Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
-
A short-cut review was carried out to establish whether the parents of children with anaphylaxis are proficient in the use of autoinjectors. Seven hundred and three papers were found of which nine presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these best papers are shown in table 2. The clinical bottom line is that competence varies widely and that further efforts are required to train and monitor training outcomes.
-
To determine the difference between rocuronium and succinylcholine with regard to post-intubation sedative initiation in the emergency department. ⋯ Patients intubated with rocuronium had greater delays in post-intubation sedative initiation compared with succinylcholine.
-
The National Health Service (NHS) depends on a highly skilled workforce. Anything threatening the well-being of that workforce threatens the delivery of healthcare. Violence and aggression directed towards healthcare professionals is a longstanding problem within the NHS, and is particularly acute in the Emergency Department (ED). This study examined ED staff perceptions and experiences of violent behaviour directed towards them within the ED. ⋯ This study adds to current evidence regarding how staff perceive and experience violence in the ED. Given the variation in reporting behaviour, national figures on violence within the NHS are likely to be underestimated. More research is needed to understand the true prevalence of violence occurring in the ED.
-
A common presentation to the emergency department (ED) is the trauma patient with altered sensorium who is presumed to be alcohol intoxicated by physicians based on their olfactory sense. ED physicians may often leave patients suspected of alcohol intoxication aside until the effects wear off, potentially missing trauma as the source of confusion. This often results in delays in diagnosing acute potentially life-threatening injuries in patients with presumed alcohol intoxication. ⋯ Although the physicians had a high degree of accuracy in identifying patients with alcohol intoxication based on their olfactory sense, they still falsely overestimated intoxication in significant numbers of non-intoxicated trauma patients.