Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2013
'To teach or not to teach?' Factors that motivate and constrain Australian emergency medicine physicians to teach medical students.
Clinical teaching in the ED is crucial to the education of medical students. We attempted to identify and describe Australian emergency physicians who are currently clinical teachers and to elicit the factors that motivate and constrain them to teach. ⋯ Although most emergency physicians are willing to teach, systemic and university factors associated with teaching medical students acted against success of this outcome.
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Although the role of the ED in the management of patients needing palliative care is recognised internationally, there are little Australasian data on this issue. This study aimed to determine the current knowledge and attitude to the provision of palliative care in Australasian EDs. ⋯ Although limited by the low response rate, this survey indicates that there is a need and a desire for greater integration of the values and standards of high-quality palliative care in Australasian EDs.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2013
Tick bite anaphylaxis: incidence and management in an Australian emergency department.
Ticks are endemic to the eastern coastline of Australia. The aim of the present study is to describe the incidence of tick bites in such an area, the seasonal and geographical distribution, the incidence of anaphylaxis due to tick bite and its management. ⋯ We report 34 cases of tick bite anaphylaxis over a 2 year period at a single hospital in a tick endemic area. The variation in the presenting symptoms and signs, as well as in management highlights the need for increased awareness for tick bite management in tick endemic areas.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2013
Case ReportsExtreme sports: extreme physiology. Exercise-induced pulmonary oedema.
We report five patients who presented to an on-site medical team with concurrent haemoptysis and shortness of breath at a recent triathlon event. After initial management in the field, three of the five patients were transported to hospital via ambulance for further management, resulting in patients with haemoptysis and dyspnoea being 17 times more likely to require hospital transport. It is important to consider the differential diagnoses for this presentation, particularly exercise-induced pulmonary oedema.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2013
2010-2011 Queensland floods: using Haddon's Matrix to define and categorise public safety strategies.
The 2010-2011 Queensland floods resulted in the most deaths from a single flood event in Australia since 1916. This article analyses the information on these deaths for comparison with those from previous floods in modern Australia in an attempt to identify factors that have contributed to those deaths. Haddon's Matrix, originally designed for prevention of road trauma, offers a framework for understanding the interplay between contributing factors and helps facilitate a clearer understanding of the varied strategies required to ensure people's safety for particular flood types. ⋯ The present study and its integration of research findings and conceptual frameworks might assist governments and communities to develop policies and strategies to prevent flood injury and fatalities.