Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Apr 2000
The European Donor Hospital Education Programme (EDHEP): enhancing communication skills with bereaved relatives.
Intensive care medical and nursing staff self-rate their communication skills as improved following attendance at the European Donor Hospital Education Programme (EDHEP) workshop. A prospective study was conducted to determine what impact EDHEP has on communication skills. Doctor-nurse pairs from 10 experimental and 10 control Intensive Care Units undertook two standardized simulated relative encounters (Breaking Bad News and Donation Request) at three measurement points (pre, post and follow-up). ⋯ Control group doctors showed some improvement in breaking bad news, indicating that participating in measurement by itself initiates some transient change in communication skills. Attendance at EDHEP does lead to significant improvement in some, but not all, communication skills essential in breaking bad news and requesting donation. Further research is necessary to determine what factors additional to EDHEP will contribute to enduring change in these particular skills.
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Surgeons, anaesthetists and intensivists need to be reminded of an alternative to tracheostomy in the management of patients with severe maxillofacial injuries. The technique and indications for submental intubation are described.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Apr 2000
The use of end-tidal carbon dioxide monitoring to confirm intratracheal cannula placement prior to percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy.
We tested the utility of intratracheal carbon dioxide monitoring (IT-CO2) in 10 patients undergoing percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT). We have found IT-CO2 monitoring reliable in confirming the correct position of the tracheal cannula prior to tracheal dilatation using the Portex technique.