Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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A short cut review was carried out to establish the prognostic value of B-type natriuretic peptides (BNP and NT-proBNP) in community acquired pneumonia (CAP). Three cohort studies were directly relevant to the question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these papers are tabulated. The clinical bottom line was that B-type natriuretic peptides have prognostic value in CAP but further prospective studies were needed to assess their application in clinical practice.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Basic life support skill retention of medical interns and the effect of clinical experience of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
To investigate the level of basic life support (BLS) skill retention of medical interns 6 and 12 months after BLS education and analyse the correlation between clinical experience of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and BLS skill retention. ⋯ In medical doctors, the compression skills were well preserved, but the retention of non-compression skills was poor.
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Comparative Study
Experiential and rational decision making: a survey to determine how emergency physicians make clinical decisions.
Dual-process psychological theories argue that clinical decision making is achieved through a combination of experiential (fast and intuitive) and rational (slower and systematic) cognitive processes. ⋯ Overall, emergency physicians favoured rational decision making rather than experiential decision making; however, female emergency physicians had higher experiential scores than male emergency physicians. This has important implications for future knowledge translation and decision support efforts among emergency physicians.
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Emergency medicine (EM) training programmes are being conducted around the world but no study has assessed the procedural competence of developing nations' EM trainees. ⋯ EM trainees in a South Africa registrarship report a high number of procedures performed for most procedures and all resuscitations. As medical education moves to the era of direct observation and other methods of assessment, more studies are needed to define and ensure procedural competence in trainees of nascent EM programmes.
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Emergency departments (ED) are the basic unit of international emergency medicine, but often differ in fundamental features. This study sought to describe and characterise ED in the capital city of Nigeria, Abuja. ⋯ Although ED location and layout in Abuja do not differ greatly from that in a typical US city, ED utilisation was lower and fewer resources and capabilities were available. The lack of technological and human resources raise questions about what critical technologies are needed in resource-limited settings, and whether Nigeria should consider training emergency medicine physicians to meet its workforce needs.