Articles: emergency-department.
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To investigate the perceptions of doctors, nurses and physiotherapists of emergency department physiotherapy for acute patients, and explore the scope of its contribution in an otherwise nontraditional allied health setting in Australia. ⋯ Participants described the benefits of having physiotherapists located in the emergency department, and the physiotherapists were eager to advance their roles and responsibilities, but were, at times, restricted by a complicated organisational landscape influencing professional autonomy and capacity for professional advocacy. Ongoing evidence supporting the breadth of physiotherapy practice in the emergency department is needed to further advocate the usefulness of the profession in this acute setting.
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Pediatric emergency care · Mar 2014
Mobile and web-based education: delivering emergency department discharge and aftercare instructions.
Prior research has identified deficiencies in the standard process of providing instructions for care at discharge from the emergency department (ED). Patients typically receive a brief verbal instruction, along with preformatted written discharge documents. Studies have found that understanding and retention of such information by families are very poor, leading to nonadherence in follow-up care, unnecessary return visit to the ED, and poor health outcomes. ⋯ Information can also be delivered both synchronously and asynchronously, enabling the health care providers to deliver health education to the patients electronically to their home, where health care occurs. Furthermore, the providers can track information access by patients, customize content to the individual patients, and reach other caregivers who may not be present during the ED visit. Further research is needed to develop the systems and best practices for incorporating mobile health in the ED setting.
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Pediatric emergency care · Mar 2014
Comparative StudySeasonal variation of presentation for headache in a pediatric emergency department.
Headache is a common pediatric complaint. Our experience indicated that there was a seasonal variation in children seeking emergency department (ED) care for headache. We hypothesized that visits to the ED would be more common during the school year compared with that during the summer months. ⋯ Visits to the ED for headache were less common in May and June and more common during the fall. This remained true across headache type, age, sex, and racial groups.
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Pediatric emergency care · Mar 2014
Case ReportsSurfactant for acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by near drowning in a newborn.
Near drowning is the term for survival after suffocation caused by submersion in water or another fluid. Pulmonary insufficiency may develop insidiously or suddenly because of near drowning. ⋯ This case report describes a rapid and persistent improvement after 2 doses of surfactant in acute respiratory distress syndrome with severe oxygenation failure caused by near drowning in a newborn.
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Thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAAs) are less prevalent than abdominal aortic aneurysms. Symptomatic TAAs need to be identified quickly by the emergency physician (EP) since mortality rates increase dramatically once complications such as rupture or dissection occur. Compared with validated EP-performed ultrasound of the abdominal aorta, EP-performed focused cardiac ultrasound that includes evaluation of the thoracic aorta is relatively unreported. ⋯ EPs performing focused cardiac ultrasound can visualize regions of the thoracic aorta that may reveal an aneurysm, particularly in the parasternal long axis view.