How to Spot the Sick Child in the Emergency Department Ffion Davies gives her take on how to spot the sick child in the Emergency Department. Paediatric medicine is no doubt hard and can at times be scary. There is nothing worse, in Ffion’s opinion, than sending a child home who later represents to the…
The Problem with Hospital Systems: Alex Psirides Alex Psirides discusses the problem with major hospitals and the systems that they use. Throughout he uses a case example to highlight how and why things go wrong. Moreover, he suggests potential strategies to reframe the way care is provided in the hospital system. As patients become more…
Prehospital Critical Care Response to the Active Shooter Anthony Baca provides a focused talk on prehospital critical care response to the active shooter. Coming from the United States of America setting this is unfortunately not a rare occurrence. Anthony will discuss the real-world violence that exists, and what are the most important considerations for first…
Biomarkers in Emergency Medicine: Katrin Hruska Katrin Hruska discusses the usefulness of biomarkers in Emergency Medicine. All biomarkers are awesome predictors of badness. Elevated hS-troponins after non-cardiac surgery or an acute exacerbation of COPD are associated with increased mortality. In seemingly healthy people, elevated D-dimer levels are associated with increased mortality. Similarly, NT-proBNP levels predict…
Post-Intubation Sedation: Scott Weingart Scott Weingart discusses post-intubation sedation – a topic that tends to aggrieve him on a regular basis. Scott explains in simple terms why he is bemused at the lack of understanding surrounding intubated patients who become agitated or aggressive. How would you like a piece of plastic placed down your throat?…
Fatigue in Critical Care: Marietjie “MJ” Slabbert Marietjie (MJ) Slabbert describes the unseen enemy, fatigue in critical care medicine. MJ does 24 hour shifts every other day with just three to four hours of sleep. Though many would claim that this is more than enough, MJ thinks otherwise. Physicians are killing themselves while trying to…
Fatigue in Critical Care: Jo Anna Leuck Jo Anna Leuck discusses fatigue in critical care. Is there a specific time during our shift when we are too fatigued to safely practice? That was the question that led to Jo Anna’s research project comparing the clinical performance of providers during the first hour of a day…
High Performance Teams in Critical Care Chris Hicks delves in to how to optimise performance in a team environment in emergency medicine and critical care. When teams fail and fall apart, we are quick to analyse the performance. We pick it apart and see what went wrong, and why. Chris suggests that we should do…
Learning from excellence in critical care by Adrian Plunkett Adrian Plunkett describes how to learn from excellence in critical care. Learning from excellence is an initiative which began at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Firstly, Adrian shares an anecdote regarding how the initiative begun. He sent a letter to the CEO of a hospital appreciating one of…
The Challenges for Women in Critical Care by Karin Amrein Karin Amrein talks about the challenges for women working in the critical care world. Incredibly, despite female prevalence, Critical Care is considered a man’s world. We’ve all heard the notion, “big boys with big toys.” The false assumption is that men are more interested in…
