Research Guide to Emergency Medical Technology

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This research guide provides information relevant to the EMT curriculum at Pima Community College. You may also find the Research Guide to Nursing helpful.

Introduction/How to Search
Reference Resources (Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, eBooks, Etc.)
Online Databases
Web Sites

Indicates title is an eBook

Introduction/How to Search

Librarians do not simply buy materials and randomly put them onto the shelves. Each new item is classified-meaning it is examined carefully and assigned a number to make sure that materials on the same subject are shelved together. Pima College's Library uses the Library of Congress classification system, as does the University of Arizona. This system assigns each subject a combination of letters and numbers, then uses these letters and numbers to arrange materials on the shelves. (For more information see How to Read a Call Number.)

The following table shows how some basic subject headings in emergency medical technology are classified. Clicking on any of these subject headings will start a search for the subject in the Library catalog.

*Call Numbers*	*Topics Covered*	*Some Subject Headings*
RC86.7-89	Emergency medicine	Communication in emergency medicine Emergency medical personnel--Mental health Emergency medical technicians Emergency medical technician and patient Emergency medical services Emergency medicine First aid in illness and injury Hazardous substances safety measures Medical emergencies--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Reference Resources

This section lists a few emergency medical services reference tools. Not all the print resources listed are available at all campus libraries. Check the Library catalog to verify the availability of titles.

