History, Signs & Symptoms
Your aim is to find out about the casualty’s history, signs and symptoms. So what does this mean?
History
- Do you know their medical history? If not, ask them, find out if they have any ongoing or previous conditions.
- When/ what was the last thing they ate?
- Event history; try to find out what happened.
- Ask what has happened. This could be to the casualty or people standing around.
- Ask about medication. Are they currently taking any? Medication can indicate a medical condition such as diabetes, epilepsy or anaphylaxis. If they do have some, when did they last take it?
- Find out if the person has any known allergies.
- Do they have any medical bracelets indicating a medical warning or have they set up the medical ID on their phone?
- Make a note of your findings if you can and pass this information over to the next person who will be taking care of them.
Signs
This is something you can see, hear or feel on your casualty such as cuts, bleeding, bruising, swelling and skin colour. Use all of your senses- look, listen, feel and smell.
Symptoms
This is what your casualty is experiencing. They are things that the casualty tells you about, or indicates to you in another way if they are not fully conscious. Baby’s won’t be able to communicate with you as they aren’t able to talk yet. If you can talk to them, ask them to give you as much detail as possible.
Activity
Now you know the difference between the history, signs and symptoms take a look at the images below and organise them into the correct categories.