Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To determine whether modifying work schedules from 24- to 12-hour shifts results in favorable improvements across a range of psychological and social variables among emergency medical technicians (EMTs). ⋯ Modifying EMTs' work schedules from 24- to 12-hour shifts was associated with improvements in EMTs' general attitudes toward their schedules, less disruption of social and family life, and decreased levels of emotional exhaustion at 2 months after the change. While the improvements in EMTs' attitudes toward their schedules persisted at the 1-year follow-up, the measure of emotional exhaustion returned to baseline.
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The ED of the future will require the effective integration of information technologies into clinical care. This article proposes strategies for improving information management in emergency medicine to facilitate patient care, public health surveillance, clinical research, medical education, and health care management.
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The long-term goals of developing research within the specialty of emergency medicine (EM) include the following: 1) to continue to improve the quality and quantity of EM research in order to ultimately improve emergency patient care; 2) to maximize the research potential of emergency health care professionals in order to develop new emergency research talent and enthusiasm; and 3) to establish the academic research credentials of the specialty of EM in order to become competitive for federal research funding, and further improve emergency patient care. This article addresses the process by which the infrastructure for EM research can be developed at academic medical centers and provides recommendations. The roles of the academic chair, research director, senior researcher, and departmental faculty are discussed.
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To determine whether the initial Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score is predictive of intubation difficulty in out-of-hospital airway management of poisoned patients. ⋯ Maximum difficulty of intubation is encountered in poisoned patients with 7 < or = GCS < or = 9. Intubation of such patients appears to be facilitated by appropriate sedation and/or neuromuscular blockade.