Journal of accident & emergency medicine
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The development of a workload management system for use in the accident and emergency department is described. The system is capable of capturing the work all professional groups, allowing the user to roster staff according to anticipated workload, and gives accurate information on whether staffing requirements are sufficient to provide the desired standard of care.
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To determine the value of advanced trauma life support (ATLS) training for medical staff in a major incident situation, based upon performance in a simulated exercise. ⋯ Medical staff who have either undertaken the full ATLS course or an abbreviated form of the course were more effective in their management of the simulated trauma cases.
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(1) To see whether children are weighted before drugs are prescribed in an accident and emergency (A&E) department; (2) to assess how safe it is for doctors to guess children's weight if they prescribe "by eye". ⋯ The average guess of doctors as a group was approximately correct. However, there was a wide range of estimates for individuals. If the child's weight is guessed, the doctor could risk under- or overprescribing analgesia, sedation, or intravenous fluids. Given the wide range of estimates, actual weights are required for accurate prescribing. Prescribing on an age basis may be acceptable for drugs such as paracetamol or amoxycillin, but it is imperative to prescribe on a mg/kg basis for opiates, sedatives, and intravenous fluids because of the large variation in weight that can occur for a single age.
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To assess the quality of accident and emergency (A&E) medicine higher specialist training as perceived by current trainees and those who have recently completed training. ⋯ While clinical training is largely satisfactory, areas where higher specialist training could be improved have been identified. Continued development is necessary to meet the challenges of the new specialist registrar grade and opportunities and threats to training in the future are proposed and discussed.