Asklemmy

I read it as Opie Crust.

Nope. It's taught OPQRST.

Which I always hated.

"Can you tell me your name?" - Folks, this is the last thing to go, along with birthday.

"Where are you right now?" - In bed? On the floor? At home? A million correct answers. "What date is it today?" - Almost every single provider I've seen who asked this then checked their phone to see if the answer is correct.

Alternatives have to be well thought-out, though:

"How many fingers am I holding up?" - That's testing eyesight as well, and can easily provide a wrong answer if eyesight is bad.

And then there's the language barrier. How's your Spanish? Your Farsi? Your Urdu? Your Arabic/Vietnamese/Russian?

I once had to ask a patient, who was Spanish-speaking, for permission to transport, explaining that their permission also allowed me to treat, bill insurance, all that... at the time I had very little Spanish. Her husband listened politely and turned to her, saying "Just say yes." After that, I knew I needed more language skills...

And don't forget to SAMPLE your patient either. And when filling out your run report, make sure you fill in the Glasgow Coma Score. And remember - even a toaster gets a score of 1!

Thanks for reminding me, I'm going to have random flashbacks all day now.