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.
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.
(more…)
While the ACGME has required EM residency curricula to incorporate quality improvement (QI), programs have faced the challenge of executing this in a meaningful way. How can EM residency programs effectively engage learners in an action-based curriculum for QI?
(more…)