Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2023
Making clear and effective communication SOuND BETTeR for patients with communication barriers.
The consequences of ineffective communication between patients and clinicians in the ED range from frustration to significant adverse events. Unfortunately, scenarios where we are unable to understand what our patient is saying to us are common, due to a multitude of factors including acute illness, disability and patient diversity. Current communication aids can be difficult to access and use in the Emergency setting due to lack of physical resources, specific training and time. ⋯ The tool can effectively and quickly identify important needs in patients with expressive communication barriers such as those with aphasia, facial trauma and on non-invasive ventilation. In addition, the tool can be modified for use in patients with non-English speaking backgrounds. At this stage the tool has not yet been prospectively validated.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2023
Bed tilt and ramp positions are associated with increased first-pass success of adult endotracheal intubation in the emergency department: A registry study.
Successful endotracheal intubation in the ED requires optimum body positioning. In patients with obesity, the ramp position was suggested to achieve better intubating conditions. However, limited data are available on the airway management practices for patients with obesity in Australasian EDs. The aim of this study was to identify current patient positioning practices during endotracheal intubation and its association with first-pass success (FPS) at intubation and adverse event (AE) rates in obese and non-obese populations. ⋯ Obesity was associated with lower FPS, which could be improved through performing a bed tilt or ramp positioning.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2023
External causes of emergency department presentations: A missing piece to understanding unintentional childhood injury in Australia.
To identify external causes of unintentional childhood injury presenting to Australian EDs. ⋯ This is the first large-scale study since the 1980s to explore external causes of unintentional childhood injury presenting to Australian paediatric EDs. It demonstrates a hybrid human-machine learning approach to create a standardised database to overcome data deficiencies. The results supplement existing knowledge of hospitalised paediatric injury to better understand the causes of childhood injury by age and sex, which require health service utilisation.