Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Does the use of topical lidocaine, epinephrine, and tetracaine solution provide sufficient anesthesia for laceration repair?
To determine: 1) the effectiveness of lidocaine, epinephrine, and tetracaine (LET) solution in eliminating or reducing the pain experienced in suturing superficial lacerations in adult patients; and 2) the effectiveness of LET in reducing the pain of local anesthetic injection. ⋯ Significantly fewer patients require an injectable anesthetic when LET is applied. Those who do require an injection may experience less discomfort. These advantages should be balanced against the 20 to 30 minutes necessary for the LET to take effect.
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The importance of adequate funding for sustaining research efforts cannot be overemphasized. This article addresses funding strategies for emergency physicians, including the necessity of establishing a research track record, developing a well-written grant proposal, and anticipating the grant review process. ⋯ Sources of current grant support information available from the Internet are provided. Recommendations for enhancing research funding in emergency medicine (EM) are made, including enhancement of formal research training, promotion of EM research and investigators, federal study section membership, and collaboration with established investigators.
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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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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Effectiveness of 50% nitrous oxide/50% oxygen during laceration repair in children.
To determine the effect of an inhaled 50% nitrous oxide/50% oxygen mixture on measures of observed anxiety in children during laceration repair. ⋯ Administration of a 50% nitrous oxide/50% oxygen mixture to children during their laceration repair resulted in a significant decrease in measures of anxiety when compared with inhalation of 100% oxygen.
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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.