Research

Developing understanding and awareness of children's distress, distraction techniques and holding

Clinical procedures such as blood glucose measurement, administration of medicines and the application of dressings can cause children to experience upset, fear and anxiety, expressed through crying,...

A critical appraisal of the pre-hospital management of cervical spine injury in children and young people

A literature review was performed using the following databases: CINAHL, Medline and Pubmed. The search terms used were ‘prehospital’, ‘paramedic’, ‘emergency medical service’, ‘cervical spine’,...

Spotlight on Research

Despite their wide use throughout the UK, air ambulances remain a scarce resource but, as yet, there is no consensus on the best method to identify when they should be dispatched, especially in...

The perceived concerns of newly qualified paramedics commencing their careers: a pilot study

This pilot study focused on a single cohort of full time two-year diploma-qualified paramedics in the initial months post-qualification. Ethical approval was obtained for the project from the...

The use of polyvinyl chloride film (clingfilm) with burn injury in the pre-hospital setting—the clear facts

In 1987 the use of clingfilm gained early research exposure by Wilson and French. In their abstract they state:.

Intra-cardiac arrest thrombolysis in the pre-hospital setting: four cases worth considering

This young man had recently taken up jogging. On the evening before his collapse he complained of a painful calf and presumed that he had pulled a muscle. The next morning when he awoke he still had...

Essex and Herts Air Ambulance: a focused case series for pre-hospital practice

We report the case of a 38-year-old male who was working on an industrial site loading 2-tonne paper rolls into the container of a heavy goods vehicle (HGV). When one of the paper rolls slipped off...

The expanding scope of EMS: decreasing emergency department overcrowding in the United States

Chronic disease is defined as a long-lasting condition that can be controlled, but not cured (Salzman et al, 2012). Interestingly, over half of the US population lives with a least one chronic...

An integrated ABCDE approach to managing medical emergencies using CRM principles

‘An unplanned life-threatening event in which there is a mismatch between the ambient level of resources and those that a patient needs to regain stability.’ .

Delivering enhanced safety, productivity and experience: early results from a frequent caller management system

999 activity increased by 6.9% last year (Anderson, 2013) with incidents resulting in an ambulance service clinician attending scene increasing by 4% (Anderson, 2013) and patients discharged on scene...

Spotlight on Research

For decades there has been debate concerning the presence of lay people during resuscitation attempts. Predominantly the focus of the research has been in-hospital although in recent years we have...