Archives of emergency medicine
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A prospective study was carried out during the month of November, 1990 in the A&E Department, St John's Hospital, Livingston in order to assess the extended role of the A&E nurse and their ability to request X-rays prior to patients being seen by a doctor. A total of 579 randomly selected patients were triaged by A&E Department nurses. ⋯ Of those patients who had an X-ray after seeing a doctor, more than 90% fell within the X-ray triage criteria but had not had an X-ray requested by the triage nurse. Overall, nurses were shown to request X-rays correctly and efficiently with the result that patients had to spend less time in the A&E Department.
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Following the introduction of the Milch technique as the preferred method of reduction of anterior shoulder dislocations in an A&E department, a retrospective study of the technique was carried out. A total of 187 patients with anterior shoulder dislocations were included. ⋯ In 73% of the Milch cases either no analgesia or sedation or Entonox alone was used. This study shows that the Milch technique can successfully be used by inexperienced staff to reduce dislocated shoulders with a reduction in the requirements for sedation and anaesthetics.