Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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The goal of the 2019 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference was to explore the current cultural and systemic issues in emergency medicine that impact the individual well-being of every emergency physician and to make recommendations for future study. Burnout is epidemic in emergency medicine. Physician wellness is required to enhance patient clinical outcomes as well as to ensure professional satisfaction and longevity. ⋯ A repetitive theme noted at the conference was the overwhelming effect of the system and organization factors on individual physician well-being. The concept of ongoing assessment of professional fulfillment over the life span of the emergency physician was felt to be crucial in guiding wellness and resilience interventions in a timely manner. Examining ways to enable physicians to flourish rather than experience burnout are strong future directions for study.
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The White House "Stop the Bleed" campaign has renewed interest in public-access bleeding kits and the use of tourniquets by the lay public. The objective of this study was to determine which type of tourniquet could be applied most effectively by the lay public using only manufacturer instructions included with each tourniquet. ⋯ Our study suggests that laypersons could benefit from prior training to effectively apply tourniquets in emergency situations. Of the tourniquets studied, the RMT was the most effectively and most rapidly applied.
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Labor and sex trafficking have long impacted the patients who seek care in emergency departments (ED) across the United States. Increasing social and legislative pressures have led to multiple calls for screening for trafficking in the clinical care setting, but adoption of unvalidated screening tools for trafficking recognition is unwise for individual patient care and population-level data. Development of a valid screening tool for a social malady that is largely "invisible" to most clinicians requires significant investments. Valid screening tool development is largely a poorly understood process in the antitrafficking field and among clinicians who would use the tools. ⋯ Study methodology transparency encourages investigative rigor and integrity and will allow other sites to reproduce and externally validate this study's findings.