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10 free EMT practice questions: Patient Count & Triage (MCI)

These are real questions from the same bank the app draws from. Each one is written to the NREMT EMT content specifications and kept inside the EMT scope of practice. Pick an answer and you get the full rationale, including why the other three options are wrong.

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Question 1 of 10

An EMT is performing initial triage with the START system after a floor section collapsed at a warehouse. A 45-year-old patient cannot walk. The respirations are 20/min and a strong radial pulse is present, but the patient does not follow simple commands and only moans when spoken to. Which triage category should the EMT assign?

Show the answer and rationale

Correct answer · Immediate (red)

This patient gets an Immediate (red) tag. The patient does not follow simple commands and only moans when spoken to. START checks three things: respirations, perfusion, and mental status. If the patient fails any one of the three, the patient is Immediate, even when the other two pass. The respirations are 20/min and the radial pulse is strong, so those two checks pass. The mental status check fails. Only moaning and not following commands means the brain is not working right. The cause can be poor blood flow to the brain or an injury to it. This patient needs airway management and gets first priority for transport.

Why the others are wrong

Delayed (yellow): for a patient who cannot walk but passes all three START checks. This patient fails the mental status check. The normal respirations of 20 and the strong radial pulse do not make up for that failure, because START does not average the checks.

Minor (green): for the walking wounded, patients who can walk to the treatment area on their own. This patient cannot walk. Walking is the first thing START checks, and this patient also fails the mental status check.

Expectant (black): for injuries so severe that the patient is not expected to survive with the resources you have. This patient is breathing 20 times a minute and has a strong radial pulse. Altered mental status by itself does not earn a black tag.

Question 2 of 10

An EMT arrives at a multiple-patient incident where first responders have already tagged every patient. The EMT is assigned to the treatment area, and patients begin arriving from the triage area. What should the EMT do as each patient arrives?

Show the answer and rationale

Correct answer · Reassess each patient and confirm the category

Reassess each patient on arrival, and confirm or change the category. Triage tags go on in seconds during the first sweep. Airway status, breathing rate, and perfusion can change a lot in the minutes it takes to reach the treatment area. A tag only shows how the patient looked at one moment. Reassessing in the treatment area catches a delayed patient who has gotten worse and is now immediate. The confirmed category sets the order for treatment and for transport out of the treatment area. Skip this step and a patient who is getting worse waits behind others because of an old tag.

Why the others are wrong

Transport patients in the order they were tagged: Nobody in the treatment area has rechecked these tags, so transporting in tagging order trusts how each patient looked during the first sweep. A patient who got worse after triage ends up transported out of turn.

Move patients to the ambulances by tag color: Sending patients to the ambulances by tag color as they arrive skips the reassessment the treatment area is there for. Transport by category comes after the category is confirmed.

Keep the categories assigned during initial triage: Patients keep changing after triage, and the first sort took only a few seconds per patient. Without a recheck, you miss anyone who has improved or gotten worse since triage.

Question 3 of 10

An EMT crew is the first unit to arrive at a collision involving a shuttle bus with eight injured occupants. The next ambulance is 10 minutes away. While moving through the occupants, the EMT finds a patient with severe difficulty breathing and tags the patient immediate. Three occupants have not been triaged. What should the EMT do?

Show the answer and rationale

Correct answer · Continue triaging the remaining occupants

Keep triaging. Three occupants have not been triaged yet. Initial triage sorts every patient as immediate, delayed, minor, or dead/expectant before any one patient is treated or moved. You cannot know which patient is worst until everyone has been sorted. One of the three untriaged occupants could also be immediate, or worse off than this patient. Finish the sort first. Treatment and transport get assigned once every patient has a tag.

Why the others are wrong

Load the immediate patient into the ambulance: Loading a patient into the ambulance comes after triage, when transport order is set by tag. With three occupants untriaged, you do not know if this patient needs the first seat. Stopping triage to load one patient leaves three occupants unsorted.

Transport the immediate patient to the hospital: This immediate patient will get transported, once transport is organized around a complete triage. Your crew is the only unit on scene, and the next ambulance is 10 minutes away. Leaving now abandons three occupants nobody has assessed.

Begin treating the immediate patient's breathing: Immediate patients do get quick lifesaving steps during the sort, like opening an airway. Treating this patient's breathing beyond that quick step stops the sort. With three occupants still untagged, a sicker patient may be waiting where nobody has found them.

Question 4 of 10

At a warehouse fire, the EMT performs START triage on a patient who is unable to walk due to severe leg injuries. The patient is alert and oriented to person, place, and time. Their respiratory rate is 32 breaths per minute with spontaneous breathing, skin is warm and dry, and radial pulse is strong at 92 beats per minute. What is the correct START triage category for this patient?

