Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
-
Jellyfish stings remains a common envenoming, and yet confusion appears to exist in the community as to the correct first aid. Current guidelines from the Australian Resuscitation Council still recommends ice for most jellyfish stings, although there appears to belittle evidence to support this. There is more evidence supporting the use of hot water. More research is required to simplify first aid for jellyfish stings.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2008
Australasian emergency physicians: a learning and educational needs analysis. Part one: background and methodology. Profile of FACEM.
Fellows of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (FACEM) have opportunities to participate in a range of continuing professional development activities. To inform FACEM and assist those involved in planning continuing professional development interventions for FACEM, we undertook a learning needs analysis of emergency physicians. ⋯ As the first of six related reports, this paper documents the methodology used, including questionnaire development, and provides the demographics of responding FACEM, including the clinical and non-clinical hours worked and type of hospital of principal employment.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2008
Emergency medicine in Sri Lanka: the inevitable evolution to a new specialty.
Sri Lanka is a low-income country with a relatively advanced, equitable and accessible health-care system offered to its 20 million populations free of charge through a national pro-poor health policy. Its weaknesses in emergency services, however, surfaced in 2004 when it faced the Tsunami, the worst natural disaster of the world of the 21st century. Since then, the local health community with the assistance of the government and foreign aid agencies have embarked on a path to establish emergency services, improve its preparedness for disaster management and establishment of emergency medicine training. The present article traces this path and how it is evolving in the country.
-
To determine whether the introduction of a designated fast-track area altered the time to care and patient flow in an Australian mixed adult and paediatric ED. ⋯ Fast track in an Australian mixed ED can help meet the demand of increasing patient attendances, allowing lower-acuity patients to be seen quickly without a negative impact on high-acuity patients.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2008
Safety of interhospital transport of cardiac patients and the need for medical escorts.
To review the safety of the current retrieval service procedures and identify factors associated with the need for a medical escort. ⋯ Transport of cardiac patients by the Townsville Hospital Emergency Department retrieval service were safely staffed and performed, guided by the expert decision making and clinical support of the clinical coordinators. Patients with a provisional diagnosis at the time of referral of myocardial infarction, a history of receiving lysis or cardiac arrest, or on a drug infusion were more likely to require the expertise of a doctor during transport.