There’s no doubt that for the small rural emergency department, a critically unwell patient can quickly overwhelm available resources. Like many small rural hospitals in Australia, there is one doctor on call for emergency presentations, with the ward-based nursing staff (two in out location) responsible for ward care, assessment of outpatient attendances as well as […]
Safety in Resus – Use the Whiteboard! Read More »
For the past few decades, the importance of spinal immobilisation has been emphasised in standard texts, trauma education such as the international Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) & Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) courses and in many emergency medical service (EMS) operating procedures. Such approaches often mandate the universal application of spinal immobilisation to trauma
A Practical Approach to C Spines? Read More »
I was unable to attend the annual Australian Trauma Society meeting this year (truth be told, my membership lapsed and I’ve been busy with other projects recently). But in these days of FOAMed and use of social media to connect, I was able to follow vicariously via the twitter feed from #Austrauma. One tweet, admittedly not
Is the IO really dead? Read More »
For those of you have been reading KIDocs over the past year or so will know that I am a harsh critic of the ATLS course (EMST in Australia). Not because I think it’s pants – it’s not. It does what it says on the tin, namely it teaches a basic approach to trauma management
ATACC Manual – Quality FOAMed Read More »
The topic of log rolling is one that rises it’s head from time to time in trauma discussions; we teach it on EMST as a routine … and there is often heated discussion on these courses about when to do a log roll (is it part of ‘C for Circulation’ to identify the hidden stab wound in
Log Roll “1-2-3” or “Ready-Brace-Roll”? Read More »