FREC 3 · Qualsafe Awards
Foundations of Prehospital Emergency Medical Care
Assessing and handing over an unwell patient, breathing difficulties and major illness, the unresponsive or convulsing patient, and environmental emergencies.
The medical half of FREC 3, for the patient who has not been injured. It begins with the assessment itself — history taking, what to record, and the referral and handover decision, which is a larger share of this component than people expect. The rest divides between breathing difficulties and the major illnesses a responder is expected to recognise, and the patient who is unresponsive or convulsing, alongside environmental emergencies including heat, cold and immersion.
What this topic covers
These are the sub-topics the app's 81 questions for this topic are grouped into, with the number of questions on each. They are a fair map of where the weight sits.
| Sub-topic | Questions |
|---|---|
| Unresponsive convulsing and environmental | 29 |
| Patient assessment history and referral | 28 |
| Breathing difficulties and major illness | 24 |
Study guide
The medical component, for the patient who has not been injured. Its centre of gravity is assessment and handover rather than treatment, which surprises people: more than a quarter of the topic is about taking a history, recording it and deciding where the patient goes next.
Assessment, history and referral
The largest assessment block in FREC 3, and the one closest to what the job actually looks like.
- A structured history is examined as a structure: questions ask which element is missing from a described assessment.
- The referral decision is a criterion in its own right. Not every patient goes to hospital, and the questions test whether you know which pathway a presentation belongs to.
- What you record, and what you hand over, are assessed separately from what you found.
Breathing difficulties and major illness
Recognition of the presentations a responder is expected to identify and escalate.
- Breathing difficulty is distinguished by pattern and by what makes it better or worse, rather than by a single sign.
- The major illnesses in this criterion are recognised by their combinations of features; a single feature almost never settles a question.
- Where oxygen appears, the assessment is about the decision and the device. The app states no saturation target anywhere — take any figure from current guidance, not from memory.
The unresponsive or convulsing patient, and environmental emergencies
The largest block in the topic, gathering two outcomes that share a common feature: the patient cannot tell you what is wrong.
- Causes of unconsciousness are examined as a differential you work through, and the nervous system content in the anatomy topic sits directly underneath it.
- Convulsions are assessed on what you do during and what you do after, which are different answers.
- Environmental emergencies — heat, cold and immersion — each change the resuscitation sequence, and that is usually what the question is really testing.
In the exam When a question describes a medical patient, ask what you would write down. This component consistently rewards the answer that reflects a complete, structured assessment over the answer that jumps to an intervention. Guidance on immersion and hypothermia is revised regularly — check the current Resuscitation Council UK material.
This topic's questions are in the app
The free tier does not unlock any of the 81 questions for this topic, so there is no quiz to run here — and publishing one anyway would give away more than the app itself does. The study guide above is free to read in full.
To practise this topic, get the app. Or start with one of the topics that are free here .
For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Carry on with
Foundations of Emergency Care
The responder’s role, scene safety and triage, airway assessment and management, medical gases, and resuscitation with an AED.
Foundations of Trauma Care
Mechanism of injury and blood loss, chest injuries and wounds, shock, burns and poisoning, and spinal, head and musculoskeletal injury.
Anatomy and Physiology
The respiratory, cardiovascular, nervous and musculoskeletal systems, plus the digestive, endocrine, integumentary and reproductive systems FREC touches on.
Revise anywhere, with the whole FREC 3 & 4 bank
This site publishes the app's free sample — 80 of 585 questions, across 4 of 8 topics. FREC 3 & 4 Exam Prep carries the full bank offline across all 2 levels, so you can revise on the bus, between patients, or the night before.
- All 585 questions
- Every question across all 2 levels, including the 4 topics this site cannot unlock.
- 40-question mock test
- Timed at 60 minutes, drawn from one level at a time.
- An explanation every time
- Every answer explains itself and cites where it comes from, right or wrong.
- Progress you can see
- History and per-topic results show which levels still need the work.
For iPhone, iPad and Android.
