Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2023
Medical student deployment to a single metropolitan hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed methods analysis.
To explore student and staff satisfaction with the use of medical students as a surge workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ The results of the present study provide insight into the use of medical students as an emergency surge workforce. Responses from medical students and staff suggested that the project was beneficial for both groups as well as for overall departmental performance. These findings are likely to be translatable beyond the COVID-19 pandemic setting.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2023
Increased distance or time from a major trauma centre in South Australia is not associated with worse outcomes after moderate to severe traumatic brain injury.
Considerations in traumatic brain injury (TBI) management include time to critical interventions and neurosurgical care, which can be influenced by the geographical location of injury. In Australia, these distances can be vast with varying degrees of first-responder experience. The present study aimed to evaluate the association that distance and/or time to a major trauma centre (MTC) had on patient outcomes with moderate to severe TBI. ⋯ Our analysis revealed that increasing distance or time from injury site to a MTC for patients with moderate to severe TBI was not significantly associated with adverse patient outcomes.
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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.