Paramedic Education and Training for the Management of Patients Presenting with Low-Acuity Clinical Conditions: A Scoping Review.

Ambulance services around the world are increasingly attending to calls for non-emergency conditions. These lower-acuity conditions do not always require patients to be transported to the emergency department. Consequently, over the past two decades, ambulance services have implemented strategies to support paramedics in diverting non-urgent patients to alternative care pathways.

Paramedic Education to Support the Use of Low-Acuity Care Pathways: A Scoping Review Protocol.

Ambulance services worldwide have transformed over time into health care services that not only attend to life-threatening emergencies, but are also increasingly being utilised for patients with low-acuity or non-urgent illness and injury. As a result, there has been a need to adapt and include mechanisms to assist paramedics in the assessment and management of such patients, including alternative pathways of care. However, it has been identified that education and training for paramedics in the care of low-acuity patients is limited.

Care of frail and older adults: A content analysis of paramedic operational clinical practice guidelines.

Introduction: Frailty rates are increasing with population ageing. In paramedicine, Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) are essential documents that support decision making, yet little evidence exists regarding the support CPGs provide paramedics in the care of frail and older adults.

Aim: To investigate how CPGs support paramedics' care of frail and older adults.

We need to do better: A systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy of restless legs syndrome screening instruments.

This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of screening instruments for restless legs syndrome (RLS) and reports sensitivity, specificity, positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV). Searches for primary studies were conducted in electronic databases. Of the 1541 citations identified, 52 were included in the meta-analysis.

Factors affecting paramedicine students' learning about evidence-based practice: a phenomenographic study.

Background: Evidence-based practice is an important component of pre-service professional learning in medicine and allied health degrees, including new programmes in paramedicine. Despite substantial interest in this area, there is still a lack of clear understanding of how the skills and understandings needed to develop the capacity to apply evidence-based practice can best be learned. Evidence-based practice is often described as consisting of five steps: ask, acquire, appraise, apply and assess.

Minimal effects of reduced teaching hours on undergraduate medical student learning outcomes and course evaluations.

Various pressures exist for curricular change, including economic forces, burgeoning knowledge, broadening learning outcomes, and improving quality and outcomes of learning experiences. In an Australian 5-year undergraduate medical course, staff were asked to reduce teaching hours by 20% to alleviate perceived overcrowded preclinical curriculum, achieve operating efficiencies and liberate time for students' self-directed learning. A case study design with mixed methods was used to evaluate outcomes.

The reliability and validity of measurements of human dental casts made by an intra-oral 3D scanner, with conventional hand-held digital callipers as the comparison measure.

Aim: Intra-oral 3D scanning of dentitions has the potential to provide a fast, accurate and non-invasive method of recording dental information. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability of measurements of human dental casts made using a portable intra-oral 3D scanner appropriate for field use.

Method: Two examiners each measured 84 tooth and 26 arch features of 50 sets of upper and lower human dental casts using digital hand-held callipers, and secondly using the measuring tool provided with the Zfx IntraScan intraoral 3D scanner applied to the virtual dental casts.

The incidence of public sector hospitalisations due to dog bites in Australia 2001-2013.

Objective: To estimate the incidence of dog bite-related injuries requiring public sector hospitalisation in Australia during the period 2001-13.

Methods: Summary data on public sector hospitalisations due to dog bite-related injuries with an ICD 10-AM W54.0 coding were sourced from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare for the study period 2001-2013.

A psychometric evaluation of the anatomy learning experiences questionnaire and correlations with learning outcomes.

The Anatomy Learning Experiences Questionnaire (ALEQ) was designed by Smith and Mathias to explore students' perceptions and experiences of learning anatomy. In this study, the psychometric properties of a slightly altered 34-item ALEQ (ALEQ-34) were evaluated, and correlations with learning outcomes investigated, by surveying first- and second-year undergraduate medical students; 181 usable responses were obtained (75% response rate). Psychometric analysis demonstrated overall good reliability (Cronbach's alpha of 0.

Online dissection audio-visual resources for human anatomy: Undergraduate medical students' usage and learning outcomes.

