MED-03: DCAP-BTLS Secondary Assessment
The systematic head-to-toe exam that finds what the primary survey was never designed to catch.
After you have stopped the life-threatening bleeding and managed the airway, your patient may still have injuries that will kill or permanently injure them if you do not find them: a broken pelvis bleeding silently into the abdomen, a wound hidden under body armour, a spinal fracture that will worsen with every movement. This course teaches the complete head-to-toe physical examination used to find those injuries — systematically, in the right order, every time.
Required: MED-01: MARCH-PAWS — The secondary survey only begins after the primary survey is complete. You must understand what comes first before this course makes sense.
Recommended: MED-02: Know Your Patient — The physical exam works alongside your patient history. MED-02 covers how to take that history.
Why This Matters
The most common reason an injury is missed in a trauma patient is not carelessness — it is that the responder treated what was obvious and never completed a systematic exam. A fracture hidden by clothing. An exit wound on the back that nobody rolled the patient to find. Bruising that appeared on the abdomen four hours into a long evacuation, when the patient was already in shock.
DCAP-BTLS gives you a checklist: eight categories of physical finding, applied to every region of the body, in the same order every time. The structure is what makes it reliable under stress. You do not rely on remembering what to look for — you follow the sequence.
This course covers what each finding looks like, what it means, what the consequences are of missing it, and exactly what to do about it. The language throughout is plain. No assumed medical background is required.
The Nine Lessons
Lessons 1–9 unlock inside Lesson 0 once you’re enrolled. Click below to begin.
Who This Course Is For
MED-03 is written for anyone who wants to be able to do a complete physical assessment of an injured person — with no assumed medical background. That includes:
- Civilians who have completed MED-01 and MED-02 and want the next layer of practical assessment skill
- Wilderness travellers, hunters, and remote workers who may need to manage a trauma patient for hours before evacuation arrives
- Preparedness-oriented individuals building a systematic medical skill set for austere or grid-down environments
- Community preparedness teams, mutual aid volunteers, and HAM radio operators with a first responder role
This is not a substitute for EMT, paramedic, or wilderness medicine certification. It is a preparedness curriculum covering the same assessment framework at a depth appropriate for a trained layperson without immediate professional support.
What Is Included
Self-paced. Each lesson includes embedded knowledge checks that explain the reasoning behind every correct and incorrect answer.
A printable field reference: quick-reference tables for every finding, regional assessment checklists, a patient assessment worksheet, and a full glossary of every medical term used in the course. Available to enrolled members.
A single laminate-ready page summarising the course and lesson map. Available to enrolled members.
Enrollment through Patreon gives access to all MED-series courses as they are released.