Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Graduate and postgraduate medical education currently teaches safety in patient care by instilling a deep sense of personal responsibility in student practitioners. To increase safety, medical education will have to begin to introduce new concepts from the "safety sciences," without losing the advantages that the values of commitment and responsibility have gained. There are two related educational goals. ⋯ Finally, careful attention will have to be paid to the way in which these principles are taught. It seems unlikely that a series of readings and didactic lectures alone will be effective. The analysis of meaningful cases, perhaps supplemented by high-fidelity simulation, seems to hold promise for more successful education in patient safety.
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Comparative Study
Potential errors in the diagnosis of pericardial effusion on trauma ultrasound for penetrating injuries.
To evaluate ultrasound error in patients presenting with penetrating injury with a potential for pericardial effusion. ⋯ A serious potential exists for misdiagnosing epicardial fat pads as pericardial effusion in critically ill trauma patients. Emergency physicians need to be aware of this and should consider one of two suggested alternative methods to improve the accuracy of diagnosis.
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Case Reports
Clinical errors in emergency medicine: experience at the emergency department of an Italian teaching hospital.
The level of commitment in the analysis of clinical errors made in the emergency department (ED) is currently focused on organization and processes rather than on individual action. Four major cases of clinical errors made in the ED of a teaching hospital were investigated. ⋯ The authors have initiated a systematic analysis of errors made during the diagnostic workup in their ED, and the rate of clinically significant errors is tracked. A file is being created with the purpose to use it for teaching and orientation of all new staff.