Understanding Graduating Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow Priorities for Career Pathways and Faculty Recruitment for Academic or Community Emergency Departments.

Objectives: Factors influencing the employment of pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) fellows in a career in academic medicine versus community emergency department (ED) settings have not previously been explored. The purpose of this study was to explore PEM fellows' priorities in selecting jobs and to identify factors that influence their decisions regarding career choices through a multicenter, qualitative approach. We also explored program directors' beliefs about graduates' job selection priorities.

Increasing Comfort with Sensory Processing Difficulties in the Prehospital Setting: Pre-Post Study of Education and Sensory Tools in EMS Providers.

Objectives: Interfacing with patients with sensory processing difficulties is challenging to healthcare providers and even more problematic for emergency medical services (EMS) personnel in the acute care setting. Sensory training may be an effective nonpharmacologic method to deal with these patient populations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether an educational session and placement sensory tools would improve the comfort of EMS providers in the prehospital setting.

Funding Sources and Perceived Financial Insecurity in Pediatric Subspecialty Fellowship Programs.

Objective: Shortages of pediatric subspecialists exist in many fields with insufficient recruitment of new fellows. The current system of funding graduate medical education is inadequate. We examined funding sources for trainee salary and educational expenses in pediatric fellowship programs, effects of funding constraints, and program characteristics associated with financial insecurity as reported by fellowship program directors (FPD).

Essentials of PEM Fellowship Part 2: The Profession in Entrustable Professional Activities.

This article is the second in a 7-part series that aims to comprehensively describe the current state and future directions of pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) fellowship training from the essential requirements to considerations for successfully administering and managing a program to the careers that may be anticipated upon program completion. This article describes the development of PEM entrustable professional activities (EPAs) and the relationship of these EPAs with existing taxonomies of assessment and learning within PEM fellowship. It summarizes the field in concepts that can be taught and assessed, packaging the PEM subspecialty into EPAs.

Attrition rates of pediatric emergency medicine fellowship graduates.

Objectives: To identify the percentage of alumni of one Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) fellowship program who consider themselves to still practice in the field.

Methods: A brief survey (5 questions) was sent to all physicians who began the PEM fellowship program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham between the years 1986 and 2006. Survey included demographics, length of time out of fellowship, present work location, and whether the respondent considered themselves to be in the field of pediatric emergency medicine.

Cutaneous community-associated methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus among all skin and soft-tissue infections in two geographically distant pediatric emergency departments.

Objectives: To describe the culture results of cutaneous infections affecting otherwise healthy children presenting to two pediatric emergency departments (EDs) in the southeastern United States and southern California.

Methods: Medical records of 920 children who presented to the pediatric EDs with skin infections and abscesses (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes 680.0-686.

Drug-induced rhabdomyolysis.

Purpose Of Review: Drug-induced rhabdomyolysis is a common syndrome that is complex and potentially life threatening. This article reviews the pathophysiology, clinical presentations, and common compounds that cause drug-induced rhabdomyolysis.

Recent Findings: The list of drugs and inciting agents that cause rhabdomyolysis is quite extensive.

A randomized controlled trial of inhaled flunisolide in the management of acute asthma in children.

Background: Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) may provide benefit in the therapy of acute asthma. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that ICS are as effective as oral corticosteroids (OCS) in the management of acute childhood asthma.

Methods: A randomized, masked, placebo-controlled study was conducted in children aged 6 to 16 years seeking emergent care for an acute exacerbation of asthma.

Impact of the rapid diagnosis of influenza on physician decision-making and patient management in the pediatric emergency department: results of a randomized, prospective, controlled trial.

Objective: To determine the impact of the rapid diagnosis of influenza on physician decision-making and patient management, including laboratory tests and radiographs ordered, patient charges associated with these tests, antibiotics/antivirals prescribed, and length of time to patient discharge from the emergency department.

Methods: Patients aged 2 months to 21 years presenting to an urban children's teaching hospital emergency department were screened for fever and cough, coryza, myalgias, headache, and/or malaise. After obtaining informed consent, patients were randomized to 1 of 2 groups: 1) physician receives (physician aware of) the rapid influenza test result; or 2) physician does not receive (physician unaware of) the result.

Pediatric orogastric and nasogastric tubes: a new formula evaluated.

Study Objective: We sought to compare the traditional method of determining depth of gastric tube insertion, by measuring from the external landmarks of the nose or mouth, to the earlobe, to the xiphoid process (NEX method), with a graph for determining depth of gastric tube insertion that is based on patient height (graphic method).

Methods: A prospective, randomized, double-blinded study comparing NEX and graphic methods for gastric tube depth of insertion was undertaken. This study included a convenience sample of pediatric emergency department patients in need of gastric intubation.

Marked hypocalcemia and ventricular fibrillation in two pediatric patients exposed to a fluoride-containing wheel cleaner.

In two separate cases, pediatric patients exposed to Armor-All Quicksilver Wheel Cleaner exhibited systemic toxicity including mental status changes, marked hypocalcemia, and ventricular fibrillation. One child also demonstrated profound hypomagnesemia. These are the first pediatric reports of near-fatal outcomes after ingestion or inhalation of a hydrofluoric acid-like product, namely, ammonium bifluoride.