Can J Emerg Med
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Evaluation of physician practice is necessary, both to provide feedback for self-improvement and to guide department heads during yearly evaluations. ⋯ Physician evaluation by a single individual is probably unreliable. A useful physician peer evaluation tool can be developed. Most physicians view a personalized, broad-based, confidential peer review as valuable.
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Our primary objectives were to estimate how frequently emergency medical technicians with defibrillation skills (EMT-Ds) are forced to deal with prehospital do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders, to assess their comfort in doing so, and to describe the prehospital care provided to patients with DNR orders in a system without a prehospital DNR policy (i.e., where resuscitation is mandatory). ⋯ Prehospital DNR orders are common, and a significant number of EMT-Ds disregard current regulations by honouring them. EMT-Ds would be more comfortable with written than verbal DNR orders. An ethical prehospital DNR policy should be developed and applied.