Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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A short-cut review of the literature was carried out to examine the benefits of caffeine as an analgesic adjunct in tension-type and migraine-type headache. Six papers were identified as suitable for inclusion using the reported search strategy. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of the best papers are tabulated. It is concluded that caffeine provides effective analgesia as an adjunctive treatment in the management of secondary headache syndromes.
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Multicenter Study
UK multisite evaluation of the impact of clinical educators in EDs from a learner's perspective.
In England, demand for emergency care is increasing while there is also a staffing shortage. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) suggested that appointment of senior doctors as clinical educators (CEs) would enable support and development of learners in EDs and improve retention and well-being. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of CEs in ED on learners. ⋯ According to survey respondents, deployment of CEs across NHS Trusts has resulted in improvement and increased accessibility of learning and assessment opportunities for learners within ED. The impact of CEs on well-being is uncertain with half reporting improvement and the remaining half unsure. Further evaluation within the project will continue to explore the service benefit and workforce impact of the CEED intervention.
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Observational Study
Early prediction of serious infections in febrile infants incorporating heart rate variability in an emergency department: a pilot study.
Early differentiation of febrile young infants with from those without serious infections (SIs) remains a diagnostic challenge. We sought to (1) compare vital signs and heart rate variability (HRV) parameters between febrile infants with versus without SIs, (2) assess the performance of HRV and vital signs with reference to current triage tools and (3) compare HRV and vital signs to HRV, vital signs and blood biomarkers, when predicting for the presence of SIs. ⋯ An exploratory prediction model incorporating HRV and biomarkers improved prediction of SIs. Further research is needed to assess if HRV can identify which young febrile infants have an SI at ED triage.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Cardiac Arrest Nurse Leadership (CANLEAD) trial: a simulation-based randomised controlled trial implementation of a new cardiac arrest role to facilitate cognitive offload for medical team leaders.
Medical team leaders in cardiac arrest teams are routinely subjected to disproportionately high levels of cognitive burden. This simulation-based study explored whether the introduction of a dedicated 'nursing team leader' is an effective way of cognitively offloading medical team leaders of cardiac arrest teams. It was hypothesised that reduced cognitive load may allow medical team leaders to focus on high-level tasks resulting in improved team performance. ⋯ Dedicated nursing team leadership in simulation based cardiac arrest teams resulted in cognitive offload for medical leaders and improved team performance.