Handling Medical Emergencies

Learn how to help family, friends, and anyone in an emergency when every second counts. This course will help you recognize the early signs and symptoms of common medical conditions and emergencies, so you can provide appropriate treatment while waiting for the EMS to arrive.

6 Weeks / 24 Course Hrs

Currently Enrolling

Offered in partnership with your preferred school

ed2go

Change School

Learning method

Self-Guided

$190

No instructor. Study on your own schedule

Enroll Now

Instructor-Moderated

$175

Confirm your start date in cart

Starting March 12 | April 16

Details + Objectives

Course code: hme

If a member of your family suffered a medical emergency, you could certainly call for trained emergency medical responders, but what would you do while you're waiting for them to arrive? Every second counts during a medical emergency.

Recognizing the early signs and symptoms of common medical conditions and providing appropriate treatment can mean a better outcome for the patient and can greatly reduce the seriousness of the illness, which means a shorter hospital stay and lower medical costs. It's also very satisfying to know how to help someone in a time of need.

What you will learn

Learn to identify common medical emergencies based on their signs and symptoms
Learn how to recognize and manage chest pain, heart attack, stroke, diabetic problems, seizures, breathing difficulty, burns, and allergic reactions in adults
Learn about poisoning, fever, childhood illnesses, injuries from accidents, and the signs of abuse in children

How you will benefit

Learn how to effectively help someone in an emergency situation
Gain peace of mind knowing that you can respond appropriately if family or friends find themselves dealing with an emergency
Experience reduced stress and a greater ability to help when an emergency occurs

How the course is taught

Instructor-Moderated or Self-Guided online course
6 Weeks or 3 Months access
24 course hours

Outline

Every day, thousands of medical emergencies occur in the United States. In your first lesson, you will learn what happens when someone dials 911 to report the emergency. You will see how emergency 911 operators do their jobs, who will respond to the emergency, and what will happen after emergency medical services personnel arrive at the scene. Then, you will start learning the human body, so you will know why your organs work like they do.

This lesson teaches you how to make sure you stay safe at the scene of an emergency—from watching out for traffic and identifying hazards, to protecting yourself from transmitted diseases. Then, you will learn the ABCs of emergency care, so you will know what steps to take in order to help someone in need. Also, you will see how to take a reading of a patient's respiration and pulse to determine if the heart and lungs are working normally.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for adults in the USA. In this lesson, you will learn what causes heart disease and how you and your family can prevent it from happening to yourselves. You will learn the difference between angina and heart attacks, and why you may not want to go to the closest hospital if you suspect your family member is having heart problems.

Would you know what to do if your child suddenly choked on a small toy or piece of food? This lesson addresses choking and breathing problems, the leading causes of accidental deaths in children. You will also learn about asthma, emphysema, pneumonia, and carbon monoxide poisoning.

This lesson focuses on the body's master organ—the brain. You will learn about concussions, head injuries, seizures, and strokes. You will see how the pupils of the eyes give you important information about brain function, and how to recognize the signs of a stroke, one of the most common events leading to adult disability.

Do you know what the largest organ of the body is? Surprise—it's your skin. This lesson goes over what happens when you injure your skin—whether you've scraped, cut, torn, punctured, or burned it. You will also learn how to recognize the signs of bleeding, even if the bleeding is internal and out of your sight. You will see how to stop all types of bleeding and how to treat all types of burns, including electrical, chemical, thermal, and even severe sunburns.

In this lesson, you will learn all about shock—not the electrical kind, but the type that prevents oxygen from getting to your body's cells. You will learn how to recognize and treat shock caused by infections, allergic reactions, bleeding, breathing problems, diabetes, heart problems, spinal injuries, and simple fainting. You will also see what to look for to determine if an unconscious person has a chronic medical problem, with no one around to tell you about it.

This lesson goes into underlying medical problems such as diabetes, gallstones, hepatitis, appendicitis, and kidney stones. You will also learn about heat and cold emergencies, from heat exhaustion and heat stroke to frostbite and hypothermia. And you will find out what's happening if your patient's eyeballs look yellow.