American Medical Association. Health Professions Career and Education Directory. Chicago, IL: The Association, 2000-. Call no.: R847 .D57. This annual publication from the AMA provides information on 61 health-related professions, job descriptions, employment outlook, licensure requirements, and similar information.
American Red Cross. American Red Cross Emergency Response : Health and Safety Services. St. Louis: Mosby Lifeline, 1997. Call no.: RC86.7 .E5895 1997. This illustrated manual from the American Red Cross was revised to meet the 1995 U.S. Department of Transportation First Responder: National Standard Curriculum.
Anderson, Douglas M., et al. Mosby's Medical, Nursing, & Allied Health Dictionary. 6th ed. St. Louis, Miss.: Mosby, 2001. Call no.: R121 .M89 2001. This standard reference in health care dictionaries contains thousands of definitions for health care terminology, many color illustrations, laboratory test definition, and thousands of definitions for generic drugs.
Bergeron, J. David, and Gloria Bizjak. First Responder. Rev. ed. Brady, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Brady, 2005. Call no.: RC86.7 .B47 2005. This standard text "provides clear First Responder-level training for fire service, emergency, law enforcement, military, civil, and industrial personnel." The latest edition includes a new chapter on legal and ethical issues.
Bronstein, Alvin C., and Phillip L. Currance. Emergency Care for Hazardous Materials Exposure. 2nd ed. St. Louis: Mosby Lifeline, 1994. Call no.: RC87.3 .B76 1994. This handbook provides information on responding to exposure/contamination emergencies, standard operating procedures on responding to a HAZMAT emergency, and guidelines that address specific hazard classes and chemicals.
Caroline, Nancy L. Emergency Care in the Streets. 5th ed. Boston: Little Brown, 1995. Call no.: RC86.7 .C38 1995. Based on the U.S. Department of Transportation curriculum, this title covers the prehospital world, the basics, the secondary surfvey, trauma, medical emergencies, environmental emergencies, OB/GYN, behavioral emergencies, and responding to the call.
Edwards, David P., and Mark Weingartner. Paramedic Examination Review Manual. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Brady, 1991. Call no.: RC86.9 .E39 1991. This test review manual covers standard care methods, a concise coverage of medical terminology, as well as patient preparation and transport, trauma emeregencies, in-the-field medical techniques, OB-GYN/neonatal care procedures, ACLS algorithms, and other topics.
Garcia, Bill. Mosby's Emergency Dictionary : EMS, Rescue, and Special Operations. 2nd ed. St. Louis: Mosby Lifeline, 1998. Call no.: RC86.7 .M663 1998. This dictionary for emergency medical services defines some 7,800 terms, and includes pronunciation.
Hafen, Brent Q., Keith J. Karren, and Joseph J. Mistovich. Prehospital Emergency Care. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Brady Prentice Hall, 1996. Call no.: RC86.7 .H346 1996. This illustrated text meets the U.S. Department of Transportation 1994 revised EMT-Basic National Standard Curriculum. It is arranged in eight modules: preparatory; airway; patient assessment; medical, behavioral, and OB/GYN; trauma; infants and children; operations; and advanced airway elective.
Henry, Mark C., and Edward R. Stapleton. EMT Prehospital Care. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1997. Call no.: RC86.7 .H47 1997. This illustrated text is arranged in 33 chapters, and covers assessment and treatment protocols and skills performance.
Holloway, Brenda Walters. Nurse's Fast Facts : The Only Book You Need for Clinicals! 2nd ed. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co., 2001. Call no.: RT51 .H65 2001. This ready reference handbook provides clinical reference information in a variety of areas, including medical-surgical, material-infant, pediatric, mental health, emergency and critical care, gerontologic, nutrition, and home health care.
Jacobs, Donald Trent. Patient Communication for First Responders and EMS Personnel : The First Hour of Trauma. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Brady, 1991. Call no.: RC86.3 .J33 1991. This title "provides specific strategies for emergency personnel to help the person in trauma mobilize his or her own survivan and healing capabilities."
Krapp, Kristine M. The Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing & Allied Health. 5 vols. Detroit: Gale Group Thomson Learning, 2002. Call no.: RT21 .G353 2002. This multi-volume encyclopedia contains over 850 in-depth articles on diseases and disorders, tests and procedures, equipment and tools, human biologhy, nursing and allied health professions, and current health issues.
Krohmer, Jon R., et al. First Aid Manual. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2001. Call no.: RC86.8 .F565 2001. This title serves as "A comprehensive guide to treating emergency victims of all ages in any situation." It is the official authorized manual of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Leikin, Jerrold B., Bernard J. Feldman, and American Medical Association. American Medical Association Handbook of First Aid and Emergency Care. Rev. ed. New York: Random House, 2000. Call no.: RC86.8 .A426 2000. Sponsored by the American Medical Association, this handbook is aimed at the layperson, and provides "a comprehensive, step-by-step family guide to dealing with injuries, illnesses, and medical emergencies."
Limmer, Daniel, et al. Essentials of Emergency Care : A Refresher for the Practicing EMT-B. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1998. Call no.: RC86.7 .O38 1999. This book is "written for the experienced EMT-Basic who is enrolled in a refresher/recertification program."
Limmer, Daniel, MiChael Grill, and Edward T. Dickinson. Fire Service First Responder. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Brady/Prentice Hall, 2000. Call no.: RC86.7 .L563 2000. Aimed at first responders, this illustrated text covers the Department of Transportation national standard curriculum for firefighters.
Mannon, James M. Emergency Encounters: EMTs and Their Work. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 1992. This case study profiles the work of paramedics by examining "the social world of emergency ambulance work in one of the nation's largest cities."
McSwain, Norman E. The Basic EMT : Comprehensive Prehospital Patient Care. 1st ed. St. Louis: Mosby Lifeline, 1997. Call no.: RC86.7 .B376 1997. This illustrated text follows the U.S. Department of Transportation guidelines for the 1994 EMT-Basic Curriculum. Arranged in 42 chapters, it covers all of the essentials in EMS, including aeromedical support, disaster and haz-mat response, and many other topics.
Miller, Benjamin Frank, and Claire Brackman Keane. Miller-Keane Encyclopedia & Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Allied Health. 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1997. Call no.: R121 .M65 1997. This multi-disciplinary dictionary includes pronunciation guides, listings of stems, prefixes, and suffixes, the vocabulary of the Unified Nursing Language system, and numerous appendices.
Mitchell, Jeffrey T., and Grady P. Bray. Emergency Services Stress : Guidelines for Preserving the Health and Careers of Emergency Services Personnel. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1990. Call no.: RA645.5 .M57 1990. This title addresses on-the-job stress for EMS personnel. It provides "up-to-date concepts, strategies, and tactics in stress reduction and health enhancement."
National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (U.S.). Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support Committee., and American College of Surgeons. Committee on Trauma. PHTLS--Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support : Basic and Advanced. 3rd ed. St. Louis: Mosby, 1994. Call no.: RC86.7 .P48 1994. This text covers basic and advanced prehospital trauma concepts and skills, including rapid assessment, treatment for sock and hypoxemia, and rapid transport.
The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. 3rd. ed. 5 vols. Detroit: Gale Research, 2006. This multi-volume encyclopedia "is a one-stop source for medical information on nearly 1,500 common medical disorders, conditions, tests, and treatments."
Paramedic Licensing Exam. New York: Learning Express, 1998. This title provides information about the EMT-Paramedic exam, the "Easysmart test preparation system," several practice exams, and state certification requirements.
Polk, Dwight A., and E. Jackson Allison. Advanced Life Support Skills. St. Louis: Mosby Lifeline, 1994. Call no.: RC86.7 .A34 1994. This illustrated guide shows how to perform advanced life support skills. It aims "to help new ALS personnel become 'street savvy,' and to provide more seasoned providers with a quick update/refresher."
Santa-Maria, Greg. Emergency Medical Technical (EMT) Basic Exam. 3rd ed. Arco, 2005. This online practice test book is available in Gale’s Testing and Education Reference Center, and includes a “full-length practice exam and in-depth subject reviews covering all of the sections of the test.” You must have Adobe’s Acrobat Reader installed to read the book.

