Child Whisperer Series: Breaking Bad News

The weekend after Thanksgiving, I received the following text from one of my friends: “Bella’s in the hospital. Her legs were hurting, they did tests… It’s leukemia.” Bella is one of my 8 year old daughter’s good friends. All of a sudden my professional world and personal world were colliding. As I looked up from my phone and at my daughter, one of my first thoughts was, how am I going to explain this to my daughter so that she isn’t terrified and understands leukemia?

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By Kristen Beckler, CTRS, CCLS|2026-06-16T16:04:45-07:00Jan 16, 2014|Pediatrics|

Child Whisperer Series: There’s an app for that!

I was playing bubbles with a 2 yr old when she wanted a turn. Even though I knew the outcome, she said “peeeze” so I said OK. As predicted, she immediately dumped the bubbles on the floor and started laughing. In the corner of the room I heard the quiet voice of her 10 year old brother say to me, “Excuse me, ma’am… you know there’s an app for that”.

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By Kristen Beckler, CTRS, CCLS|2026-06-16T16:04:33-07:00Dec 9, 2013|Pediatrics, Social Media & Tech|

52 Articles in 52 Weeks: Landmark EM Articles 2013

To provide a resource for evidence-based Emergency Medical education, this list of must-read landmark articles was created to supplement the Emergency Medicine (EM) internship year of training. There are 52 articles so that one article can be read at leisure each week of the year. I searched national databases and polled faculty at the University of Washington to identify articles that faculty would expect any EM resident to be familiar with or that they felt were practice-changing in EM. Articles were selected for the final list based on the quality of study design, sample size, and relevance for EM residents.

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By Emily Junck, MD|2017-03-05T14:18:46-08:00Nov 12, 2013|Cardiovascular, Critical Care/ Resus, EMS, Environmental, Gastrointestinal, Infectious Disease, Neurology, Orthopedic, Pediatrics, Pulmonary, Renal, Trauma, Ultrasound|

Child Whisperer Series: Just Breathe

Just breathe….

Early in my career as a Child Life Specialist, I was working with a 4 year old girl who needed her port catheter accessed. She was beginning to panic with rapid breathing and moving around. She was clearly on the verge of screaming at any moment. Her panic made everyone in the room feel anxious. I knew I had to do something, so I got on one knee, looked her in the eye and said, “Just breathe.” Without missing a beat, she leaned in closer to me and said, “I am!”… Touché my little friend.

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By Kristen Beckler, CTRS, CCLS|2017-03-05T14:18:37-08:00Nov 6, 2013|Pediatrics, Tricks of the Trade|

P-Video: Sources for pediatric and adult fevers

Dr. Jeremy Faust is back with another P-video, which stands for Paucis Videos (paucis means “few” or “brief” in Latin) much like the Paucis Verbis cards. These P-videos are short video-based educational pearls for the practicing physician with a focus on Emergency Medicine and Critical Care. Here Jeremy shares two mnemonics, LUCAS and FEBRILE, to help you remember the common causes for fevers in pediatric and adult patients, respectively.

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2019-01-28T21:53:48-08:00Oct 17, 2013|Infectious Disease, P-videos, Pediatrics|

Confessions of an Emergency Department Kid Helper

As I was rounding the corner from the adult area of the emergency department to the pediatric area I heard a child screaming at the top of his lungs, “I DON’T WANT A SHOT”. I knew at that moment I was being summoned. I walked into the room and I saw a mother with her 5 year old son in a full headlock, while a new intern was trying to look in his ears. I made eye contact with the intern said “maybe I can help” then turned my attention to mom and son.

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By Kristen Beckler, CTRS, CCLS|2016-11-20T07:15:20-08:00Oct 14, 2013|Pediatrics|

Patwari Academy videos: PALS

Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) guidelines were most recently reviewed in Circulation 2010 ¹ based on the International Consensus on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care Science which includes treatment recommendations. Dr. Rahul Patwari nicely summarizes these findings in this series of 8 videos

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2019-01-28T21:55:35-08:00Sep 8, 2013|Patwari Videos, Pediatrics|