Background: Palliative care is an emerging scope of practice for paramedicine. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the opportunity for emergency settings to deliver palliative and end-of-life care to patients wishing to avoid intensive life-sustaining treatment. However, a gap remains in understanding the scope and limitations of current ambulance services' approach to palliative and end-of-life care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Rapidly and safely managing severe acute behavioural disturbance (ABD) in the prehospital setting is important for the welfare of both patient and prehospital clinician alike. We investigated the safety and effectiveness of ketamine as rescue sedation in patients with severe ABD.
Methods: This prospective observational study investigated ketamine use by a state ambulance service as rescue sedation for patients with severe ABD who remained agitated following droperidol administration.
Objective: Acute behavioural disturbance in the elderly (≥65 years) is a significant issue for emergency medical services with increasing prevalence of dementia and aging populations. We investigated the pre-hospital safety and effectiveness of droperidol in the elderly with acute behavioural disturbance.
Methods: This was a pre-hospital prospective observational 1-year study of elderly patients with acute behavioural disturbance.
Although uncommon, children (<16 years) with acute behavioral disturbance are a significant issue for emergency medical service providers. In this study, we aimed to investigate the safety and effectiveness of droperidol in children with prehospital acute behavioral disturbance. This was a prospective observational study over 1 year investigating the use of droperidol (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudy Objective: Acute behavioral disturbance is a common problem for emergency medical services. We aimed to investigate the safety and effectiveness of droperidol compared to midazolam in the prehospital setting.
Methods: This was a prospective before and after study comparing droperidol to midazolam for prehospital acute behavioral disturbance, when the state ambulance service changed medications.