Motivation to review the basics!

Brian McVickers

Administrator
Staff member
SOAPs are referring to SOAP reports or SOAP notes.
It is a record of all the information you have gathered on a patient.

They are used in several ways, my wife uses one form for her PT work, for wilderness medical situations it includes the current condition of the patient, the history of what led up to their current condition, your diagnosis and treatment plan including your plan to evacuate or manage along with any anticipated problems and requests for equipment and assistance.

(From the Book) - just for fun and a good review!

S = Subjective/Summary/Story
"I have a (age, sex) whose chief complaint is (description of symptom including Onset, Provokes/Palliates, Quality, Radiation/Region/Referred, Severity and Time). Patient stated Method of Injury or History of Present Illness.

O = Objective/Observations/Findings
"Patient found (describe position). Patient exam reveals (describe injuries). Vital signs at (time), SAMPLE"

Vital Signs include:Time, Level Of Responsiveness, Hearth Rate, Resperitory Rate, Skin Color Temperature Moisture, Blood Pressure, Pupils, Temperature.

SAMPLE includes: Symptoms, Allergies, Medications, Pertinent medical history, Last intake/output, Events leading to the incident/illness.

A = Assessment (problem list)

P = Plan (Plan for each problem on the assessment list)


There are essentially three varieties:
Written - the most detailed.

Verbal Complete - a verbal version of the written, to be used to debrief or update people new to the scene or to be used with solid and reliable methods of communication such as a telephone land line.

Verbal Headlines - a down and dirty overview to be used when time is an issue when updating new people or when using unpredictable forms of verbal communication such as mobile phones or radios.


Brian
 

93BLAZER

Explorer
“I checked ABC and did a blood sweep while asking the passenger lots of questions to measure his LOR”.

What do you meant a “blood sweep” Also, What do you mean by “LOR”

I have been involved in EMS for a number of years in the Southwest and have not heard either one of those terms. Obviously, I know what the ABC's are and how to access but don't know about the blood sweep thing. Do you mean you simply did a quick scan to see if the pt was bleeding? About the LOR, do you mean LOC as in level of consciousness?

To learn some new things and see how the real world handles life's problems in the field in an emergency, I would suggest you ride with your local fire department.

When I was working as an EMT in the field and I would get a report (or SOAP) from someone, I don't really care about the fine details. I want the facts, plan and simple. What happened and what do we need to do to make things better. In addition, when I first started as an EMT I would give a SOAP or “onscene report” to the nurse or doc. I found that 80 % of the time they would loose interest and not listen the other 20 % they would interrupt and ask me a question that I didn't get to yet, So I learned to just tell them what happened, what we did and how the pt is now.

Ive heard EMT's literally tell the team the pts life story... “This is an approx 40 year old male, he's was born in Toledo and moved to Phoenix when he was 11, His favorite color is Magenta and he likes Deviled Eggs topped with Horseradish...He was driving a White 2001 Honda Accord with leather the that was financed through Wells Fargo with an unbelievably high interest rate of 15.9%. The pt enjoys smooth jazz an on occasion when bass fishing, he listens to Jimmy Buffett..."

I've learned over the years to keep it simple. Remember K.I.S.S. Keep it simple...

Im not critiquing your response, just simply saying that if you want some experience start riding with your local fire department or ambulance service (dependent on where you live) I guarantee you, a shift with the Phoenix Fire Department on E7, E11 or E24 will open your eyes and give you some pointers on what to do. You really do learn a lot. The EMT class teaches you the book. Sometimes, there is a variation between the book and the real world.

Good Luck
 

Brian McVickers

Administrator
Staff member
What do you meant a “blood sweep” Also, What do you mean by “LOR”

Do you mean you simply did a quick scan to see if the pt was bleeding? About the LOR, do you mean LOC as in level of consciousness?

Yes on both accounts:
LOR is Level of Responsiveness = same as = LOC Level of Consciousness. It is measured and conveyed in A+Ox 1,2,3or4.
So "PT's LOR is A+Ox4. If the LOR is A+Ox0 or 1 you also indicate what stimulus was effective for generating a response, voice, loud voice, or pain as in a pinch or rubbing their sternum.

Blood sweep is checking to see if and where the PT is bleeding, done by visually inspecting what you can see and then sliding your gloved hands all the way under and around the PT where you can not see and then checking your gloves for blood after each time you slide your hands under the PT.

I really like the idea of doing ride alongs to learn more.

