Articles: emergency-medicine.
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Rural medicine is in many ways different from urban primary care. In addition to providing primary care for a population, the rural doctor is tasked with the initial evaluation and stabilization of all emergencies usually managed by an Emergency Department in urban areas. The goal of this study was to assess rural doctors' in Iceland attendance of courses in Emergency Medicine (EM), how rural doctors grade their own ability to respond to emergencies and evaluate their Continuous Medical Education (CME) within the field of EM. ⋯ The majority of rural doctors in Iceland consider themselves to have a good training to provide initial EM care in their community. Efforts to improve their training in this field of medicine should focus on scene safety and working in the prehospital setting, pediatrics, labor and deliveries and gynecological emergencies. Rural doctors need to have access to appropriate EM training courses.
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Operation Bushmaster is a high-fidelity military medical field practicum for fourth-year medical students at the Uniformed Services University. During Operation Bushmaster, students treat live-actor and mannequin-based simulated patients in wartime scenarios throughout the five-day practicum. This study explored the impact of participating in Operation Bushmaster on students' decision-making in a high-stress, operational environment, a crucial aspect of their future role as military medical officers. ⋯ Participating in Operation Bushmaster significantly improved the control group participants' medical decision-making under stress. The results of this study confirm the effectiveness of high-fidelity simulation-based education for teaching decision-making skills to military medical students.