Show the answer and rationale

Correct answer · Red (immediate)

This patient is Red, which is immediate, because the respiratory rate is 32. START stands for Simple Triage And Rapid Treatment. In START, a patient who cannot walk gets the breathing checked first. A respiratory rate above 30 tags the patient Red before you ever check the pulse or mental status. A rate that fast means the patient is already working hard or compensating for something, and the patient can get worse quickly. This patient goes to the Red treatment area to be reassessed and treated ahead of patients with normal breathing. The strong pulse and normal mental status do not change the tag.

Why the others are wrong

Green (minor injuries): Green is for patients who can get up and walk to the triage area on their own with minor injuries. This patient cannot walk because of severe leg injuries. The first step of START moves this patient out of the walking group before any vital sign is checked.

Yellow (delayed): A respiratory rate of 32 is over the START cutoff of 30, and that alone makes this patient Red. START checks respirations first in a patient who cannot walk, so the fast rate sets the tag before perfusion is ever looked at. The alert mental status, the strong radial pulse of 92, and the warm, dry skin do not move the patient back to Yellow.

Black (expectant): Black is for patients who are not breathing even after you reposition the airway, or who have injuries they clearly cannot survive. This patient is breathing on their own at 32 a minute, so Black does not apply.

Question 5 of 10

The EMT is the first unit at a warehouse fire with multiple patients. A quick scene scan identifies several patients. One patient with a superficial burn on the arm walks toward the EMT, stating they are able to move around independently. Before performing detailed vital sign assessment, what is the appropriate START triage category for this ambulatory patient?

Show the answer and rationale

Correct answer · Green: the patient can walk independently and is triaged as a minor injury

This patient is green, the walking wounded. The patient walked to you and says they can move around on their own. Walking is the first sort in START triage. Everyone who can walk is tagged green, before any vital signs. The superficial burn on the arm does not change that. Tag this patient green and move on. Check the patients who cannot walk in order: breathing, perfusion, then mental status.

Why the others are wrong

Red: all burn injuries require immediate assessment and transport: Red is for a patient who cannot walk and fails a check, like breathing too fast, no radial pulse, or not following a simple command. START does not sort patients by the type of injury. This patient walked to you, so this patient is green.

Yellow: all burn patients must be triaged as Yellow until vitals confirm stability: Yellow is for a patient who cannot walk but passes the breathing, perfusion, and mental status checks. This patient already passed the walking step by walking to you. START tags a patient who walks green without waiting on vital signs.

Black: any patient with a burn injury is classified as nonviable: Black is for a patient who is still not breathing after you open the airway. A burn does not make a patient black. This patient is walking and talking, so this patient is breathing.

Question 6 of 10

A chlorine release at a water treatment plant produces 12 patients. The hazmat team has established control zones, and a decontamination corridor is operating in the warm zone. The EMT is assigned to triage in the cold zone. Several patients walk out of the plant on their own; their clothing is wet, and they have not passed through the decontamination corridor. What should the EMT do?

Show the answer and rationale

Correct answer · Direct the patients into the decontamination corridor before triage

These patients are still contaminated. Their clothing is wet, and they have not gone through the decontamination corridor. At a hazardous materials incident, the hazmat team has to identify patients as contaminated or decontaminated before regular triage. Patients go through decontamination before they are taken into a treatment area. Chemical carried into triage, treatment, or a hospital can shut down the whole response. Send these walking patients into the decontamination corridor. Triage them after they come out clean.

Why the others are wrong

Triage the patients where they stand and tag them for later: Triaging patients where you find them is the first step at most mass-casualty incidents. These patients are still wet with the chemical. Triaging them now exposes you, contaminates the tag, and breaks the zones the hazmat team already set up.

Triage the patients as minimal and send them for transport: Patients who walk out on their own are usually the walking wounded, tagged minimal. Being able to walk does not clear a patient for transport. Moving contaminated patients toward the ambulances spreads the chemical into a clean area.

Walk the patients into the treatment area and triage them: Getting patients to the treatment area fast is right on an ordinary call. Walking these patients in carries the chemical into the treatment area. Decontamination comes before the treatment area, not after.

Question 7 of 10

An EMT is performing primary triage with the JumpSTART system after a roof collapse at a gymnasium. A 7-year-old patient who appears to weigh about 50 pounds did not walk to the collection area and is not breathing. A distal pulse is palpable. The EMT opens the airway with a manual maneuver and then gives five rescue breaths. The patient still does not breathe. What should the EMT do?

Show the answer and rationale

Correct answer · Tag the patient expectant and continue triaging the others

Tag this child expectant and keep triaging. JumpSTART is for children younger than 8 or who look like they weigh less than 100 pounds. This 7-year-old who looks about 50 pounds fits both. In JumpSTART, a child who is not breathing but has a pulse gets the airway opened and one round of five rescue breaths. Children usually stop breathing before the heart stops. A short round of breaths can sometimes get a child breathing again. This child got the five breaths and still is not breathing. A child who does not breathe after the rescue breaths is tagged expectant, even with a pulse. Tag the child and move on to the other patients.

