Primary and Secondary Survey

Primary and Secondary Survey

 

PRIMARY SURVEY

A: Airway – Check airway patency

B: Breathing – Check rise and fall of chest / symmetrical breathing etc

C: Circulation- How well perfused? Check pulse, cyanosis

D: Disability– Neuro – Are they conscious, can they talk to you?

Primary survey is a quick “eyeball” assessment of patient to ascertain priorities.

 

SECONDARY SURVEY

E: Environment / Expose– Unwrap and expose looking for obvious external trauma

F: Fahrenheit: – Assess body temperature- ? hypothermia

G: Get Vitals– Quick set of obs – BP,HR,RR, ?SpO2

H: History– Present History – Events related to current status

                    Related History – Things leading up to this event

                    Past History –Briefly Med / surg / Medication / Allergies / Last meal

                    Head to Toe or systems assessment – Depending on patient status may undertake a more thorough assessment of each system eg

Cardiac – Postural BP, Chest pain assessment, listen to heart sounds, JVP

Resp- Listen breath sounds, percuss lungs, peak flow

Other systems assessed are Neuro, GIT, Renal and integumentary.

I: Interventions– Reposition, Drug therapy eg oxygen,. Nitrates, nebs

I: Investigations- Depends on all of above findings but may range from ECG, BSL.