Canadian operational and emotional prehospital readiness for a tactical violence event.

Providing prehospital care poses unique risks. Paramedics are essentially the only medical personnel who are routinely at the scene of violent episodes, and they are more likely to be assaulted than are other prehospital personnel. In addition to individual acts of violence, emergency medical services (EMS) providers now need to cope with tactical violence, defined as the deployment of extreme violence in a non-random fashion to achieve tactical or strategic goals.

Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear preparedness training for emergency medical services provider.

Objective: We assessed the self-reported theoretical and practical preparedness training of Canadian emergency medical services (EMS) providers in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) events.

Methods: We designed an online survey to address the theoretical and practical CBRN training level of prehospital providers. Emergency medical services staff in British Columbia and Ontario were invited to participate.

The development of a national emergency medical services curriculum framework for physicians in Canada.

Background: As the role of emergency medical services (EMS) continues to expand, EMS physicians and medical directors require special skills and training to keep pace with the rapidly evolving subspecialty of EMS. In Canada, subspecialty training in EMS is still relatively new, and a standard national curriculum for physician EMS training does not exist.

Objective: To develop a national EMS curriculum for emergency medicine (EM) residents and fellows and an abbreviated curriculum for non-EM trainees and community physicians.

Is early discharge safe after naloxone reversal of presumed opioid overdose?

Introduction: Patients with suspected opioid overdose frequently require naloxone treatment. Despite recommendations to observe such patients for 4 to 24 hours after naloxone, earlier discharge is becoming more common. This prospective, observational study of patients with presumed opioid overdose examines the safety of early disposition decisions and the accuracy of outcome prediction by physicians 1 hour after the administration of naloxone.