In an attempt to improve undergraduate medical student preparation for and learning from dissection sessions, dissection audio-visual resources (DAVR) were developed. Data from e-learning management systems indicated DAVR were accessed by 28% ± 10 (mean ± SD for nine DAVR across three years) of students prior to the corresponding dissection sessions, representing at most 58% ± 20 of assigned dissectors. Approximately 50% of students accessed all available DAVR by the end of semester, while 10% accessed none.

Provider experience of uterine balloon tamponade for the management of postpartum hemorrhage in Sierra Leone.

Objective: To understand healthcare providers' experience of incorporating uterine balloon tamponade (UBT) into the national postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) clinical pathway after UBT training.

Methods: In a qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with healthcare providers from 50 centers in Freetown, Sierra Leone, between May and June 2014. All eligible healthcare providers (undergone UBT training, actively conducted deliveries, and treated cases of PPH since UBT training) on duty at the time of center visit were interviewed.

An update on restless legs syndrome (Willis-Ekbom disease): clinical features, pathogenesis and treatment.

Purpose Of Review: In recent years, there have been a number of advances in the field of restless legs syndrome (RLS) or Willis-Ekbom disease (WED). Here, we review recent studies pertaining to the diagnosis and clinical features, pathogenesis, and treatment of RLS/WED.

Recent Findings: Recent studies have added a temporal dimension to RLS/WED epidemiology by examining both the incidence and persistence rates in different populations.

European guidelines on management of restless legs syndrome: report of a joint task force by the European Federation of Neurological Societies, the European Neurological Society and the European Sleep Research Society.

Background: Since the publication of the first European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS) guidelines in 2005 on the management of restless legs syndrome (RLS; also known as Willis-Ekbom disease), there have been major therapeutic advances in the field. Furthermore, the management of RLS is now a part of routine neurological practice in Europe. New drugs have also become available, and further randomized controlled trials have been undertaken.

Algorithms for the diagnosis and treatment of restless legs syndrome in primary care.

Background: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a neurological disorder with a lifetime prevalence of 3-10%. in European studies. However, the diagnosis of RLS in primary care remains low and mistreatment is common.

Thomas de Quincey and his restless legs symptoms as depicted in "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater".

Thomas de Quincey, a British writer of 19th century, suffered insomnia from the age of 17 years. In his famous "Confessions of an English-Opium Eater" (1822), he described a symptomatology that could concord with restless legs syndrome long before he became addicted to opium. In this report, we analyze his clinical description and the circumstances leading to his opium addiction.

Level of purposeful hand function as a marker of clinical severity in Rett syndrome.

Aim: We investigated relationships between hand function and genotype and aspects of phenotype in Rett syndrome.

Method: Video assessment in naturalistic settings was supplemented by parent-reported data in a cross-sectional study of 144 females with a mean age of 14 years 10 months (SD 7 y 10 mo; range 2 y-31 y 10 mo), 110 of whom had a mutation of the methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2) gene. Ordinal logistic regression was used to assess relationships between hand function and MECP2 mutation, age, a modified Kerr score, Functional Independence Measure for Children (WeeFIM), ambulation level, and frequency of hand stereotypies.

Dopaminergic augmentation of restless legs syndrome.

Dopaminergic agents are the first-line treatment of restless legs syndrome (RLS), and have been used for the treatment of this disorder since the 1980s. The major issue with this class of drugs is augmentation of RLS symptoms during treatment. The first report of augmentation found an occurrence among 73% of patients treated with levodopa.

Management of restless legs syndrome augmentation.

Augmentation is the main complication of long-term dopaminergic treatment of restless legs syndrome (RLS). Although augmentation was first described in 1996 and is characterized by an overall increase in severity of RLS symptoms (earlier onset of symptoms during the day, faster onset of symptoms when at rest, spreading of symptoms to the upper limbs and trunk, and shorter duration of the treatment effect), precise diagnostic criteria were not established until 2003. These criteria were updated in 2007 to form a new definition of augmentation based on multicenter studies.