Structured communication: teaching delivery of difficult news with simulated resuscitations in an emergency medicine clerkship.

Introduction: The objective is to describe the implementation and outcomes of a structured communication module used to supplement case-based simulated resuscitation training in an emergency medicine (EM) clerkship.

Methods: We supplemented two case-based simulated resuscitation scenarios (cardiac arrest and blunt trauma) with role-play in order to teach medical students how to deliver news of death and poor prognosis to family of the critically ill or injured simulated patient. Quantitative outcomes were assessed with pre and post-clerkship surveys.

Preparedness in America's prime danger zone and at the Boston Marathon bombing site.

Introduction: The area between Newark and Elizabeth, NJ, contains major transportation hubs, chemical plants, and a dense population. This makes it "the most dangerous two miles in America," according to counterterrorism officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This study compares medical response capabilities for terror and disaster in Newark, New Jersey's largest city, with those in Boston in view of that city's favorable response to the Marathon bombings in April 2013.

Utility of initial prehospital end-tidal carbon dioxide measurements to predict poor outcomes in adult asthmatic patients.

Study Objective: To determine if an initial (before treatment) prehospital end-tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO2) measurement in adult, non-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthmatic patients predicts patient outcomes.

Methods: This is a retrospective chart review of EtCO2 assessment data in a convenience sample of adult, asthmatic patients transported via advanced life support (ALS) units to a large, urban, academic hospital. Initial EtCO2 measurements were obtained routinely on all respiratory distress patients in the field, and emergency department physicians were unaware of the results.

Palliative care provision in the emergency department: barriers reported by emergency physicians.

Background: There is increasing interest in moving palliative care (PC) upstream to the emergency department (ED). However, barriers to PC provision in ED exist and are not yet clearly delineated.

Objective: To elicit the ED physicians' perceived barriers to provision of PC in the ED.

Penile incarceration secondary to an S-shaped lead pipe: removal with Dremel Moto-Tool.

Background: Penile incarceration or strangulation is a urologic emergency.

Objectives: Several techniques to remove metallic objects strangulating the penis are described in the literature. The method utilized depends on the severity of the incarceration and the tools that are readily accessible.