Publications by authors named "Christine Ramirez"

Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma (FAST) examination is a point-of-care ultrasound study used to evaluate for abdominal hemorrhage, pneumothorax, or pericardial blood in trauma patients as an adjunct to their initial assessment. The quality of the image can be limited, and its diagnostic value is heavily dependent on operator skill. Our objective was to determine whether a standardized review process improved image quality and reduced incidence of nondiagnostic or insufficient imaging by 10% over a 6-month period.

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Imposter syndrome is a psychological phenomenon where people doubt their achievements and have a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud, even when there is little evidence to support these thought processes. It typically occurs among high performers who are unable to internalize and accept their success. This phenomenon is not recognized as an official mental health diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; however, mental health professionals recognize it as a form of intellectual self-doubt.

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Introduction: Geriatric trauma patients (GTP) make up an increasing percentage of the overall trauma population. Due to frailty, GTP are at an increased risk of morbidity and readmission. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to prognosticate outcomes to assist with resource utilization.

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Background: The emotional toll and financial cost of end-of-life care can be high. Existing literature suggests that medical providers often choose to forego many aggressive interventions and life-prolonging therapies for themselves. To further investigate this phenomenon, we compared how providers make medical decisions for themselves versus for relatives and unrelated patients.

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Background: Research regarding the impact of acute spinal cord injury (aSCI) on energy expenditure is limited. Patients with aSCI are prone to complications of both over- and under-feeding, making appropriate nutrition support pivotal to patient care. The purpose of this study was to describe energy expenditure and assess the performance of predictive equations in mechanically ventilated adults with aSCI.

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In the past 30 years, opioid prescription rates have quadrupled and hospital admissions for overdose are rising. Previous studies have focused on alcohol use and trauma recidivism, however rarely evaluating recidivism and opioid use. We hypothesized there is an association between opioid use and trauma recidivism.

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Background: Acute spinal cord injury (SCI) is devastating with morbidities compounded by inadequate nutrition. The American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition recommends indirect calorimetry (IC) to evaluate energy needs in SCI because no predictive energy equations have been validated. We sought to determine the accuracy of predictive equations to predict measured energy expenditure (MEE).

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