Paediatric ultrasound-guided vascular access: Experiences and outcomes from an emergency department educational intervention.

Aim: This quality assurance project aims to describe the provision of an ultrasound-guided vascular access education package to paediatric emergency department staff. It subsequently aims to measure clinician and departmental responses to this educational intervention to support future effective education provision.

Methods: Participants were opt-in emergency department staff.

Projected paediatric cervical spine imaging rates with application of NEXUS, Canadian C-Spine and PECARN clinical decision rules in a prospective Australian cohort.

Background: Clinical decision rules (CDRs) are commonly used to guide imaging decisions in cervical spine injury (CSI) assessment despite limited evidence for their use in paediatric populations. We set out to determine CSI incidence, imaging rates and the frequency of previously identified CSI risk factors, and thus assess the projected impact on imaging rates if CDRs were strictly applied as a rule in our population.

Methods: A single-centre prospective observational study on all aged under 16 years presenting for assessment of possible CSI to a tertiary paediatric emergency department over a year, commencing September 2015.

Point-of-care ultrasound in paediatric emergency medicine.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POC US) is an adjunct to clinical paediatric emergency medicine practice that is rapidly evolving, improving the outcomes of procedural techniques such as vascular access, nerve blocks and fluid aspiration and showing the potential to fast-track diagnostic streaming in a range of presenting complaints and conditions, from shock and respiratory distress to skeletal trauma. This article reviews the procedural and diagnostic uses, both established and emerging, and provides an overview of the necessary components of quality assurance during this introductory phase.