Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London
-
To examine the extra burden placed on consultant physicians when providing cross cover for colleagues who are absent on annual or study leave. ⋯ Provision of satisfactory cover for inpatients under the care of absent colleagues can place serious demands on consultants at a time when their specialty commitments are also high. Future manpower planning must take these added burdens into consideration.
-
J R Coll Physicians Lond · Nov 1997
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialLocal anaesthetic infiltration prior to arterial puncture for blood gas analysis: a survey of current practice and a randomised double blind placebo controlled trial.
Infiltration with local anaesthetic (LA) is recommended before arterial puncture (AP) for blood gas analysis. A telephone survey of 100 junior hospital doctors established that 84% never used LA; the reason for this cited by 47% of doctors was that they considered the injection to be as painful as AP itself. We therefore undertook a randomised double blind placebo controlled trial to establish whether the recommendation for LA is justified. ⋯ This study supports the recommendation that LA should be infiltrated before radial artery puncture is performed. The belief that the use of LA makes the procedure more difficult and is as painful as arterial puncture should be dispelled.