EMS field skills

How to triage a mass casualty incident (START)

Other platforms explain it with text and video. In VMS you practice it on the patient.

EMS (NREMT)
Practice it in VR with Blocky

START sorts many patients in under a minute each.

Step by step

  1. Walking

    Ask everyone who can walk to move: green (minor). [1]

  2. Breathing

    Not breathing: open the airway. Still not: black. Starts breathing: red. [1]

  3. Respirations

    Over 30 per minute: red. [1]

  4. Perfusion

    No radial pulse or capillary refill over 2 seconds: red; control bleeding. [1]

  5. Mental status

    Cannot follow simple commands: red. Otherwise yellow. [1]

  6. Tag and move on

    Only quick fixes (airway, bleeding). [1]

Common errors

Practice it in VMS

In VMS you do this on the patient, not on paper: every step goes on the checklist with a score, and in Teach mode Blocky tells you what comes next.

VMS cases that train this skill

Sources

  1. National EMS Education Standards (2021)
  2. NREMT psychomotor skill sheets (EMT and Paramedic)

Facts and steps follow NREMT psychomotor skill sheets (EMT and Paramedic); National EMS Education Standards (2021). VMS is not affiliated with these organizations. Updated: 2026-10-11.