Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Comment Letter Case Reports
Delayed lethal arrhythmia after an electrical injury.
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Recent government policy has looked at improving the role of ambulance services in delivering alternative care models for patients. ⋯ This short study suggests that focused guidelines can help support ambulance staff decision making; however, care must be taken to ensure safe practice and that these guidelines are not used to add legitimacy to poor practice.
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Review Comparative Study
Towards evidence based emergency medicine: best BETs from the Manchester Royal Infirmary. Capillary blood gases as an alternative to arterial puncture in diabetic ketoacidosis.
A short cut review was carried out to establish whether capillary blood rather than arterial blood can be used to assess acid base status in patients with diabetic ketoacidosis. A total of 25 papers were found using the reported searches, of which one presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of this best paper are presented in table 1. It is concluded that while the correlations in the small study found were good, there is insufficient evidence to recommend adoption of this practice in the emergency setting.
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Despite the potential impact that emergency pharmacist (EPh) programmes could have on medication safety and quality of care in the emergency department (ED), very few programmes exist. This descriptive survey study aimed to assess staff perceptions of an EPh programme. ⋯ This study reinforced the value of many specific duties of the EPh programme and found that doctors and nurses overwhelmingly favour the presence of an EPh in the ED, frequently seek their advice, and feel they improve quality of care. Staff acceptance is clearly not a barrier to implementation of this programme.