Expertise in prehospital endotracheal intubation by emergency medicine physicians-Comparing 'proficient performers' and 'experts'.

Background: Training requirements to perform safe prehospital endotracheal intubation (ETI) are not clearly known. This study aimed to determine differences in ETI performance between 'proficient performers' and 'experts' according to the Dreyfus & Dreyfus framework of expertise. As a model for 'proficient performers' EMS physicians with a clinical background in internal medicine were compared to EMS physicians with a background in anaesthesiology as a model for 'experts'.

Difficult prehospital endotracheal intubation - predisposing factors in a physician based EMS.

Objectives: For experienced personnel endotracheal intubation (ETI) is the gold standard to secure the airway in prehospital emergency medicine. Nevertheless, substantial procedural difficulties have been reported with a significant potential to compromise patients' outcomes. Systematic evaluation of ETI in paramedic operated emergency medical systems (EMS) and in a mixed physician/anaesthetic nurse EMS showed divergent results.

The accuracy of an out-of-hospital 12-lead ECG for the detection of ST-elevation myocardial infarction immediately after resuscitation.

Study Objective: Severe myocardial ischemia is the leading cause of arrhythmic sudden cardiac death. It is unclear, however, in which percentage of patients sudden cardiac death is triggered by ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and whether the diagnosis of STEMI can be reliably established immediately after resuscitation from out-of-hospital sudden cardiac death.

Methods: A 12-lead ECG was registered after return of spontaneous circulation after cardiac arrest.

Medical students teaching basic life support to school children as a required element of medical education: a randomised controlled study comparing three different approaches to fifth year medical training in emergency medicine.

Objectives: Basic life support (BLS) by doctors has been shown to be of poor quality. To improve medical education training should be simplified, and simultaneously the learner should be involved more actively. To combine both ideas we trained medical students to give BLS courses and sent them to teach school children.