Features

Troponin testing in primary care: can it improve diagnosis and prevent admission?

The limitations of this systematic review largely concern the quality of the included studies. With all studies scoring either three or below on the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Levels of...

‘Just little tricks’: an exploration of treating children in pain

The aim of this study was to explore UK paramedics’ experience of treating paediatric patients in pain..

Ethics part 2: making good and right decisions in paramedic practice

Despite the creatine kinase and other blood tests being normal, Anne subsequently contracts pneumonia resulting in a month's stay in hospital. Upon her return home, Anne no longer feels she can leave...

Spotlight on Research

Femoral shaft and neck fractures are painful injuries which, if managed sub-optimally, can lead to a significant increase in length of hospital stay and overall mortality. Early management of these...

Differential rater function over time (DRIFT) during student simulations

The primary objective of this study was to detect if there was a DRIFT in the ability of the raters on successive tests during the day—essentially, a fatigue effect..

Prehospital administration of calcium in trauma

Calcium ions initiate actin-myosin filament binding, resulting in myofibril (muscle-fibre) shortening and muscle contraction. Depletion of calcium ions because of loss during haemorrhage and...

Perceptions and experiences of mental health support for ambulance employees

This study was designed to meet five objectives, the first of which was to investigate work-related stressful events and how they relate to staff characteristics, such as job role and gender, and...

Prevalence, severity and preventability of prehospital patient safety incidents

This commentary aims to critically appraise the methods used within the review by O'Connor et al (2021) and expand upon the findings in the context of clinical practice..

Spotlight on Research

Recent studies suggest that in cases of serious trauma, reducing prehospital time could improve survivability of patients. An area of particular interest is the reduction in time spent on scene by...

Paramedic decision-making and the influence of bias: a case study

This incident was assigned to us at 22:25, 35 minutes before our shift was due to finish. We were tired, and our desire to finish on time made us acutely aware of how close this was to the end of our...

Innovations in preoperative control of exsanguination in major trauma

The commonest and most immediate setting of trauma-related mortality is the scene of the incident. Pfeifer et al's (2019) systematic review of more than 7000 trauma deaths found up to 47.6% of these...

Prehospital management of sickle cell crisis: a case report

A 10-year-old Afro-Caribbean boy arrived home feeling unusually tired after playing football at school. He went straight to sleep but was woken at 17:00 with a sudden onset of intense pain (rated at...