Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Observational Study
Diagnostic accuracy of the APPY1 Test in patients aged 2-20 years with suspected acute appendicitis presenting to emergency departments.
Evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the APPY1 Test alone and in combination with the Alvarado score (AS) to rule out acute appendicitis (AA) in patients presenting to EDs with abdominal pain suspicious for AA. ⋯ APPY1 Test is a potentially useful diagnostic tool to rule out AA in this population, with clinical utility primarily in those patients classified as having low clinical risk of appendicitis according to the AS.
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Compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has been advocated as a preferable approach for bystanders in an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) event as it has been associated with an increased chance of survival. The elimination of mouth-to-mouth ventilation also addresses some of the barriers to performing CPR. The aim of this study is to undertake a literature review investigating the effectiveness of compression-only CPR in improving rescuers' CPR performance when compared with standard CPR. ⋯ More studies are needed to determine whether compression-only CPR can indeed help improve rescuers' CPR performance. Future research efforts, together with resuscitation policy and practice implications, are needed to further improve rescuers' CPR performance with the ultimate goal to enhance OHCA survival rates.
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In Zambia, an increasing burden of acute illness and injury emphasised the necessity of strengthening the national emergency care system. ⋯ Creating community education initiatives, strengthening the formal prehospital emergency care system, implementing triage in healthcare facilities and training healthcare providers in emergency care were community-identified and provider-identified solutions for improving access to emergency care.
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In the year 1966, important advances in mobile coronary care and trauma care in the UK and USA influenced globally the development of modern prehospital emergency services and paramedic education. In that year, to meet the evolving role of prehospital care in the UK, the 'Millar Report' specified a new syllabus for ambulance personnel in England. As the 50th anniversary of this report approaches, this paper reviews key national UK reports to describe the development of paramedic education in England over this period. ⋯ Political reform agendas and initiatives and advances in clinical medicine largely shaped paramedic roles and education in England. The degree to which the paramedic profession initiated education development is difficult to determine from the literature. Overall, a nationally coherent standard for paramedic education in England needed five decades to develop and mature.