating based on the result risks missing true hypoglycemia if the strips give a falsely normal reading.

Use the expired strips only for screening; if they show normal glucose, proceed without further assessment: Using expired strips even as a screening tool is unreliable; a false-normal result could delay recognition and treatment of life-threatening hypoglycemia.

Install the spare in the unit and charge the battery removed: This is the misconception that an out-of-date battery should be used up first while it still holds a charge. Rotating batteries on a schedule is a real practice, but it moves current batteries into service, not expired ones. The question states the installed battery is fully charged with 8 months left, so this swap takes a good battery out of the unit and puts an out-of-date one in.

Record the date on the check sheet and repeat the self-test: This is the misconception that a passing self-test clears any battery finding. The self-test reports on the battery presently installed and does not read a printed date on a spare sitting in the case, and the question states the self-test has already run without an error, so repeating it produces the same result and leaves the deficiency in place.

Keep the spare and recheck its charge at the next shift check: This is the misconception that expiration is a charge problem that will show itself on the charger. The question states the spare is fully charged, so charge is not the finding; the date is. Failure to deliver a shock because of a battery is the recognized failure mode, and a battery past its date is not made current by holding a charge for another shift.

Replace the battery, then repeat the vacuum test: This is the misconception that carries the defibrillator rule across to the suction unit, where a dead battery is the usual culprit. The question states the unit charged overnight and the battery indicator reads full, and a unit whose motor runs is receiving power, so a weak battery does not explain a gauge that climbs to 180 mm Hg and stalls.

Read the gauge again with the tubing unclamped: This is the misconception that clamping the tubing holds the reading down and that the true vacuum is read with the line open. The standard is written the other way: the unit is tested with the tubing clamped, because an open line cannot build vacuum at all. Unclamping produces a lower reading, not a truer one.

Attach a rigid tonsil-tip catheter and retest: This is the misconception that the vacuum specification is measured through the catheter that will actually be used. Adding a rigid tip narrows the path and lowers the reading further, and the question states the test is already being run the standard way, with the unit running and the tubing clamped.

Place the storeroom splint on the unit and read its instructions en route: This is the misconception that the manufacturer's instructions substitute for training on the device. Instruction in a device's use and care is required before it goes on an ambulance, not while the crew is responding to the call that needs it, and reading directions en route is the situation the requirement exists to prevent.

Place the storeroom splint on the unit after the crew practices with it: This is the misconception that hands-on familiarization is the whole requirement. Practice satisfies the instruction half, but approval by the medical director is a separate and additional condition, and the question states the medical director has not approved that model, so the splint is still not eligible to be carried.

Place the storeroom splint on the unit until the missing one is returned: This is the misconception that a temporary placement is exempt from the requirement. Nothing in the standard makes the condition depend on how long the equipment stays aboard; a device the crew has not been instructed in and the medical director has not approved is not made acceptable by labeling it an interim substitute.

Place it in service, since the gauge reads full: This is the misconception that a full gauge is 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 is the misconception that a field pressure check substitutes 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 is the misconception that an overdue cylinder is acceptable 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.

Blood pressure and dressings at the head; suction unit and airways at the side: This is the misconception that the head of the stretcher is simply the most valuable storage space and should hold whatever the candidate ranks as most important. The placement rule is based on where each intervention is performed: bleeding control and blood pressure monitoring are done from the side of the patient, so this arrangement puts the airway equipment out of reach of the seat where the airway is managed.

Suction unit and dressings at the head; airways and blood pressure cuffs at the side: This is the misconception that the two groups can be broken apart and remixed by how often each individual item is used. Airway management, artificial ventilation, and oxygen delivery equipment is packaged together so the crew is not retrieving pieces of one intervention from two locations; splitting the suction unit from the airways defeats that.

Airways and blood pressure at the head; suction unit and dressings at the side: This is the misconception that the powered suction unit is heavy equipment that belongs low and to the side while the small airway adjuncts go up front. It splits the same airway group as option B, and it leaves the crew reaching away from the attendant seat for suction, which is the item most often needed without warning.

Remove the cervical collar, since the head blocks now hold the head in position: A cervical collar does come off eventually, but that decision belongs to the hospital after imaging or a formal clearance protocol, not to the paramedic in the back of the truck. The collar and the head blocks are one system with divided jobs: blocks and tape control rotation and lateral movement, while the collar limits flexion and extension. Remove the collar and the patient can still nod inside the blocks, which is exactly the motion you were most worried about in a suspected cervical injury.

Leave the straps loosely fastened so the patient can reposition if uncomfortable: Leaving straps loose comes from a real concern. A rigid board is genuinely miserable, and comfort matters. A strap loose enough to permit repositioning permits precisely the movement the entire package was built to prevent, and it also fails as a restraint the moment the ambulance stops hard or swerves. Address the comfort problem the way it is actually solved: pad the voids and the pressure points behind the head, the small of the back, and the knees, not by loosening what secures the patient.

Begin transport without straps as long as the patient remains calm and cooperative: Cooperation is not immobilization. A calm patient still moves reflexively when the vehicle brakes or hits a pothole, still turns toward a sudden noise, and can become agitated at any point from hypoxia, head injury, pain, or a falling blood sugar. Securing the patient does not depend on demeanor. It depends on the mechanism of injury that put them on the board, and that mechanism has not changed because the patient is being pleasant.

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.