Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2014
Observational StudyIdentifying the site for intercostal catheter insertion in the emergency department: Is clinical examination reliable?
To determine whether ED doctors, comprising both consultants and registrars, can accurately identify the 4th or 5th intercostal space (ICS), commonly used for intercostal catheter insertion. ⋯ Emergency registrars and consultants sampled from a regional ED appeared unable to reliably identify the 4th or 5th ICS, as evidenced by marker position, in a heterogeneous patient population.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2014
Observational StudyIs clinical performance adversely affected by wearing gloves during paediatric peripheral intravenous cannulation?
To investigate if wearing protective gloves during paediatric intravenous cannulation affects performance of the procedure. ⋯ The present study shows that the use of protective gloves was not associated with adverse outcomes of clinical performance during paediatric cannulation. The low compliance rate of gloves use is alarming, and many clinicians might be exposed to potential blood-borne infections. Clinicians should be encouraged and supported to use gloves for paediatric cannulation.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2014
Use of poisons information resources and satisfaction with electronic products by Victorian emergency department staff.
ED staff use a range of poisons information resources of varying type and quality. The present study aims to identify those resources utilised in the state of Victoria, Australia, and assess opinion of the most used electronic products. ⋯ The order of poisons information sources most utilised was: consultation with a colleague, in-house protocols and electronic resources. There was a significant difference in satisfaction with electronic poisons information resources and a movement away from existing sources when choice was provided. Interest in increased use of mobile solutions was identified.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2014
Piloting an online incident reporting system in Australasian emergency medicine.
Medical-specific incident reporting systems are critical to understanding error in healthcare but underreporting by doctors reduces their value. ⋯ Collecting patient safety information by frontline doctors is essential to actively engage the profession in patent safety. Although the EMER system allowed easy online reporting of high quality incident data by doctors, site recruitment and system uptake proved difficult. System use by ED doctors requires dedicated and conscious effort from the profession.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2014
Ill communication: What's wrong with the medical literature and how to fix it.
Current conventions for the writing of medical scientific papers impede clear communication of scientific research results. This article discusses the reasons for this and how to ameliorate them.