Guiding principles for resident remediation: recommendations of the CORD remediation task force.

Remediation of residents is a common problem and requires organized, goal-directed efforts to solve. The Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) has created a task force to identify best practices for remediation and to develop guidelines for resident remediation. Faculty members of CORD volunteered to participate in periodic meetings, organized discussions and literature reviews to develop overall guidelines for resident remediation and in a collaborative authorship of this article identifying best practices for remediation.

Volumetric bladder ultrasound performed by trained nurses increases catheterization success in pediatric patients.

Objective: The objective of the study was to determine whether the use of volumetric ultrasound by trained pediatric emergency department (ED) nurses improves first-attempt urine collection success rates.

Methods: This randomized controlled trial was conducted in children aged < or = 36 months requiring diagnostic urine samples. Children were randomized to either the conventional (nonimaged) or the ultrasound arm.

Caregiver and health care provider satisfaction with volumetric bladder ultrasound.

Objectives: Conventional (nonimaged) bladder catheterization has lower first-attempt success rates (67%-72%) when compared with catheterization aided by volumetric bladder ultrasonography (US) (92%-100%), yet the total time to urine sample collection with US can be quite lengthy. Given the advantage and disadvantages, the authors assessed caregiver and health care provider satisfaction with these two methods.

Methods: Caregivers and health care providers of children enrolled in a prospective, randomized, controlled trial examining the first-attempt urine collection success rates with these two methods completed standardized questionnaires.

Integrating the core competencies: proceedings from the 2005 Academic Assembly consortium.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education mandated the integration of the core competencies into residency training in 2001. To this end, educators in emergency medicine (EM) have been proactive in their approach, using collaborative efforts to develop methods that teach and assess the competencies. The first steps toward a collaborative approach occurred during the proceedings of the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD-EM) academic assembly in 2002.

Tachydysrhythmias.

Tachydysrhythmias arise from different mechanisms that can be characterized as being caused by re-entrant circuits, enhanced or abnormal automaticity, or triggered after-depolarizations. The approach to the tachydysrhythmia should begin with distinguishing sinus from non-sinus rhythms, then assessing QRS complex width and regularity. This article review tachydysrhythmias.

Predictors of success in emergency medicine ultrasound education.

Objectives: To compare emergency medicine resident performance on an ultrasound-oriented, American Board of Emergency Medicine-styled written examination with the following variables in resident education: number of ultrasound scans performed, presence of a formal, structured ultrasound rotation, presence of a mandatory ultrasound rotation, number of hours of didactic ultrasound education, and percentage of ultrasound education taught by emergency physicians.

Methods: This was a prospective cohort study involving 14 residency programs. A 60-question multiple-choice test was completed by individual residents and returned for scoring.

Residency training in emergency ultrasound: fulfilling the mandate.

Although bedside ultrasound is listed in the Model of the Clinical Practice of Emergency Medicine as an integral diagnostic procedure, the manner in which the didactic, hands-on, and experiential components of emergency ultrasound are taught is not specifically prescribed by the Residency Review Committee for Emergency Medicine (RRC-EM) or any single sponsoring group. Seven professional organizations [the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM), the American College of Emergency Medicine (ACEP), the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD), the Emergency Medicine Residents Association (EMRA), the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP), the RRC-EM, and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM)] developed the Scope of Training Task Force, with the goal of identifying emerging areas of clinical importance to the specialty of emergency medicine, including emergency department (ED) ultrasound. The Task Force then identified a group of recognized authorities to thoughtfully address the issue of ED ultrasound training.