Online Databases

Unless otherwise indicated, the databases below are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week with a student ID or a faculty/staff Library card.

ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health provides indexing coverage and full-text access to over 400 periodicals and journals from leading health care related publications, some of which are concerned with emergency medicine. Many of the titles included in this database are peer-reviewed journals.
Health & Medical Complete combines the clinical research titles available in ProQuest Medical Library™ with hundreds of additional consumer and health administration titles. ProQuest Health and Medical Complete provides in-depth coverage from over 1,300 publications with more than 965 available in full text and of these, over 900 include MEDLINE® indexing.
EBSCO’s Health Source – Nursing/Academic Edition offers complete information from leading nursing and related publications, this database is designed to meet the needs of researchers at health-care facilities as well as students enrolled in nursing programs at academic institutions.

Web Sites

There are many of web sites devoted to emergency medical services. We've listed a small number of high-quality sites that contain links to additional sites.

eMedicine Journal: Emergency Medicine Medical Reference. Web site. Available at: http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/. Accessed on: Oct. 14, 2008. This web site provides access to reference articles on a variety of topics in emergency medicine such as aeromedical transport, disaster planning, HAZMAT, prehospital airway devices, etc.
EMS Responder.com. 2005. Web site. Available at: http://www.emsresponder.com. Accessed on: Oct. 14, 2008. Provides access to articles in EMS Magazine, as well as access to a calendar, classified ads, links, industry news, a survey of states and provinces, and a career center.
Emergency Response & Research Institute. Emergency.com: Crisis, Conflict, and Emergency Service News, Analysis and Reference. 1995. Web site. Available at: http://www.emergency.com/index.htm. Accessed on: Oct. 14, 2008. This web site offers access to a variety of EMS related pages and news, including fire and police operations, EMS and disaster/rescue operations, HAZMAT operations, military operations, chemical/biological terrorist attack, and others.
Merginet.com: The Ultimate EMS Resource. 1996. Web site. Available at: http://www.merginet.com/. Accessed on: Oct. 14, 2008. Sponsored by the Medical Emergency, Rescue and Global Information Network (MERGINET), this web site "warehouses ... all kinds of information about EMS clinical care, administration and management, operations, professional development, products, technology and trade associations."
National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. 2004. Web site. Available at: http://www.naemt.org/. Accessed on: Oct. 14, 2008. This is the official web site of the NAEMT. It offers information on the association and its activities, EDU courses, a bulletin board, a book store and supply shop, links to other EMS sites, and information on the annual expo and meeting of the NAEMT.