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50 free EMT trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
48 free EMT trivia questions with answers. This EMT trivia quiz is for anyone in or around emergency medical services: EMT students, paramedics, firefighters, dispatchers, and the families who wonder what the job involves. It covers the certification ladder from emergency medical responder to paramedic, what each level can do, how many hours it takes and who writes the protocols, then moves into the field skills every EMT knows: CPR rates, the Glasgow Coma Scale, START triage colours, FAST, SAMPLE and OPQRST, the rule of nines, naloxone and epinephrine. The history questions are the fun part: Napoleon's flying ambulances, the 1966 White Paper, Freedom House in Pittsburgh, the 70-kilogram Belfast defibrillator, the first 911 call in Haleyville, Alabama, and Squad 51 on Emergency!. It works for an EMS Week station quiz, a classroom icebreaker in an EMT course, or a competitive round between shifts. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and NREMT or NHTSA descriptions, and each question shows its citation once you have answered. It is trivia, not a protocol reference.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does the abbreviation EMT stand for?
Emergency medical technician
EMTs mostly serve on ambulances and in fire departments, and provide basic life support under physician-written protocols.
Q 02The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recognises how many levels of EMS certification?
Four
Emergency medical responder, EMT, advanced EMT and paramedic; the current system replaced the old EMT-Basic and EMT-Intermediate labels by 2014.
Q 03Roughly how many hours of training does a paramedic, the highest prehospital level, typically complete?
1,500 to 2,500 or more
A basic EMT course is a few hundred hours at most; paramedics also do advanced airway management and manual defibrillation.
Q 04Roughly how many hours of classroom training does a basic EMT course require in the United States?
120 to 300
Fast-track courses cram it into two weeks of 8-to-12-hour days; paramedic degree programs run up to two years.
Q 05An ambulance staffed only by EMTs is called what kind of unit?
Basic life support (BLS)
Add paramedics and it becomes an ALS unit; AEMTs make it an intermediate life support unit.
Q 06Which body's exams are the sole basis for EMT certification in 46 US states?
The National Registry of EMTs (NREMT)
It is a nonprofit dating from the 1970s and its exams follow NHTSA education guidelines.
Q 07Which of these medications is within the scope of a basic EMT in the US?
Albuterol
Oxygen, epinephrine, dextrose, albuterol and aspirin are among the others on the short list.
Q 08EMS protocols in the US are developed under the guidance of whom?
A physician medical director
'On-line' orders need a base hospital doctor or nurse on the radio; standing orders can be done without asking.
Q 09How many hours of continuing education, including a 24-hour refresher, must an EMT complete to keep NREMT certification?
48
The refresher can be replaced by 24 extra CE hours covering the same topics.
Q 10The Star of Life, the blue emblem on ambulances, has how many points?
Six
Each point stands for one of six EMS tasks, and the centre holds the Rod of Asclepius.
Q 11The Star of Life was changed from red to blue in 1973 largely to avoid confusion with which symbol?
The Red Cross
Ambulances had used an orange cross that looked like an inverted Swiss flag, and the Red Cross objected.
Q 12Which 1966 National Academy of Sciences report is considered the founding document of US EMS?
Accidental Death and Disability: The Neglected Disease of Modern Society
It said up to 50,000 deaths a year came from poor ambulance crews and hospitals out of reach.
Q 13Freedom House Ambulance Service, the first US paramedic service, was founded in 1967 to serve which neighbourhood?
Q 21The first portable defibrillator, installed in a Belfast ambulance in 1965, weighed about how much?
70 kg
Frank Pantridge's device ran off car batteries; by 1968 he had a 3 kg version.
Q 22The first 911 call in the United States was made in 1968 in which small Alabama town?
Haleyville
AT&T picked the digits because they were quick to dial on a rotary phone; Britain had used 999 since 1937.
Q 23Which 1972 NBC drama about Los Angeles paramedics is credited with popularising the profession?
Emergency!
Squad 51's gear, including its Biophone and defibrillator, is now in the Smithsonian.
Pittsburgh's Hill District
It served the Hill District and was staffed entirely by African Americans, setting standards later copied nationwide.
Q 14CPR pioneer Peter Safar persuaded a Norwegian toy maker to build which training mannequin?
Resusci Anne
Asmund Laerdal's company still makes it; the doll's face is famously based on an unknown drowned woman from the Seine.
Q 15Adult chest compressions in CPR should be delivered at what rate?
100 to 120 per minute
Compressions should be 5 to 6 centimetres deep; the Bee Gees' 'Stayin' Alive' at 104 bpm is the classic tempo guide.
Q 16The American Heart Association suggests humming which Bee Gees song to keep CPR compressions on tempo?
Stayin' Alive
Queen's 'Another One Bites the Dust' at 110 bpm works too, though the title is less reassuring.
Q 17The Glasgow Coma Scale for consciousness runs from what lowest to highest score?
3 to 15
It combines eye, verbal and motor responses; a score of 8 or below usually means the patient cannot protect their own airway.
Q 18The word 'triage' comes from a French verb meaning what?
To sort or select
Modern triage grew out of the work of Napoleon's surgeon Dominique-Jean Larrey, who also invented the 'flying ambulance'.
Q 19In the START triage system for mass-casualty incidents, which colour tag marks the walking wounded?
Green
Red is immediate, yellow delayed and black deceased or expectant; the method was developed in 1983 by Hoag Hospital and the Newport Beach Fire Department.
Q 20Which surgeon, founder of the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, is credited with the 'golden hour' concept?
R Adams Cowley
The idea may trace back to French military data from World War I.
Q 24The Squad 51 paramedics of the 1970s TV drama worked for which real agency?
Los Angeles County Fire
Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe played the pair, radioing in to fictional Rampart General Hospital.
Q 25In the FAST stroke mnemonic, what does the T stand for?
Time to call for help
F is facial drooping, A arm weakness, S speech difficulty.
Q 26In the SAMPLE patient history mnemonic, what does the A stand for?
Allergies
S is signs and symptoms; the rest are medications, past history, last oral intake and events leading up.
Q 27The OPQRST mnemonic for assessing pain is specifically adapted to help identify what?
A possible heart attack
The O is onset; the letters run through provocation, quality, region, severity and time.
Q 28Under the Wallace rule of nines, an adult's entire leg counts for what share of body surface?
18%
The whole back is another 18 percent; the estimate drives fluid resuscitation.
Q 29Naloxone, carried by EMTs to reverse opioid overdoses, is sold under which brand name?
Narcan
Effects begin within about two minutes when injected.
Q 30An epinephrine autoinjector such as the EpiPen is most often used to treat what?
Anaphylaxis
It delivers a measured dose of adrenaline into the outer thigh.