Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2023
Psychological safety and emergency department team performance: A mixed-methods study.
Team culture underpins team performance. Psychological safety - 'a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking' - is a critical component of team culture for high-performing teams across contexts. However, psychological safety in ED teams has not been well explored. We aimed to explore this core teamwork concept in the ED. ⋯ Familiarity of team members and leaders was critical to the development of psychological safety within the ED. Fostering familiarity should be a focus for frontline leadership each shift and a priority in broader departmental decisions for those seeking to enhance the psychological safety of their teams.
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Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2023
Personal protective equipment for COVID-19 among healthcare workers in an emergency department: an exploratory survey of workload, thermal discomfort, and symptoms of heat strain.
To examine workload, thermal discomfort and heat-related symptoms among healthcare workers (HCWs) in an Australian ED during the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ ED HCWs experience thermal discomfort when wearing PPE. Combined with their workloads, HCWs experienced symptoms related to heat strain. Therefore, careful consideration should be given to managing heat strain among HCWs when wearing PPE in an ED.
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Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2023
ReviewReview article: Non-penetrating neck artery dissection in young adults: Not to be missed!
Young adults who present to the ED with neck pain following non-penetrating, seemingly trivial trauma to the neck, are at risk of neck artery dissection and subsequent stroke. Sport-related neck injury is the chief cause. Physical examination may often be unremarkable, and although there may be reluctance to expose young patients to radiation, radiological imaging is central to making a diagnosis of arterial wall disruption. ⋯ Early detection of neck artery dissection will trigger clinical protocols that call for multi-disciplinary team management of this condition. In general, guideline-based recommendation for the management of neck artery dissection involving an intimal flap is by anti-platelet therapy while treatment of neck artery dissection that results in a pseudo-aneurysm or thrombosis is managed by surgical intervention or endovascular techniques. Close follow up combined with antithrombotic treatment is recommended in these individuals, the goal being prevention of stroke.