This week in my EMT class I learned about medical assessment and administering medications. This is about my 10th week in the course. I was very surprised about how much material I’ve been able to learn already. Coming into the course, I had no idea that we’d be learning so much about biological mechanisms and treatments. First we begin the class with a lecture. The instructor shows us how to perform certain tasks. Then, for the remainder of the class, we practice with partners. The medical assessment is a routine assessment that we perform when we enter the scene and we are assessing what’s going on. It is very similar to a trauma assessment, which we’ve drilled many times, so it was easy to pick up and practice. For medications, EMTs aren’t allowed to administer a lot of medications. We can only administer Activated Charcoal, Albuterol, Aspirin, Epinephrine, Nitroglycerin, Oral Glucose Gel, Oxygen, and Tylenol. We can also assist patients in taking their own medication. We learned about the uses and administration for each of these medications, and then practiced on dummies. Although it’s been a very short period of time, I’ve been able to learn a lot about different medical considerations and techniques. I think that it has been a good preview so far to see if I’d be interested in this going forward.