Articles: emergency-services.
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A case-control study was carried out in Nottingham Health District, to establish whether children under five years of age admitted to hospital after a accidental injury were more likely to have previously attended the accident and emergency (A & E) department than community controls. The subjects were 342 case-control pairs matched on sex and date of birth, consisting of children under five years resident in the Health District, and the main exposure measures were attendance at the A & E department before the case's first admission, type of injury and number of earlier attendances. ⋯ It is concluded that accidental injuries in pre-school children that require attendance at the A & E department predict accidental injuries requiring admission. Making attendances at A & E departments notifiable to health visitors would facilitate the undertaking of accident prevention work.
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Journal of medical ethics · Jun 1993
Postmortem procedures in the emergency department: using the recently dead to practise and teach.
In generations past, it was common practice for doctors to learn lifesaving technical skills on patients who had recently died. But this practice has lately been criticised on religious, legal, and ethical grounds, and has fallen into disuse in many hospitals and emergency departments. This paper uses four questions to resolve whether doctors in emergency departments should practise and teach non-invasive and minimally invasive procedures on the newly dead: Is it ethically and legally permissible to practise and teach non-invasive and minimally invasive procedures on the newly dead emergency-department patient? What are the alternatives or possible consequences of not practising non-invasive and minimally invasive procedures on newly dead patients? Is consent from relatives required? Should doctors in emergency departments allow or even encourage this use of newly dead patients?
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Revista médica de Chile · Jun 1993
Comparative Study[Prevalence of mental disorders at emergency service].
Aiming to know the frequency of mental disorders among patients consulting a general hospital emergency ward, 2834 medical records of such patients were retrospectively reviewed. 8.4% of consultations were due to mental disorders. Sixty four percent of patients consulting for mental disorders were women. ⋯ A low percent of these patients were referred to psychiatry. The low frequency of psychiatric referrals and the importance of psychiatric advice in emergency rooms is discussed.
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Health services research · Jun 1993
Comparative StudyMeasuring quality of care in psychiatric emergencies: construction and evaluation of a Bayesian index.
This study was conducted to determine whether an index for measuring quality of care for psychiatric emergencies is reliable and valid. ⋯ The study demonstrated that a subjective Bayesian model can be used to develop a reliable and valid index for measuring quality of care, with potential for practical application in management of health services.
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This study aimed to identify qualified nurses' perceptions of the helpfulness of selected nursing actions, derived from the literature, in meeting the needs of suddenly bereaved family members in the accident and emergency (A&E) department. The effect of age, length of professional experience and death education received on the respondents' perceptions was examined. The nurse subjects' feelings of preparation for this stressful role were also identified. ⋯ Analysis of the sample's responses to the 35 nursing actions included revealed that certain activities were ranked lower in terms of their perceived helpfulness, compared to the survivors' perceptions in other studies. All three variables considered had a statistically significant correlation with the perceptions of the sample as measured by the instrument (P < 0.05, using Mann-Whitney U-test). Only 42% of the sample had received any form of death education and 56% felt unprepared for this specialist role.