Emergency medicine

2,327 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 45

This was my night in the ER. How was yours?

October 23, 2016Oct 23, 20162

"Good morning, Sandy. How was work?” How do I answer that in a normal way? Any given shift in any given ED is comprised of the gamut of emotions playing out behind the calm facade of physicians and nurses. Afterward,…

“Good morning, Sandy. How was work?”

How do I answer that in a normal way? Any given shift in any given ED is comprised of the gamut of emotions playing out behind the calm facade of physicians and nurses. Afterward, we often don’t articulate or even process the roller coaster of feelings. The story of a recent Monday overnight illustrates the wild ride of emotions most people don’t realize that emergency …

Physician voices

The night this physician was profiled. And he was OK with it.

Thomas D. Guastavino, MD

October 23, 2016Oct 23, 201625

One very late spring evening during my last year of residency, I was driving home and got stopped at a police DUI checkpoint. I was exhausted from being up all night from being on call the night before and having been very busy had no time to shower, shave or change into my street clothes. I also got called in at 4 a.m. the previous day and had not showered or shaved that …

Physician voices

When physicians can’t hide the emotion

Andrew Martin, MD

October 20, 2016Oct 20, 2016

You have to create a disconnect from death. Not indifference, in fact, it’s your duty to combat it. But as an emergency medicine physician, you lose that battle often. I encounter death on a near daily basis as a resident in the emergency department, and despite all my years of training, there’s often nothing I or anyone can do to prevent it. Health care workers in such an environment often …

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When physicians can’t hide the emotion

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Syncope at 35,000 feet: A physician’s harrowing story

Janelle Evans, MD, MS

October 18, 2016Oct 18, 20164

I am sharing this account of a serious medical emergency on a transoceanic flight because I hope it helps other health care providers assist people in the future and learn from the difficulties I encountered. About 8 1/2 hours into…

About 8 1/2 hours into a 17-hour flight, a gentleman had a syncopal episode in the exit row I was sitting in. His face was bleeding, and he was having issues controlling his bowels afterwards. His …

Health technology

Speech recognition errors in the ER. It’s a problem.

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

October 17, 2016Oct 17, 20166

Speech recognition errors occurred in 71 percent of emergency department notes, and 21.1 percent of notes with errors were judged as critical with potential implications for patient care says a recent study in the International Journal of Medical Informatics. Investigators…

Investigators looked at a random sample of 100 dictated notes and found 128 errors or 1.3 errors per note.

More than half of the errors were ascribed to speaker mispronunciation. Although …

Physician voices

Female physicians told to get out of the way during emergencies as patients nearly die

Pamela Wible, MD

October 14, 2016Oct 14, 2016181

It’s true. Man nearly dies on plane because crew didn’t believe black woman was doctor. The medical fiasco on Delta Airlines has now gone viral after a Facebook post by Tamika Cross, MD, the physician who was turned away as a fellow passenger was unresponsive. Tamika joins a long list of female physicians who have experienced the same discrimination.

Meet a few of these doctors below. …

Physician voices

A physician experiences a medical error. Here’s her story.

Maja Castillo, MD

October 4, 2016Oct 4, 201611

As a physician, I knew exactly what was happening when I walked into the emergency room. My eyes were nearly swollen shut. My throat was closing. I was in the midst of a severe allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis. I urgently needed epinephrine, a potent medicine that could halt my life-threatening symptoms. When I told the nurse what was happening, she rushed me to the trauma room where doctors and nurses encircled …

Physician voices

The serenity of an emergency physician’s commute to work

Edwin Leap, MD

October 4, 2016Oct 4, 20169

These days, I work most of my shifts about 45 minutes from my "house on the hill." At one of those jobs, the day shift starts at 6:30 a.m. Which means I’m rising from my bed at 4:30 a.m. in…

These days, I work most of my shifts about 45 minutes from my “house on the hill.” At one of those jobs, the day shift starts at 6:30 a.m. Which means I’m rising from my bed at 4:30 a.m. in order to get on the road in time. I’ve started waking up at four, spontaneously, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

I lay out my clothes …

Physician voices

When EMTALA forms meet EMRs, chaos can ensue

Edwin Leap, MD

September 28, 2016Sep 28, 20162

Ah, EMTALA! The revered Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act! It’s one of those things which is like a nursery rhyme to emergency medicine folks like me. We’ve heard about it from the infancy of our training. “And then the bad doctor sent the poor lady to another hospital because she couldn’t pay! And the King came and crucified him for doing it!” The end.

EMTALA, for the uninitiated, is …

Physician voices

How to create a modern superhero

Alberto Hazan, MD

September 23, 2016Sep 23, 2016

You start out by working in a busy emergency department. You see patients with all sorts of complaints: abdominal pain, headaches, and chest pain. Vomiting, diarrhea, and dysuria. Ankle sprains, bug bites, and allergic reactions. Domestic violence, rape, and child…

You start out by working in a busy emergency department.

You see patients with all sorts of complaints: abdominal pain, headaches, and chest pain. Vomiting, diarrhea, and dysuria. Ankle sprains, bug bites, and allergic reactions.

Domestic violence, rape, and child abuse.

