Category Name: perspectives

FOAMED

The Multiple Layers of Diagnostic Uncertainty

The young female with lower abdominal pain. The middle-aged male with atypical chest pain. The elderly female that presents with vague symptoms of dizziness. These are just the tip of the iceberg of chief complaints we will see in our emergency medicine careers. Those with symptoms that don’t ...

perspectives

Traumatic Cardiac Arrest

24-year-old male presents via EMS after being involved in altercation. According to bystanders, patient was noted to sustain several gunshot wounds from close range, notably to the left anterior chest and left upper extremity. On EMS arrival, patient was diaphoretic but awake, with GCS of 15, heart ...

EM MINDSET

Teaching the Modern EM Resident

Current EM residents, as part of the Millennial Generation (born between 1981 and the present), now see this new technology as a way of life, and feel the need to be connected online at all times.5,6 As a result, many EM residents have abandoned the traditional lecture hall and textbooks, and have ...

EM MINDSET

The Art of Decision Making: Emergency Medicine Style

It’s 3pm on a Monday after a holiday. The department is bustling, and you feel like there are patients crammed into every conceivable space. Alarms are going off on patient monitors. You’re in the midst of discussing a case with a resident when a nurse puts an ECG in front of you to review an...

FOAMED

The Patient Experience: Why Is It Important? Why Do We Hate It So Much? What Can We Do To Improve?

I HAVE BECOME INFATUATED WITH THE PATIENT CARE EXPERIENCE. I believe the term “patient care experience” is a more inclusive term that describes our technical expertise while also including everything else, such as communication, department ambience, throughput, and the behavior of everyone a patient comes into contact with while in the department.