Emergency and Critical Care
Triage and Initial Assessment
Emergency care starts with triage: rapidly identifying life-threatening conditions. Use the ABCs-airway, breathing, circulation-and assess perfusion, mentation, and temperature. Understand the difference between emergent, urgent, and non-urgent presentations.
Common Emergencies
Know the recognition and initial management of shock, hemorrhage, respiratory distress, seizures, toxicoses, heatstroke, and trauma. Understand the use of oxygen therapy, intravenous fluids, and emergency drugs (e.g., epinephrine, atropine, diazepam). Familiarize yourself with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the RECOVER guidelines conceptually.
Monitoring and Stabilization
Critical patients require continuous monitoring of vital signs, perfusion, urine output, and pain. Understand the principles of stabilization before definitive treatment.
Traps to Watch
Questions may present a patient with subtle signs of shock or ask about the first action in a crisis. The first action is usually airway and breathing, not drug administration. Another trap is assuming normal blood pressure excludes shock.
Worked Example
A dog hit by a car is tachycardic, has pale gums, and prolonged CRT. The correct priority is to establish vascular access, provide oxygen, and begin fluid resuscitation while assessing for internal hemorrhage.
Rule of Thumb
In any emergency, follow ABCs first; treat the most life-threatening problem before the most obvious one.