Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2013
Between principle and compromise: We are all meat in someone else's sandwich.
Clinical leadership and workforce management are high profile topics in many recent healthcare journals and frequently the focus of discussion in this sectors dynamic environment. Emergency physicians, like their cousins in other medical specialties, are required to work collaboratively within an increasingly complex system in order to optimise the clinical outcomes of their patients. This article presents a reflective analysis using a fictional character, Ulysses, who encounters traps and potholes in his journey to clinical leadership and management enlightenment.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2013
ReviewReview article: Improving the hospital clinical handover between paramedics and emergency department staff in the deteriorating patient.
Clinical communication and recognising and responding to a deteriorating patient are key current patient safety issues in healthcare. The aim of this literature review is to identify themes associated with aspects of the hospital clinical handover between paramedics and ED staff that can be improved, with a specific focus on the transfer of care of a deteriorating patient. Extensive searches of scholarly literature were conducted using the main medical and nursing electronic databases, including Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Medline and PubMed, during 2011 and again in July 2012. ⋯ A structured handover tool such as ISBAR (a mnemonic covering Introduction, Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendations) would appear to provide a solution to many of these issues. The recording of vital signs and transfer of these data might be improved with better observation systems incorporating early warning strategies. More effective teamwork could be achieved with further clinical communications training.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2013
Letter Case ReportsUnusual case of cervicofacial surgical emphysema.