You don’t ever let the stress of the job take away your humanity. You treat your patients with empathy and respect. You listen to their stories, treat their symptoms, contact the police, …

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How to create a modern superhero

Medical education

You can’t prepare for a rotation in the pediatric ER

Austin Beck

September 12, 2016Sep 12, 2016

Walking into Riley Pediatrics Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana, and having just completed two prior rotations in emergency medicine at two different level 1 trauma centers, I thought I would be able to easily fit in with pediatric population here. I thought I would be able to slide fluidly from patient to patient, oral reports to consults, while staying connected with the rest of the team. I thought I would be …

Physician voices

6 steps to overcoming physician burnout

Anonymous

September 9, 2016Sep 9, 201615

Exercise. Growing up I competed in multiple sports. The physical enhancement of the human body through movement sparked my interest in human physiology and kinesiology. Consequently, my interest in physiology ultimately led me to medical school. It only felt natural,…

Exercise. Growing up I competed in multiple sports. The physical enhancement of the human body through movement sparked my interest in human physiology and kinesiology. Consequently, my interest in physiology ultimately led me to medical school. It only felt natural, when medicine became what felt like the bane of my existence, that I’d revert back to this pursuit’s humble beginning. Given the fact that time was a scarce resource during internship, …

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6 steps to overcoming physician burnout

Medical education

Is burnout inevitable during medical training?

Anonymous

September 5, 2016Sep 5, 201616

Medical training in the United States is a long and tedious process. It begins in college, when one must complete the mandatory prerequisite curriculum and take a medical entrance exam; your score on which is directly compared to other applicants, immediately labeling you as a competitive candidate or not. The process of applying requires the completion of multiple comprehensive applications, the compilation of countless hours of research, clinical experience, letters …

Health policy

Why are ERs so busy? It’s really no surprise.

Manuel Momjian, MD

August 29, 2016Aug 29, 201673

If the emergency room is the most expensive place to receive health care, then why are more patients visiting the ER than ever before? There are no local doctors’ offices that can charge $1,000 to put a Band-Aid on your finger or $8,000 to tell you that your abdominal pain is due to drinking too much coffee. But, I don’t think you would mind paying this premium if you were having …

Physician voices

Laughter? That’s the sound of resiliency you hear.

Cindy Winebrenner, MD

August 21, 2016Aug 21, 20162

Sometimes, the loudest sounds I hear in the emergency department are laughter. It may seem irresponsible. It may seem discordant. It may seem callous. To me, it is the sound of survival. It is the sound of resiliency. It is…

My father was at work when he suddenly became cold, clammy, and collapsed to the ground unresponsive. His staff did the right thing …

Physician voices

Emergency physicians: You are not alone

Edwin Leap, MD

August 15, 2016Aug 15, 20166

Dear emergency medicine physicians: You aren’t alone. This is very important for you to realize. I mean, I know you aren’t ‘alone.’ You have spouses and children, parents, siblings, neighbors, dogs and cats. That’s all good. You need them. Also, every shift is chock-full of people and their maladies, which you heroically manage day in, day out. Patients are everywhere. Some are sick, and some are injured, and many are …

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Emergency physicians: You are not alone

Physician voices

A physician mother as the breadwinner. Here’s how she did it.

Marianne Haughey, MD

August 10, 2016Aug 10, 20162

I was afraid. Really, I was more anxious. This wasn’t any of the typical new mother fears I had been warned about. If fact, I didn’t even see this one coming. I knew that it would be tough going back to work 3 months after my first daughter was born. I knew I would miss her terribly. I knew I had to figure out a pumping schedule with my colleagues …

Physician voices

Multiple choice questions are a terrible way to test doctors

Jeremy Gabrysch, MD

August 9, 2016Aug 9, 20164

Most people are surprised to hear that the way doctors are recertified every ten years is through a multiple choice test. “Really?” they’ll say. “You take a multiple choice test? As a doctor?” Unfortunately, after all these years that's the…

Unfortunately, after all these years that’s the most efficient way we can think of to evaluate professionals. But the method is so flawed. And your ability to answer questions on the multiple choice test isn’t necessarily linked with …

Physician voices

Access to guns is easy. Access to trauma care is becoming more difficult.

Eric Beam, MD

August 4, 2016Aug 4, 201618

Now that the dust has settled in the wake of America’s most recent mass shooting, the odds seem high that history will repeat itself, and our legislature will again fail to enact any meaningful reform. Like it or not, we…

Like it or not, we as a country, through our elected representatives, have decided that we value unfettered access to deadly weapons over an individual’s right to feel safe in public spaces. Why …

Conditions and diseases

A guide to surviving chronic disease

Alberto Hazan, MD & Jordana Haber, MD

August 3, 2016Aug 3, 20162

For many people with chronic disease, the toughest thing is convincing themselves they’re not crazy. This is especially true for those with an illness with no clear etiology. For millions of people around the world suffering from multiple sclerosis, lupus,…

For many people with chronic disease, the toughest thing is convincing themselves they’re not crazy. This is especially true for those with an illness with no clear etiology.

For millions of people around the world suffering from multiple sclerosis, lupus, fibromyalgia, chronic abdominal pain, ALS, rheumatoid arthritis, certain types of cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, and hundreds of other illnesses, just making it through the day is overwhelming. Not only do many of …

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A guide to surviving chronic disease

Emergency medicine

Articles, page 45

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