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Most medical students across the U.S. currently receive intubation skills training on low fidelity simulation (LFS) plastic mannequins. A limitation of these LFS models is that they do not allow students to attain complete familiarity and proficiency with intubation in a real-world clinical setting. For several years now, ETSU has been utilizing the Thiel embalming technique, which allows for greater joint flexibility and preservation of soft tissues compared to traditional embalming techniques. Our study set out to evaluate the efficacy of Thiel cadavers versus LFS plastic mannequins in assessing whether one model was more suitable in teaching intubation skills. After IRB approval, we exposed thirty-two first-and second-year medical students to both LFS models and Thiel embalmed cadavers in order to assess preparedness and confidence for performing intubations, and overall transference to patient care. Participants were shown an instructional video and given a brief lecture on the steps of a successful intubation by the primary investigators of the project before they were asked to practice intubation on both a Thiel cadaver as well as a LFS plastic mannequin. Participants were randomly assigned to note which teaching method to practice on first (Thiel cadaver or LFS model). Students were given written instructions during the procedure, and they completed a pre and post survey assessing preparedness, confidence, transference to patient care, and overall preference between the Thiel cadaver and LFS model for education. Our study significantly concluded that students felt better prepared and more confident by practicing on the Thiel cadaver and unanimously thought that it had better transference to clinical care. Overall, students also felt that the Thiel cadaver provided more knowledge, and close to two thirds of subjects preferred the Thiel cadaver over the LFS mannequin for learning intubation skills while a third of subjects said that both models should be used in training.

Boerhaave syndrome is a spontaneous rupture of the esophagus. It results from a sudden increase in esophageal pressure combined with negative intrathoracic pressure as seen with severe straining or vomiting. Esophageal perforation is extremely rare with an incidence of approximately 3.1 per 1,000,000 per year with a mortality rate estimated to be 20-50%. The rare occurrence and fatal nature of an esophageal perforation makes this syndrome a difficult yet important diagnosis to consider in the clinical setting. This case presents a previously healthy 47-year-old gentleman who presented to a local emergency department with syncope, vomiting, and chest pain sequentially. He reported a 24-hour history of dark stools followed by syncope, and when he regained consciousness he had three bouts of retching and expulsion of coffee-ground vomitus. Shortly after emesis, the patient developed severe and continuous pain located in his central chest that radiated to his back. Upon arrival to the hospital he was tachycardic. Blood tests revealed metabolic acidosis, increased white blood cell count, elevated lactate, and significant anemia. The patient’s hemoglobin was 7.7 gm/dL, a significant drop from the patient’s baseline level of 14. The patient received 1 unit of packed red blood cells and was sent for imaging studies. Chest X-ray and CT imaging revealed free air in the mediastinum, and a subsequent Gastrografin esophagogram study revealed a lower esophageal perforation proximal to gastroesophageal junction. The patient was rushed to the operating room for emergency surgery. An esophagogastroduodenoscopy showed no active bleeds and confirmed a distal mucosal defect suggestive of perforation. The surgery team then performed a left thoracotomy with intercostal muscle harvest and esophageal repair, with the patient needing an additional 4 units of packed red blood cells during surgery. He tolerated the surgery well and received appropriate post-op care in the ICU. A repeat Gastrografin and barium swallow esophagogram revealed no evidence of leak, strictures, or complications from the operation. A follow up CT image of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis was performed one month after hospital discharge, and results showed complete resolution of mediastinal air without evidence of esophageal leak. This case demonstrates how a spontaneous esophageal perforation can occur in previously healthy, middle aged patients with no significant GI history or identifiable risk factors. Given this information, clinicians should consider Boerhaave Syndrome when a patient of any age presents with chest pain after an episode of emesis.

