Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To assess and compare overall satisfaction in pediatric emergency department (ED) patients and their accompanying parents. To identify aspects of health care delivery that influence satisfaction in these groups. ⋯ Satisfaction can be validly and reliably measured in pediatric patients using a visual scale instrument. Factors that influence patient satisfaction were similar among both children and their parents. The influence of pain resolution on pediatric ED satisfaction is a novel finding, which demonstrates the importance of appropriate pain and anxiety assessment and treatment in children.
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The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) commissioned an emergency medicine (EM) faculty salary and benefits survey for all 2001 residency review committee (RRC)-EM-accredited programs using the SAEM fifth-generation survey instrument. Responses were collected by SAEM and blinded from the investigators. Data represent compensation paid for the 2001-02 academic year. Seventy-six of 124 (61%) accredited programs responded, yielding usable data on 1,355 full-time faculty representing all four Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) regions. ⋯ Reported salaries for full-time EM residency faculty have risen approximately 8.7% since the last survey. Up to approximately 1,200 clinical hours worked per year, salary varies inversely with clinical hours worked. Total per-faculty patient contact time (overall workload) has grown approximately 13% since the last survey. Patient wait times have increased approximately 27% since the last survey. Significant regional differences in salaries have been present in all five SAEM surveys. Emergency medicine residency faculty continue to work at the upper extremes of patient encounters per physician, patient acuity levels, and department lengths of stay.
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In 1991, the American Boards of Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine changed their credentialing requirements to recognize training common to both disciplines. This allowed the formation of a five-year track for dual board eligibility. From 1995 to 1998, 28 physicians graduated from eight emergency medicine/internal medicine (EM/IM) programs. This study was an analysis of career outcomes of these graduates. ⋯ Although the majority of EM/IM graduates do not practice both IM and EM, many would prefer to. The graduates are highly satisfied with their choice of residency and career. Early in career development, the graduates appear to gravitate toward academic and leadership positions.
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Excellent communication and interpersonal (C-IP) skills are a universal requirement for a well-rounded emergency physician. This requirement for C-IP skill excellence is a direct outgrowth of the expectations of our patients and a prerequisite to working in the increasingly complex emergency department environment. Directed education and assessment of C-IP skills are critical components of all emergency medicine (EM) training programs and now are a requirement of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Outcome Project. ⋯ Ten specific communication competencies are defined for EM. Assessment techniques for evaluation of these C-IP competencies and a timeline for implementation are also defined. Standardized patients and direct observation were identified as the criterion standard assessment methods of C-IP skills; however, other methods for assessment are also discussed.