Psychiatric and substance use disorder complaints comprise up to 12% of all Emergency Department (ED) visits.1–3 These conditions can present in a multitude of ways, making it essential for emergency physicians (EPs) to be aware of nuanced diagnostic characteristics of psychiatric illnesses in order to provide timely and appropriate care for these patients.
Providing high-quality healthcare in the busy, often chaotic world of EM requires teamwork. Team members must overcome varied levels of training, expertise, and conflicting personalities to function as a unit. Effective teamwork and collaboration, particularly in high-stakes, high-acuity environments, can improve patient outcomes and the cost of care.1,2 Although the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) includes “interpersonal and communication skills” (ICS) as a core competency, there is no consensus as to how to effectively teach these skills. Further, military literature identifies “trust” as critical to effective communication within teams.3 To improve trust, communication, and collaboration, authors suggest a training that is safe, low-stakes, high-impact, and dynamically engaging.
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Early recognition of a patient presenting with a toxidrome is essential to providing high-quality emergency care. Learners are often first exposed to this topic, however, in one comprehensive grouping, which makes it challenging to learn the nuances that distinguish one toxidrome from another. Both learners and experienced clinicians alike often employ rote memorization (and sometimes suboptimal mnemonics) to differentiate these presentations. This can make it difficult to convert the details into long-term memory.
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Laceration repair and suturing are foundational skills for the Emergency Department. This pocket card serves as a quick reference guide for clinicians, and provides a much-needed update and design upgrade from the 2011 PV card on Sutures. This card covers suture/staple removal times, suture sizes, suture material characteristics, special laceration considerations, and suture techniques.