Emergency medical care (EMC) is proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as being one of the core components of a horizontal approach to improving population health in low-resource settings; triage is considered to be a fundamental part of this field. Most studies exploring triage have focused on high-income countries. In 2004, the Cape Triage Group (CTG) developed the South African Triage Scale (SATS) a scale that uses a physiologically based scoring system together with a list of discriminators - designed to triage patients into one of four priority groups for medical attention. The SATS was designed for use in the South African context to mitigate the limited numbers of doctors and professional nurses. The SATS has been implemented and assessed extensively in South Africa, but its performance across a spectrum of different low-resource settings, particularly non-sub-Saharan African and trauma-only settings, has not been adequately assessed. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international humanitarian organisation, introduced EMC in 2006 into low-resource settings. In 2011, MSF began introducing the SATS in various projects where it was providing EMC. Methodology: This was a multi-site retrospective cohort study which sought to assess the reliability and validity of the SATS in different low-resource settings. Aim 1: To implement and evaluate the SATS in Northern Pakistan by describing the steps of implementation and how accurate nurses were in using the triage scale. After one month of implementation, 370 triage forms from a one-week period were evaluated. Aim 2: To assess the inter- and intra-rater reliability and accuracy of nurse triage ratings when using the SATS in an emergency centre (EC) in Timergara, Pakistan. Fifteen EC nurses assigned triage ratings to a set of 42 reference vignettes (written case reports of EC patients) under classroom conditions. Inter-rater reliability was assessed by comparing these triage ratings; intra-rater reliability was assessed by asking the nurses to re-triage ten 12 random vignettes from the original set of 42 vignettes and comparing the duplicate ratings. Accuracy of the nurse ratings was measured against the reference standard. Aim 3: To improve the ability to measure reliability and validity in paediatric settings by developing a set of paediatric paper-based vignettes using the Delphi methodology. In a two-round consensus building process, a panel of EC experts were asked to independently triage 50 clinical vignettes using one of four acuity levels: emergency (patient to be seen immediately), very urgent (patient to be seen within 10 min), urgent (patient to be seen within 60 min), or routine (patient to be seen within four hours). The vignettes were based on real paediatric EC cases in South Africa. Vignettes that reached a minimum of 80% group consensus for acuity ratings on either round one or two were included in the final set of reference vignettes. Aim 4: To further assess the reliability of the SATS across MSF-supported hospitals using paper-based vignettes in Afghanistan, Haiti and Sierra Leone. Applying the same methodology as in Northern Pakistan, we assessed reliability under classroom conditions between December 2013 and February 2014. Aim 5: To assess the validity of the SATS across MSF-supported hospitals between June 2013 and June 2014. Validity was assessed by comparing patients’ SATS ratings with their final EC outcomes (i.e., hospital admission, death or discharge) across four sites in Afghanistan, Haiti and Sierra Leone. Findings The SATS was able to be easily implemented and accurately completed in a low-resource setting of Northern Pakistan. We recommended further implementation and assessment of reliability and validity in low-resource settings. Across six sites with a total of 87 nurses, including two trauma-only hospitals in Afghanistan and Haiti, a paediatric-only hospital in Sierra Leone and three mixed medical settings in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Haiti, the SATS demonstrated moderate to substantial reliability. Across all settings in which we measured validity using outcome markers, SATS predicted an increase in the likelihood of admission/death when moving from low- to high-triage acuity. In trauma-only settings of Afghanistan and Haiti, the SATS showed a 1-9% under-triage and 13 a 2-16% over-triage rate. In mixed medical and paediatric settings, under-triage ranged from 0-76% while over-triage ranged from 2-88%. A more logical standardised approach to assessing validity was put forward when using outcome markers that would allow easier comparisons to be done across validity studies irrespective of the number of levels the triage scale had. We developed a set of paediatric vignettes for use in low-resource settings but cautioned against its use after measuring reliability using adult reference vignettes. We found that generic vignettes were poor substitutes in a variety of settings based on a lack of contextualisation and understanding by local nurses. Conclusion: The SATS has reasonable reliability with good validity across different ECs in various lower-source settings. The SATS is a valid triage tool for prioritisation of patients with trauma in low-resource settings. Its use in mixed EC settings seems justified, but in paediatric settings context-specific adjustments and assessments of its performance would be prudent.