Why the others are wrong

Tag the patient immediate and move to the next patient: The pulse means this child is alive and critical, and immediate sounds like the safe tag. In JumpSTART, the immediate tag goes to the child who starts breathing after the rescue breaths. This child did not start breathing, so the tag is expectant.

Give five more rescue breaths and reassess for breathing: Five more breaths would follow the same reasoning as the first round. JumpSTART gives you one round of five breaths. A second round holds up triage on one patient while the rest of the scene waits to be sorted.

Begin chest compressions and ventilations: Chest compressions are for cardiac arrest. This child has a palpable distal pulse. Starting a full resuscitation during primary triage would also keep you on one patient while everyone else waits.

Question 8 of 10

During primary triage after an apartment fire, the EMT reaches a patient who did not walk to the collection area because of pain from partial-thickness burns to one lower leg. There is no soot around the mouth or nose, the voice is clear, and the breathing is unlabored. The patient has R 20/min, a palpable radial pulse, and follows simple commands. What should the EMT do?

Show the answer and rationale

Correct answer · Tag the patient delayed and move to the next patient

This patient is delayed. The patient did not walk to the collection area, so START triage rules out minimal. The respirations are 20, which is inside the range that moves you to the next check. The radial pulse is present, and the patient follows simple commands. Those checks put this patient in the delayed category. Burns make a patient immediate when the airway is involved or the burns are severe. There is no soot around the mouth or nose, the voice is clear, and the breathing is unlabored. The airway is not involved. The burn covers one lower leg, which is too small an area to count as a severe burn. Tag the patient delayed and move on. Treatment does not start until every patient has been triaged.

Why the others are wrong

Tag the patient immediate and move to the next patient: Immediate is for airway or breathing problems, uncontrolled bleeding, signs of shock, severe burns, or an open chest or abdominal injury. A partial-thickness burn on one lower leg is not a severe burn. The question rules out every other immediate finding too.

Direct the patient to the collection area for minimal patients: The minimal category is for patients who can walk. This patient did not walk to the collection area. The first step of START never puts a patient who did not walk into minimal.

Give positive pressure ventilations and tag the patient immediate: Ventilating here treats any burn from a structure fire as an inhalation injury. This patient has no soot around the mouth or nose, a clear voice, and unlabored breathing, so the airway is not involved. Stopping to ventilate one patient also stops triage for everyone else.

Question 9 of 10

An EMT crew is dispatched to a mass-casualty incident at a rail platform and is directed to report to the staging area. Triage is already under way on the platform. On the way in, the crew passes a patient who is sitting on the curb holding a bandaged forearm, calling for help, and wearing no triage tag. What should the crew do?

Show the answer and rationale

Correct answer · Report to the staging area and wait for an assignment

At a mass-casualty incident, every arriving crew checks in where command tells them to go. The crew takes an assignment before doing anything else. You were told to report to staging. Check-in lets command keep track of which people and units are on scene. Tracking matters most if a second event happens. Doing anything before check-in is called freelancing. Freelancing takes your unit out of the plan and out of the accountability system. Triage on the platform is already assigned to someone else. The untagged patient on the curb is inside that assignment, and the triage team will reach that patient.

Why the others are wrong

Stop and triage the patient before reporting to staging: A patient calling for help with no tag is right in front of you. Triage on that platform is already assigned. A second crew triaging without telling command leaves command with the wrong idea of who is doing what.

Load the patient and transport to the closest hospital: Loading and transporting patients is normally what an ambulance crew does. Leaving now takes your unit out of the incident before command has counted it. Transport also commits your unit to a patient who has not been prioritized against the others.

Assess the patient and report the findings to command: Assessing the patient and radioing the findings sounds like a middle ground between helping and following the plan. The assessment still starts patient care before check-in. The radio report also adds traffic on a channel command needs for the triage report.

Question 10 of 10

During a multiple-patient incident, an EMT encounters a patient who is unresponsive and initially not breathing. After the airway is opened with manual repositioning, the patient begins breathing spontaneously at 32/min. The patient has a palpable carotid pulse but no radial pulse and does not follow commands. Using START triage, how should this patient be categorized?

Show the answer and rationale

Correct answer · Red (immediate)

This patient is Red, which means immediate. The patient was not breathing at first, so START has you open the airway. After you reposition the airway, the patient breathes at 32/min. Any rate over 30 puts a patient in Red. There is a carotid pulse but no radial pulse, and a missing radial pulse is also a Red finding. The patient does not follow commands, which is a third Red finding. Any one of these would be enough on its own. This patient has all three.

Why the others are wrong

Black (expectant): Black is for a patient who still is not breathing after you open the airway, or who is clearly dead. This patient started breathing on their own once the airway was repositioned. A patient who breathes after repositioning can still be saved.

Yellow (delayed): Yellow, or delayed, is for a patient who is hurt badly but is stable. This patient is breathing over 30 a minute, has no radial pulse, and does not follow commands. Each of those calls for immediate care.

Green (minor): Green is for the walking wounded. This patient is unresponsive and was not breathing until the airway was repositioned.

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