When the heart contracts and blood is ejected from the left ventricle, a pressure wave is generated and transmitted into the aorta and arterial tree. The flexible and elastic nature of artery walls...
The term hyperventilation syndrome (HVS) was first mentioned in 1938 by Kerr et al who attributed their patients' tetany to hyperventilation associated with anxiety. Since then, the term has been...
Electrocardiograms (ECGs) have become an integrated part of an ambulance clinician's toolkit, with thousands being performed each year (Brady et al, 2012). Invented in 1903 by Willem Einthoven, a...
OverviewParamedics and ambulance staff are frequently in contact with patients who have mental health diagnoses This may be the primary reason for contacting the emergency services (e.g. self-harm,...
Since its introduction, POCUS has been used to enhance the assessment of a wide range of clinical conditions across medical and traumatic pathologies. For example, the ‘focused assessment with...
Systolic pressure is the force of BP on arterial walls at the end of ventricular contraction, i.e. in systole (Tortora and Derrickson, 2017). Diastolic pressure is the force exerted by the remaining...
Ethical approval for the current study was sought and obtained with further support from the researcher's employers. Initial contact (via email) then commenced with an administration team, in which...
In this month's Clinical Skills article, best practice for the administration of intramuscular (IM) injections will be discussed. It is important to re-visit clinical skills as many are taught during...
Health professionals' compliance with hand hygiene remains a universal problem in health care (Gould et al, 2017; Sunley et al, 2018). While poor hand hygiene is prevalent in the inpatient and...
The purpose of this month's Clinical Skills column is to provide safe and effective best practice guidance for the use of haemostatic agents, or haemostats, in the pre-hospital environment. The topic...
Treatment and management is increasingly being directed at the rapid identification and reversal of potential causes. Reversing hypovolaemia, oxygenation and tension pneumothorax (HOT) as a priority...
IO infusion is a method of administration of medications or fluids directly into the marrow of a bone (Figure 1)..