Annals of emergency medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
CPR instruction by videotape: results of a community project.
To increase the rate of bystander CPR in a community by use of a free, mailed, 10-minute videotape of CPR instruction. ⋯ Mass mailings of CPR instructional videos are likely to be ineffective in increasing the rate of bystander CPR in a community.
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To determine whether staff outside critical care areas who were proficient in basic life support (BLS) could be easily trained to use automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and whether they would retain these skills. ⋯ As has been demonstrated with prehospital emergency personnel, nurses outside critical care areas who are proficient in BLS can easily learn and retain the knowledge and skills to use AEDs. Automated external defibrillation, a BLS skill, should be incorporated into BLS programs (BLS-AED) for all hospital personnel expected to respond to a patient in cardiac arrest, with rapid defibrillation taking priority over CPR.
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To determine whether the vehicle-at-scene-to-patient-access (VSPA) interval could be measured by means of crew reporting to a computer-aided dispatch operation. ⋯ Our study suggests that it is feasible for ambulance crews to report patient access times. Methods to improve the consistency and frequency of crew reporting should be considered. The VSPA access interval varies in length and is not normally distributed.
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To determine whether nonemergency patients can be prospectively identified by triage nurses and safely triaged out of the emergency department without treatment. ⋯ A subset of patients with nonemergency problems can be prospectively identified and triaged out of the ED without significant adverse outcomes provided there is community support for follow-up care.