Bakgrund: Sjuksköterskan i ambulansen har ett brett arbetsfält med stor variation på arbetsuppgifter. Sjuksköterskor inom prehospital vård utsätts för stress i sin arbetssituation. Vid obalans mellan arbetsförmågan och arbetsbelastningen kan stressen leda till ohälsa. Ohälsan kan leda till psykiska besvär som sömnstörningar och depression samt kan det leda till fysiska sjukdomar som hjärt- och kärlsjukdomar. Syfte: Att beskriva sjuksköterskor erfarenhet av stress vid prehospital vård. Metod: Den valda metoden för studien är en kvalitativ litteraturstudie med induktiv ansats. Resultat: Åtta artiklar ingick i resultatet. Sjuksköterskor inom den prehospitala vården upplever stress. Faktorer som utlöser stress är tidsbrist, bristande kunskap och erfarenhet av hot och våld, förlossningar, svårt sjuka eller skadade barn är stressutlösande faktorer. Resultatet visar på vikten av stöd i form av formellt stöd men också stöd av kollegor. Sjuksköterskor använder strategier för att hantera upplevd stress i sitt arbete. Konklusion: Stress ses som komplext och individuellt. Stressfaktorer kan bland annat vara svårt sjuka patienter, vård av barn, tidsbrist, bristande erfarenhet, förlossningar samt hot och våld. Genom denna uppsats skulle en ökad medvetenhet kunna leda till en godare upplevd hälsa och förebyggande av ohälsa för sjuksköterskor inom prehospital vård. / Background: The nurses in the ambulance has a wide field of work with a great variety of tasks. Nurses in pre-hospital healthcare are exposed to stress in their work situation. When there is an imbalance between the ability to work and the workload, this can lead to illness. This illnes can lead to psychological problems such as sleep disorders and depression, and it can lead to physical diseases such as cardiovascular diseases. Aim: To describe nurses' experience of stress in prehospital care. Method: The chosen method for the study is a qualitative literature study with an inductive approach. Findings: Eight articles were included in the result. Nurses in prehospital healthcare experience stress. Factors that trigger stress are lack of time, lack of knowledge and experience, threats and violence, caring for childbirth or seriously ill or injured children are stress-triggering factors. The result shows the importance of support in the form of formal support from the employer but also support from colleagues. Nurses use strategies to manage stress in their work. Conclusion: Stress is seen as complex and individual. Stress factors can include seriously ill patients, caring for children, lack of time, lack of experience, childbirth and threats and violence. Through this essay, an increased awareness could lead to a better perceived health and prevention of ill-health for nurses in pre-hospital care

Bakgrund: Akutsjukvård är den del av sjukvården som tar hand om patienter som har behov att skyndsamt få hjälp. Eftersom patienten är i en utsatt situation och kan sväva mellan liv och död, kan akutsjukvården anses vara en krävande arbetsplats för sjuksköterskan. Genom att undersöka och förstå patienters upplevelser av att vårdas inom akutsjukvård kan omhändertagandet av dessa patienter utvecklas och förbättras för att minska patientens lidande. Syfte: Undersöka patienters upplevelser av att vårdas inom akutsjukvård. Metod: Litteraturöversikt med kvalitativ ansats baserad på nio vetenskapliga artiklar. Resultat: Tre teman identifierades: Bemötandets betydelse, Informationens Betydelse och Trygghetens betydelse. Konklusion: När patienter blir akut sjuka eller skadade och hamnar i akutsjukvården är det viktigt att patienterna blir bemötta på ett bra sätt av sjukvårdspersonalen. Patienterna har även ett behov av att känna sig trygga och av information som är tydlig. Förbättringsarbeten inom dessa områden kan bidra till mer positiva upplevelser av att vårdas inom akutsjukvården. / Background: Emergency care is the part of medical care that is responsible for taking care of patients who need urgent help. Due to the reason the patient is in a vulnerable situation, emergency care can be considered a demanding workplace for the nurse. By investigating and understanding patients' experiences of being cared for in emergency healthcare, the care of these patients can be developed and improved to reduce the patients' suffering. Aim: To explore patients' experience of being cared for by emergency medical care. Method: A literature review with qualitative design based on nine scientific articles. Findings: Three themes were identified: Importance of being met, Importance of information and Importance of feeling safe. Conclusion: When patients become acutely ill or injured and end up in emergency medical care, it is important that they are treated well by the healthcare staff. Patients also have a need to feel safe and to receive clear information. Work of improvement within these areas can result in a more positive experience of being treated within emergency medical care.

