Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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This article follows our description of generic qualitative approaches, focusing on the specific designs of ethnography, grounded theory and phenomenology. Distinguishing features are described, including methodological approaches and methods for enhancing rigour. The use of these designs in emergency care is unusual but informative, and important work has been produced. Whether used in a pure or applied manner, it is likely that such approaches will add to our understanding of the emergency world.
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The practice of triage was conceived during the Napoleonic wars, with the aim of salvaging those soldiers whose injuries were readily treatable, returning them to the battlefield at the earliest opportunity. Literally, the word triage means "to sieve" or "to sort" (French trier), and those earlier battlefield principles have been refined and expanded to now encompass trauma and medical emergencies, with triage practiced in prehospital and hospital settings. To address the anatomical, physiological and developmental differences encountered when dealing with children, specific paediatric triage systems have also been developed, and this article discusses their merits.
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To improve the care of patients presenting to the emergency department who are acutely dying or those in whom further disease-modifying treatment is not appropriate. ⋯ It has been a rewarding undertaking to improve the care of dying patients, but one which has taken time and has required consistent management of change to promote the positive outcomes.
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A very rare case is presented of a woman with subclavian vein thrombosis that resulted from a fragment of her fractured clavicle impinging on the subclavian vein.
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The purpose of this study was to identify independent factors that can be used to predict whether febrile neutropenic patients who appear healthy at presentation will develop subsequent complications, using variables that are readily available in the emergency department (ED). ⋯ Platelet count, CRP and pulmonary infiltration on chest x ray at presentation could be used to identify febrile neutropenic patients who will develop complications, and these factors may be useful in making treatment-related decisions in the ED.