So far I only know what I have been trained. I took training for Wilderness First Responder through NOLS and the Wilderness Medical Institute. There are some things that the WMI admittedly does different than the norm because of the likely abnormal situations and environments WFRs would be operating in. They trained us to make the SOAPs incredibly dry, impersonal, quick and factual. The idea being that you may only have one shot to get a communication out from the back country and it could even be interrupted or fail to be received.

My biggest frustration from this past first experience was my own response to communicating a soap to the arriving EMT. Granted, it was 2am but I felt a bit tongue tied and may as well have pointed to the PT and said "ugg that man hurt, ugg ugg, he fall down go boom, ugg"

Brian:coffee:
 
Last edited:

muddyluxury

Observer
I understand the stress of the real deal. Right now being deployed I call up a 9 line medevac, give MIST report battle drills like its cool.

and we never do them in a classroom. 9lines done at the range over the platoon FM freq, Mist reports done will crew serves are going off, and lots of people yelling,

And the only way to do it all is with the 9 line written down, we greese penned it to the truck winshield, everybody has one with the casuality feeder card, and in the Indv First Aid Kit. The Mist report is more like Doc, i know you just saw what happened, but anyways here it is, then he takes it from there.

sometimes when they are feeling spunky... the gunner get's stuck with an IV durring movement while going over battle drills before they leave the wire. point being practice, practice practice
 

kellymoe

Expedition Leader
Great job keeping a cool head.

I have been a firefighter paramedic over 23 years and that was the first time I have heard of SOAP. I Lean something new every day.
 

jh504

Explorer
Good job handling that situation. Its nice to have that training to fall back on when something does happen isnt it?! We use SOAP format in all of our classes over here and I never use it in the real world. The blood sweep thing sounds like a derivative from PHTLS (just finished it). Thats a great part of an assessment because a lot of folks will get tunnel vision and miss the gaping wound on the pts backside.:)
I understand having trouble recessing information in that kind of a situation. One thing I try to do is always grab a pen or pencil as I am heading that way. After you have stabilized any life threats write down everything the arriving medics will need. Age, vitals, meds etc. Then you can just read off to them or hand them the piece of paper. Good first responders in our county will always hand us a sheet with all our baseline info covered. Its a great help! Good job again with jumping right in and taking control!
 

Fish

Adventurer
The most important question:
Does the fly in your boxers have a button to keep it closed?

Seriously, great job. I've been an EMT for 20+ years now and was a paramedic for 10+ years of that time. It's amazing how few of the general public can actually help out in an emergency.
 

Brian McVickers

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks!

It is great to get all the solid feedback, I had no idea there were so many similar versions of similar practices.

That WFR training paid off again about three weeks ago. Sitting at a restaurant with my 2.5 yr old son and 3 soon to be 4 yr old daughter I had the absolute-never-want-to-do-it-again-experience of performing the Heimlich on my daughter.

I had looked over to see her gaping mouth and this wide-eyed horrified panic look on her face. I'm not even sure it was the Hemlich, I picked her off her seat, knelt down behind her, put my entire left forearm across her front just below her ribs and my right hand on the small of her back with her shoulders against my chest and compressed with my left arm. One compression and the guy at the next table said "its out!" A nice marshmallow sized hunk of cheese and tortilla! She never even cried, she went back to eating! So now we are on a big push for small bites, chew and swallow before the next bite.

Brian
 

Brian McVickers

Administrator
Staff member
The most important question:
Does the fly in your boxers have a button to keep it closed?

.

No button but I was fully covered, however it was a bit drafty. Worst part of not having your pants on is not really being able to sit anywhere!
 

Brian McVickers

Administrator
Staff member
I understand the stress of the real deal. Right now being deployed I call up a 9 line medevac, give MIST report battle drills like its cool.

and we never do them in a classroom. 9lines done at the range over the platoon FM freq, Mist reports done will crew serves are going off, and lots of people yelling,

And the only way to do it all is with the 9 line written down, we greese penned it to the truck winshield, everybody has one with the casuality feeder card, and in the Indv First Aid Kit. The Mist report is more like Doc, i know you just saw what happened, but anyways here it is, then he takes it from there.

sometimes when they are feeling spunky... the gunner get's stuck with an IV durring movement while going over battle drills before they leave the wire. point being practice, practice practice

This sounds interesting, can you share an example or description of the 9 Line or the MIST?

Thanks
Brian
 

Forum statistics

Threads
186,210
Messages
2,883,403
Members
226,050
Latest member
Breezy78
Top