Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Comment Letter Case Reports Comparative Study
International introspection.
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Review Case Reports
Clinical decision making: an emergency medicine perspective.
Clinical decision making (CDM) describes a form of qualitative inquiry that examines the thought processes involved in making medical decisions. A significant body of literature exists on the orderly "hypothetico-deductive" model of clinical decision making. ⋯ The concept of diagnostic uncertainty and the utility of the diagnosis of unknown etiology in the disposition phase of the emergency patient visit are discussed. Finally, a unique EM perspective on clinical decision-making errors is presented.
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Comparative Study
Evaluation of biphasic transthoracic defibrillation in an animal model of prolonged ventricular fibrillation.
To determine whether a biphasic defibrillation waveform (BDW) would produce a superior rate of converting prolonged ventricular fibrillation (VF) into a perfusing rhythm and delay the occurrence of asystole and/or pulseless electrical activity (PEA) during the resuscitation attempt, when compared with a monophasic defibrillation waveform (MDW). ⋯ BDW resulted in a superior rate of ROSC and delay in the occurrence of asystole/ PEA during the resuscitation attempt when compared with MDW.
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To compare in-hospital time uses by first-postgraduate-year (PGY1) residents during rotations in emergency medicine (EM), internal medicine (IM), and surgery (S). This article reports the clinical components of residency time use. ⋯ Awareness of the clinical activities performed on PGY1 rotations can help residency directors anticipate educational needs to balance their residents' experience. Since 29% and 42% of total clinical time on PGY1 EM and IM rotations, respectively, is focused on documentation, efforts to enhance charting skills and efficiency are warranted. Also, efforts to enhance PGY1 procedural experience outside of the S rotation appear warranted.
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The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) commissioned a survey in 1998 to describe sabbatical programs, academic rank, and tenure, and to shed light on factors affecting the continuum of faculty development, as a context for evaluating the potential importance of emergency medicine (EM) sabbatical programs. ⋯ A sabbatical can be beneficial for individuals and their institutions, but presently EPs have not been able to maximize use of available opportunities. Some obstacles to successful participation of EM in sabbatical programs might be overcome with creative strategies and the active support of professional academic organizations.