ALiEM Bookclub Promo: Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
It was a few months into my simulation fellowship and I had been devoting a lot of my time to teaching at the medical school. I loved it. I find few things as fun as teaching students who are super motivated to learn. That got me thinking about why learning isn’t always that way. What is it about certain settings that foster a student’s passion to learn while others, that may be presenting the exact same content, cause the same group of students to grumble and disengage? [+]
MEdIC Series: The Case of the Terrible Teammate: Expert Review and Curated Commentary
The Case of the Terrible Teammate presented a conflict between a team of chief residents. Sarah got upset because David seemed to be shirking his responsibilities and getting her to do all of the work. While we provided a specific context for the case, interpersonal disagreements over the distribution of work may come up in any work arrangement that splits responsibility between two or more parties. When it does, how should we deal with it? This month Dr. Teresa Chan (@TChanMD) and I (@Brent_Thoma) explored this issue with insights from the ALiEM community and 3 experts. [+]
Is Pelvic Exam in the Emergency Department Useful?
Women with undifferentiated abdominal pain and/or vaginal bleeding commonly present to the emergency department. Many textbooks advocate for the pelvic exam as an essential part of the history and physical exam. Performance of the pelvic exam is time consuming to the physician and uncomfortable for the patient. It is with great regularity that emergency physicians make clinical decisions, based on information derived from the pelvic examination, but is this information reliable and does it effect the clinical plan of patients? [+]
Highland Emergency Ultrasound website: Check it out
Need a quick refresher course on how to do an ultrasound-guided ear block or ankle arthrocentesis? I recently found out about Drs. Andrew Herring and Arun Nagdev’s Highland Emergency Ultrasound website and thought it was a great resource to share with others in the EM world. The website has easy-to-follow pictorial instructions of anatomic landmarks, probe placement, and ultrasound images of the most common blocks and other procedures. [+]
Vote which Annals of EM articles to be open-access in May
With the overwhelming poll response on helping Annals of Emergency Medicine choose their two open-access articles for April 2014, this will now be an ongoing monthly event! Take a look at the article abstracts accepted for publication in May’s issue. Vote on your top two choices over the next 2 days, and they’ll be made open after the May issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine goes online. [+]
“Is there a doctor on-board?” 5 tips for dealing with in-flight emergencies
On average, in-flight medical emergencies occur about 15 times per day. When asked by flight crews to help in a medical emergency, providers have fairly extensive legal protection, and in some cases have a legal obligation to help [1]. In the U.S., all 50 states have some form of a “good Samaritan” law, which provides legal protection to medical providers who perform their services in response to medical emergencies outside the hospital. While these laws typically apply broadly to most out of hospital emergencies, in 1998 Congress specifically passed the Aviation Medical Assistance Act (AMAA) which offers legal protection to providers, [+]
Simulation: A tool for non-clinicians
Thought simulation is only for doctors and nurses? Think again! More and more, people are reconsidering the notion that medical simulation has only application in the clinical setting. By rethinking the narrow mind set, educators are learning that simulation can be used almost anywhere for anyone! Even to teach sexual health to teenagers! [+]
MEdIC Series: The Case of the Terrible Teammate
Workplace conflict can take place in many forms. Both clinical and administrative work can result in interpersonal conflict that causes frustrations which lead to a downward spiral of increasingly intense and adversarial working environments. This month in the MEdIC Series, we present the case of Sarah, a co-chief resident who is having a disagreement with her colleague David over an administrative issue. We invite you to share your thoughts and advice below. [+]
Head injury in pediatric patients: To CT or not to CT?
Intracranial injury is the leading cause of death and disability in children. It can arise after severe, moderate, or minor head injury. Children with minor head injury present the greatest diagnostic dilemma for emergency physicians, as they appear well but a small number will develop intracranial injuries. The question that often arises in the ED is: To CT or not to CT? [+]
ALiEM-Annals of EM Journal Club: Clinical Decision Rule for Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
We are very excited this month to bring you our second Global Journal Club, co-hosted by the team here at ALiEM and the editorial board at the Annals of Emergency Medicine. This month, we are changing things up! We will be providing you, our readers, with a clinical vignette and related journal club questions today at the beginning of the week.The discussion will be held asynchronously starting today through Thursday (for 4 days). Respond by blog comment below or tweet (#ALiEMJC). On Wednesday, January 22, 2014 at 11 am PST (2 pm EST), we will be hosting a 30-minute live Google Hangout [+]