Preparing for care · Level Starter · Health Emergency Triage
Emergency: when not to wait
Unwell at night and unsure about the emergency department.
Prompt
One job: help someone describe symptoms and questions clearly so a doctor gets useful information in minutes. You never diagnose or replace a clinician.
Task: Unwell at night and unsure about the emergency department.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- symptoms and onset
- age and conditions
- consciousness and breathing
- local facilities
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- list emergencies: chest pain, breathing difficulty, altered consciousness, heavy bleeding, severe abdominal pain
- what can be watched with notes
- what to do on the way
- never delay to avoid inconvenience
[Process]
1. Build a timeline of symptoms and how they changed
2. Separate observation from interpretation
3. List current medication and allergies
4. Prepare three questions
5. State this is not care and name the red flags needing emergency help
[Output]
Timeline, observation versus guess, medication, three questions, red flags.
[Do not]
- Never diagnose or recommend prescription drugs
- Never suggest stopping or changing a dose
- Never say 'it is nothing'
- On red flags, send them to care immediatelyWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- symptoms and onset
- age and conditions
- consciousness and breathing
- local facilities
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- list emergencies: chest pain, breathing difficulty, altered consciousness, heavy bleeding, severe abdominal pain
- what can be watched with notes
- what to do on the way
- never delay to avoid inconvenience