Articles: emergency-medicine.
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Implementation of Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) skills among practicing physicians and its perceived utility in their civilian practices, as well as in their potential army combat assignments, was evaluated. 177 physicians in various subspecialties, who were graduates of ATLS training courses, answered a specially designed telephone questionnaire. An unexpectedly high percentage of physicians (47%) had used their ATLS training when called to treat trauma victims. 67% of physicians stressed the contribution of the ATLS course to enhancing their skills. We believe that a properly designed ATLS course for general practitioners would be very beneficial for trauma victims.
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Review Multicenter Study
Rapid sequence intubation in adults with elevated intracranial pressure: a survey of emergency medicine residency programs.
A questionnaire entitled "Survey of Protocols for Rapid Sequence Intubation in Previously Healthy Adults with Elevated Intracranial Pressure" was distributed to the program directors of all 100 emergency medicine residency programs listed in the Directory of Graduate Medical Education Programs in February 1995. The medical literature on rapid sequence intubation in patients with suspected intracranial pressure elevations was reviewed. The findings of the review were compared with the survey responses. ⋯ Most of these programs follow the guidelines recommended in the medical literature. The majority of these guidelines, however, are based on statistical data performed in the laboratory or nonemergency environments. Further clinical studies in an emergency medicine environment must be performed to determine the optimal drug regimen for rapid sequence intubation in patients with elevated intracranial pressure.
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Emergency departments offer a unique educational setting where housestaff can be exposed to and learn a variety of procedural skills. However, procedural skills are often overlooked as an assumed activity without a formal educational context. The clinical educator's understanding of the educational principals of teaching and learning procedural skills is minimal. ⋯ The "psychomotor domain," which represents a hierarchy of learning motor skills, and relevant motor learning theory extracted from the educational psychology literature are reviewed. These theoretical considerations can be adapted to and provide useful information relevant to procedural medicine. Issues of curriculum content, methods of teaching and learning, and issues of competence relevant to the creation of a procedural skill program are reviewed and discussed.
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In this article, we propose a methodology to be used by emergency medicine faculty members who are interested in career planning and faculty development on an individual basis. The basic competencies needed by faculty and methods of setting goals are described. Educational courses, workshops, seminars, and self-study strategies that can be used to provide the basic competencies and meet defined goals are described, including the advantages and disadvantages of each method, the time commitment, and needed resources. The advantage of this methodology is the ability to customize a program to meet individual needs and fit into the constraints of available time and monetary resources.