Did you ever watch the old Star Trek TV show? No of course you didn’t, but this is just you and me talking 
here right? OK, remember when something would threaten the ship. The captain’s first response was to say, ”Go to red alert.” or “Set condition red.” and the lighting would change and a little alarm would sound. That funky shaped light on the front console would start pulsing red. Everyone knew to treat the situation with importance.
I don’t know about you, but I have a list in my head of assessment findings that cause me to shift mental gears into condition red. I don’t need to say anything overly dramatic, but everyone on who works with me can tell when I’ve switched gears to condition red.
For one thing, I start moving just a bit faster than my usual casual pace. I delegate tasks in a laundry list fashion. “I’m going to need an O2 mask. Lets get the pram to the door and bring a stair chair up here. Jesse strip me a line in the rig and check the status of Swedish ER.” The patient may not know the difference, but people who work with me can tell that I’ve set condition red.
Here are a few of the assessment findings that send off alarm bells is my head.
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An EMT Guide to Burn Assessment and Treatment
Your patient has been burned. You are going to have to make two important decisions and you may need to make them fast. First you’re going to need to decide the thickness or “degree” of the burn. Then you’re going to need to determine if the patient meets critical burn criteria.
You may not have a lot of time to put all this together. Your assessment of what does and does not constitute a critical burn will effect your decision to transport emergent or not. It can determine if you transport to a burn center and if the burn team is activated. In many rural areas, the decision to call advanced caregivers or fly a helicopter may all hinge on what you feel is a critical burn … and the determination may not always be that obvious.
Today we’ll begin a three part series on burn assessment. Here, we’ll take a look at identifying burn degree or thickness by appearance and in our next installment we’ll look at the factors that separate our critical burn patients from our moderate and lesser burns. In part three, we’ll talk about management of burn patients.
So what does burn thickness mean?
And what difference does it make anyway?
Burn thickness is important because the layers of the skin all have multiple functions. Your skin protects you, pads you and insulates you. It has the ability to growing new skin, regulate body temperature, growing hair, guard against infection and communicate with you brain about what your environment feels like. The supple flexibility of your skin allows you to move and breath.
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