Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2008
Total access block time: a comprehensive and intuitive way to measure the total effect of access block on the emergency department.
Access block refers to delayed transfer of admitted patients in the ED to wards from lack of an inpatient bed. Existing measures are crude indicators of its impact on ED function. Our aim was to devise measures of the total burden of access block on ED function which better measured the impact on ED function, yet were intuitive and easy to communicate. ⋯ TABT is a comprehensive, sensitive indicator of total impact of access block on ED function. Unlike current access block measures, TABT is reflective of long-stay ED patients. Descriptive statistics derived from TABT, in terms of effective beds and bed-days lost, will likely improve the communication and comprehension of access block issues.
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2008
Australasian emergency physicians: a learning and educational needs analysis. Part two: confidence of FACEM for tasks and skills.
To determine the degree of confidence perceived by Fellows of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine for a variety of procedural, patient management, educational and research skills, and tasks that may be required of them. ⋯ This information may assist in the planning of future educational interventions for EP.
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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.
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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.