Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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To determine if prehospital blood glucose could be added to National Early Warning Score (NEWS) for improved identification of risk of short-term mortality. ⋯ Including glucose in NEWS in the prehospital setting seems to improve identification of patients at risk of death.
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The importance of end of life care (EoLC) for patients and their families is well documented, however, the skills and knowledge of emergency clinicians in delivering EoLC is not widely understood but it is clear from the existing literature that we fall short in delivering consistently good EoLC although there is recognition of the need to improve. This paper will acknowledge the challenges of delivering good EoLC in the emergency department (ED) but more importantly consider practical ways of improving EoLC in the ED in line with best practice guidelines on EoLC.
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Emergency medicine registrar training in Africa: overview of programmes, faculty and sustainability.
The specialty of emergency medicine (EM) is new in most African countries, where emergency medicine registrar (residency) programmes (EMRPs) are at different stages of evolution and little is known about the programmes. Identifying and describing these EMRPs will facilitate planning for sustainability, collaborative efforts and curriculum development for existing and future programmes. Our objective was to identify and provide an overview of existing EMRPs in Africa and their applicant requirements, faculty characteristics and plans for sustainability. ⋯ EMRPs currently produce most of their own EM faculty. Almost equal proportions of men and women have graduated from a predominantly >3-year training programme. Graduates have a variety of opportunities in academia and private practice. Future assessments may wish to focus on the evolution of these programme' curricula, faculty composition and graduates' career options.