Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Comparative Study
Feasibility and reliability of the SHOT: A short scale for measuring pretreatment severity of alcohol withdrawal in the emergency department.
Use of a symptom-triggered scale to measure the severity of alcohol withdrawal could reduce the rate of seizures and other complications. The current standard scale, the Clinical Institute of Withdrawal Assessment (CIWA), takes a mean (±SD) of 5 minutes to complete, requiring 30 minutes of nursing time per patient when multiple measures are required. ⋯ The SHOT has potential as a feasible and acceptable tool for measuring pretreatment alcohol withdrawal severity in the ED. Further research is needed to validate the SHOT, to assess the utility of serial measurements of the SHOT, and to demonstrate that its use reduces length of stay and improves clinical outcomes.
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Multicenter Study
Inaccuracy of the global assessment score in the emergency medicine standard letter of recommendation.
The standard letter of recommendation (SLOR) is used by most emergency medicine (EM) faculty to submit evaluations for medical students applying for EM residency programs. In the global assessment score (GAS) section, there is a crucial summative question that asks letter writers to estimate the applicant's rank order list (ROL) position in their own program. The primary aim of the study was to determine if these estimated global assessment tiers agreed with the actual ROL, using the criteria recommended by the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD). ⋯ Standard letter of recommendation writers are inaccurate in estimating the ROL position of the applicant using the GAS tier criteria. The GAS tiers were accurate only 26% of the time. Because of the valuable role that the SLOR plays in determining an applicant's competitiveness in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) in EM, future discussion should focus on improving the consistency and accuracy of the GAS section. Furthermore, there needs to be a national dialogue to reassess the utility of the criterion-based GAS within the SLOR.
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Ultrasound (US) greatly facilitates cannulation of the internal jugular vein. Despite the ability to visualize the needle and anatomy, adverse events still occur. The authors hypothesized that the technique has limitations among certain patients and clinical scenarios. ⋯ Acute adverse events occurred in approximately one-fifth of US-guided internal jugular central line attempts. The study identified both patient (history of end-stage renal disease) and physician (intermediate experience level) factors that are associated with acute adverse events.
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An important challenge faced by emergency physicians (EPs) is determining which patients should be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and which can be safely admitted to a regular ward. Understanding risk factors leading to undertriage would be useful, but these factors are not well characterized. ⋯ In this preliminary study, independent predictors of ICU transfer within 48 hours of admission were identified. While somewhat intuitive, physicians should consider these factors when determining patient disposition.
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Although virtual reality (VR) simulators play an important role in modern medical training, their efficacy is not often evaluated using learning curves. In this study, the learning curves of novice and intermediate users were elicited during a VR simulation-based curriculum for intravenous (IV) cannulation. ⋯ Significant learning curves for novice and intermediate students were demonstrated after following the VR simulation-based curriculum. Competencies acquired during this educational course may provide an important advantage for training prior to actual clinical practice.