Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Observational Study
The Relationship Between a Chief Complaint of "Altered Mental Status" and Delirium in Older Emergency Department Patients.
Altered mental status is a common chief complaint among older emergency department (ED) patients. Patients with this chief complaint are likely delirious, but to the authors' knowledge, this relationship has not been well characterized. Additionally, health care providers frequently ascribe "altered mental status" to other causes, such as dementia, psychosis, or depression. ⋯ The absence of a chief complaint of altered mental status should not reassure the clinician that delirium is absent. This syndrome will be missed unless it is actively looked for using a validated delirium assessment. However, patients with this chief complaint are highly likely to be delirious, and no additional delirium assessment is necessary.
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Observational Study
Disseminating Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Training by Distributing 9,200 Personal Manikins.
Community members should be trained so that witnesses of cardiac arrests are able to trigger the emergency system and perform adequate resuscitation. In this study, the authors evaluated the results of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training of communities in four Brazilian cities, using personal resuscitation manikins. ⋯ Instruction of CPR using personal manikins by professionals in the primary health care system seems to be a more efficient strategy for training the community than creating a training network in the schools.
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Medical education is a continuum from medical school through residency to unsupervised clinical practice. There has been a movement toward competency-based medical education prompted by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) using milestones to assess competence. While implementation of milestones for residents sets specific standards for transition to internship, there exists a need for the development of competency-based instruments to assess medical students as they progress toward internship. The objective of this study was to develop competency-based milestones for fourth-year medical students completing their emergency medicine (EM) clerkships (regardless of whether the students were planning on entering EM) using a rigorous method to attain validity evidence. ⋯ This study found consensus support by experts for a list of 24 milestones relevant to the assessment of fourth-year medical student performance by the completion of their EM clerkships. The findings are useful for development of a valid method for assessing medical student performance as students approach residency.
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Ultrasound guidance is now the standard of care when placing a central venous catheter (CVC), resulting in decreased complications and increased first-pass success rates. However, even with ultrasound guidance being used for the initial venipuncture, misplacement of a CVC in either an unwanted vein or in an artery still occurs. Here, we discuss a simple technique to assist in the adequate placement of the CVC in the vena cava using bedside echocardiography.
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In my brief training as an emergency physician, I have experienced numerous distracting cognitive biases that have interfered with establishing proper diagnoses. Recognizing these potential barriers and appreciating them is essential to excellent patient care.