Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
Fatigue is a state of physical and mental exhaustion in which people feel exhausted or drained of energy. Shift workers are highly vulnerable to fatigue, and this is especially true of emergency physicians (EPs). Shift scheduling (shift hours, frequency/length of breaks, time of shift, and number of hours off between shifts) can affect levels of fatigue in EPs. When EPs are fatigued, they experience decrements in cognition, resulting in an increased risk of errors. This study assessed the state of fatigue in EPs in the emergency department of a large, urban hospital using objective measures (sleep metrics and shift scheduling) over multiple months. ⋯ Fatigue is an issue for many EPs. The present study addressed the percentage of time EPs are in a fatigued state when on shift over an extended duration of time. More research is needed to examine system-level interventions for reducing fatigue in EPs.
-
Point-of-care ultrasound (US) has been suggested as the primary imaging in evaluating patients with suspected diverticulitis. Discrimination between simple and complicated diverticulitis may help to expedite emergent surgical consults and determine the risk of complications. This study aimed to: (1) determine the accuracy of an US protocol (TICS) for diagnosing diverticulitis in the emergency department (ED) setting and (2) assess the ability of TICS to distinguish between simple and complicated diverticulitis. ⋯ In ED patients with suspected diverticulitis, US demonstrated high accuracy in ruling out or diagnosing diverticulitis, but its reliability in differentiating complicated from simple diverticulitis is unsatisfactory.