Almost 3 million children are victims of accidental poisoning each year. In this lesson, you will learn how poisoning occurs—how it gets into a child's body through absorption, inhalation, ingestion, or injection. You will see why poison control centers have been established throughout the country and how you can reach one using a single phone number. Most important, you will learn what to do and what not to do before medical help arrives at your house.

This lesson focuses on injuries to the bones and joints. You will learn about fractures, sprains, and strains, as well as how to handle neck and back injuries without causing further harm to your patient. You will learn how to use common items to make splints to stabilize an arm or leg until help arrives. You will also learn about athletic trainers and the roles they serve in organized team sports.

Children aren't just little adults. In this lesson, you will learn how children react to injury and illness, and how you can interact with them during the various stages they go through as they grow up. You will learn the differences in their anatomy as they get bigger, how their vital signs change, and how they're so much more susceptible to shock than adults are. Then, you will examine the early warning signs of substance abuse among teenagers and talk about a difficult topic—teen suicide and self-injury.

In your final lesson, you will learn about illnesses common to children—croup, epiglottitis, asthma, and meningitis. After, you will explore SIDS—Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and learn why researchers think it occurs and steps you can take to reduce its risk. This lesson closes with the nationwide problem of child neglect and abuse, how to recognize the signs and symptoms of physical and sexual abuse, and why just one phone call can make a major positive step in an abused child's life.

Instructors & Support

Bryan Scyphers

Bryan Scyphers has provided emergency medical care for over 35 years. He also has experience in sports medicine, having worked as a trainer for the San Francisco Giants and for Virginia Tech's football team. Scyphers holds bachelor's and a master's degrees in education. He has taught pre-hospital emergency medicine at the college level for many years, and has trained hundreds of Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics.

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Requirements

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 8 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

FAQ

Instructor-Moderated: A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.

Self-Guided: Your course begins immediately after you enroll.

Instructor-Moderated: Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends. You will interact with the instructor through the online discussion area. There are no live sessions or online meetings with the instructor.

Self-Guided: You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

Instructor-Moderated: The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. However, you will have access to all lessons from the time they are released until the course ends.

Self-Guided: There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.

Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Reviews

Best online course I have taken so far. Learned a lot of useful information. I will actually be able to use the knowledge from this course in my life.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this course, and how much useful information I learned! I feel much better prepared in my home and classroom to handle emergency situations that may arise. As an instructor, I think you did a great job of coming up with good discussion area questions and assignments. I always felt like you were interested in our answers, and I enjoyed answering the assignments. Thanks for making me a safer mom and teacher!

I have enjoyed the course thoroughly and feel very confident that, as a teacher, I could handle any medical emergency that comes my way.

I have gained so much information from the lessons. I was even able to recognize the first sign of my son having an asthma attack. Being able to know what to do and not be afraid but confident makes me feel happy. Thank you for all the knowledge!

I think this course was one of the best I have taken. The information it provides is invaluable for all. I would highly recommend it to everyone. I have gained so much insight in handling emergencies. Thank you!

I thoroughly enjoyed this course!! I think that the instructor is very knowledgeable in all areas of medical emergencies. I have learned so much valuable information. I made copies of the lessons so that I could have a manual in case I needed help with certain emergency situations. Once again, thanks for the great course!!

Not only would I recommend this class, I think it should be mandatory for everyone to take. This professor is the most awesome instructor of education I have yet to meet. I loved every minute of his class. I learned more here than I did while taking CPR and First Aid for over 12 years. I wish he had more classes in my field, I would take every one of them. Thank you so much for this instructor.

This course was very helpful, informative, and exciting. I am sure that I would like to continue a formal training in emergency medicine. Thanks!

After over 30 years of nursing, I learned at least one new fact in each lesson. This is a great indication of an excellent course. Bryan was an excellent instructor and I definitely will suggest the course to friends as a great resource for review.