Sammanfattning Bakgrund: Inom akutsjukvård behandlas och vårdas kritiskt sjuka eller skadade patienter till följd av trauma eller sjukdom. Sannolikt kommer de i sällskap av närstående som kan vara oroliga och rädda. Om patienten dessutom plötsligt avlider kan situation bli traumatisk för närstående och resultera i bestående men. Omhändertagande av närstående i dessa situationer är därför av stor vikt och ligger inom sjuksköterskans kompetensområde. Genom att belysa sjuksköterskans erfarenheter av dessa möten syftar vi till att få en djupare förståelse och öka kunskapen inom omhändertagandet av närstående i samband med plötsliga dödsfall. Syfte: Syftet var att belysa sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av att möta närstående i samband med dödsfall inom akutsjukvård, med särskilt fokus på plötslig död.  Metod: Elva vetenskapliga artiklar har analyserats i enlighet med Fribergs (2017) metod och sammanställts i en litteraturöversikt. De använda databaserna var CINAHL Complete, Medline with Full Text samt PubMed. Både kvalitativa och kvantitativa artiklar inkluderades i resultatet.  Resultat: Denna litteraturöversikt resulterade i fyra huvudteman: sjuksköterskans upplevelser och uppfattning av dödsfall. Arbetsrelaterade faktorer med underteman utbildning, erfarenhet och miljöns påverkan. Närvaro av närstående med underteman vid återupplivningsförsök och hos döende patienter Sjuksköterskans roll i mötet med närstående med underteman sjuksköterskans kommunikativa roll och sjuksköterskans praktiska roll. Diskussion: I metoddiskussionen diskuterades styrkor och svagheter med litteraturöversikten. Styrkorna låg i författarnas gemensamma arbete att hitta relevanta vetenskapliga artiklar samt att vidare minska risken för språkliga feltolkningar då artiklarna var skrivna på engelska. I resultatdiskussionen diskuterade författarna den emotionella påverkan sjuksköterskor kan uppleva samt sjuksköterskans roll i samband med plötsliga   dödsfall. Vidare diskuterades hur närstående kunde påverkas av bristen på avskildhet inom akutsjukvården och hur det kunde relateras till Roys adaptionsmodell. Resultatet diskuterades även mot bakgrunden samt annan forskning.   Nyckelord: Sjuksköterskans erfarenheter, närstående, akutsjukvård, plötslig död. / Abstract  Background: In emergency medical care critically sick or injured patients are being cared and treated for following trauma or disease. They are likely accompanied by their family members who can be frightened and scared. If the patient also suddenly dies the situation can be traumatic for the family members and result in lasting marks. The care of family members in these situations is there for important and this lies within the nurses’ area of   competence. By illustrating nurses’ experiences of these encounters we aim to receive a deeper understanding and knowledge in caring for family members in conjunction with sudden death.      Aim: The aim was to illustrate nurses’ experiences of encountering with family members in conjunction with death in emergency medical care, with a particular focus on sudden death. Method: Eleven scientific articles were analyzed in accordance with Fribergs (2017) method and complied in a literature review. The databases CINAHL Complete, Medline with Full Text and PubMed were used. Both quantitative and qualitative articles were included in the   result.   Results: This literature review resulted in four main themes: Nurses experiences and perception of death. Work related factors with subthemes education, experience and environmental impact. Presence of family members with subthemes during resuscitation attempts and with dying patients. Nurses role while encountering with family members with subthemes nurses communicative role and nurses practical role. Discussion: In the method discussion the authors discussed strengths and weaknesses with the literature review. The strengths were a joint effort to find relevant scientific articles and to further reduce the likelihood of linguistic misinterpretations when the articles were written in English. In the outcome discussion, the authors discussed the emotional impact nurses may experience as well as the nurse's role in the event of sudden deaths. Furthermore, it was discussed how family members could be affected by the lack of privacy in emergency medical care and how it could be related to Roys adaptation model. The result was also discussed against the background and other research. Keywords: Nurses experiences, family members, emergency medical care, sudden death.

