Happy New Year!!!

We hope you've had some time off over the festive period and now we're back to kick start the new year with three more great papers.

Syncope is common presentation to the Emergency Department, accounting for 1% of presentations. Without a clear precipitant of the event it can be challenging to identify those patients who have a higher risk of associated morbidity and mortality, and furthermore those who would benefit from further investigation and observations. Our first paper looks at syncope risk-stratification tools and sheds some light on their utility.

Acute exacerbations of COPD with acute type 2 respiratory failure and frequently treated with non-invasive ventilation (NIV), with high flow nasal oxygenation a treatment normally for patients in type 1 respiratory failure. However our second paper is a fantastic RCT looking at the the application of either NIV or high flow nasal oxygenation in those type 2 COPD exacerbations, are both options for our patients?

Finally, since the advent of trauma networks in the UK, prehospital patients have been triaged to the most relevant centre based upon trauma triage tools. Our third paper looks at the performance of these tools and gives valuable insights for both those clinicians using the tools and those receiving trauma patients in both MTCs and other trauma units.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!

Simon & Rob

This is an episode we've been wanting to cover for a long time now! In it we explore the challenges in entering and developing in prehospital critical care, which translate into pretty much developing in any new role both in and out of health care.

We cover some pretty personally challenging experiences and the strategies that both clinicians new to prehospital critical care may find useful to employ. We also discuss how supervisors can use these techniques to both guide and support new clinicians.

The four main areas discussed are;

• Decision making
• Prioritisation of tasks
• Leadership
• Incorporating evidence based medicine into practice

We wrap up exploring how reflection can be used to accelerate growth as a clinician but also the risks of over-reflection!

We really hope you enjoy the episode and would love to hear any thoughts or feedback on the episode both on the website and via social media.

Simon & James

A really strong line up of papers to bring this year's evidence round up to a close!

First up we take a look at a paper evaluating the utility of pulse oximetry (along with several other diagnostic tests) in identifying vascular injury following trauma, a really interesting look at an approach we didn't know much about.

Next up we run through PARAMEDIC-3, a huge RCT looking at the best vascular access strategy for patients in cardiac arrest, will the result of this paper change our approach?

And finally we look at a paper focussing on intubation success rate in US EMS services according to intubation rate.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!

Simon & Rob