Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
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Ann R Coll Surg Engl · May 2005
The use of skull X-rays in head injury in the emergency department--a changing practice.
This is a consequential study of a previous audit, evaluating the role of skull X-rays in the emergency department in patients with head injuries, to see if the changes recommended, (implementation of The Royal College of Surgeons of England guidelines) have been adopted successfully and had the desired result. ⋯ Following the introduction of new guidelines, a clear improvement in the practice of evidence-based medicine has been achieved; however, there is still room for further improvement and on-going education of staff and auditing of performance will help to ensure this continues.
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Ann R Coll Surg Engl · May 2005
Maximising SHO training by inclusion of research fellows into a novel hybrid rota.
As a result of current government legislation, junior surgical trainees are increasingly working in shift patterns. Night shifts provide few training opportunities and recent debate has focused on the most effective way of providing appropriate surgical training in the face of these working pattern restrictions. ⋯ Surgical trainees have benefited by spending a much greater proportion of their time working with patients during the day where training is more continuous, better supervised and more uniform. Research fellows have benefited in being able to maintain their clinical skills whilst having sufficient free time to pursue research during the day. Extending the role of the research fellow at night to include registrar duties could also release higher surgical trainees from some night-time service commitments and allow them to benefit from more day-time training.