Bakgrund: Självskadebeteende är ett symtom på psykisk ohälsa som sedan millennieskiftet uppmärksammats i allt högre utsträckning. Den första kontakten med vården personer med självskadebeteende tar sker ofta via den somatiska akutsjukvården. Patienter vittnar om negativa upplevelser i mötet med dessa vårdinstanser. Det är därför av värde att öka kunskapen om hur sjuksköterskor upplever mötet med patienter med självskadebeteende. Syfte: Syftet med litteraturöversikten var att beskriva sjuksköterskors upplevelser av att möta patienter med självskadebeteende inom somatisk akutsjukvård. Metod: Studien genomfördes som en litteraturöversikt där 15 vetenskapliga artiklar söktes via databaserna PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO och Web of Science. Artiklarna kvalitetsgranskades, analyserades och sammanställdes till ett resultat. Resultat: Av resultatet har framgått tre huvudkategorier vilka var: Sjuksköterskans tankar och känslor; Kompetens och kunskap; Faktorer som påverkar mötet och vården. Slutsats: Resultatet visade att sjuksköterskor inom somatisk akutsjukvård erfor både positiva och negativa upplevelser i mötet med patienter med självskadebeteende vilka frammanade olika känslor och tankar hos sjuksköterskor. Gemensamt för studierna var att sjuksköterskor uppgav att de hade bristande kompetens och kunskap i samband med omvårdnaden av dessa patienter. / Background: Deliberate self-harm is a symptom of mental illness that ever since the turn of the millennium has been increasingly highlighted. The first contact with healthcare a person with deliberate self-harm often takes place via the somatic emergency medical care. Patients testify to negative experiences in the meeting with these care instances. Therefore, it may be useful to investigate how nurses perceive the meeting with patients with deliberate self-harm. Aim: The aim of the literature review was to describe nurses’ experiences of meeting patients with deliberate self-harm in somatic emergency medical care. Method: The study was conducted as a literature review where 15 scientific articles were sought via the databases PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Web of Science. The articles were quality-reviewed, analyzed and compiled into a result. Results: In the process of describing nurses’ experiences, three main categories emerged which were: The nurse's thoughts and feelings; Competence and knowledge; Factors that affect the meeting and care. Conclusion: The result showed that nurses in somatic emergency medical care had both positive and negative experiences in the meeting with patients with deliberate self-harm which evoked different feelings and thoughts among nurses. Common to the studies was that nurses stated that they had a lack of competence and knowledge about this patient group.

When patients develop new-onset infections after hospital admission, the origin of the infection is typically assumed to be nosocomial; however, ambulances are potentially unexplored reservoirs for emerging pathogens. This study seeks to identify the scope of bacterial contamination in rural East Tennessee ambulances. Though universal precautions and cleaning procedures aim to reduce the spread of infectious diseases to provider and patient, little is known about the bacterial microbiome of ambulances. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to be performed in the state of Tennessee and the first since the introduction of UVGI units as an ambulance-based COVID-19 infection control measure. Our dissemination of post-pandemic findings may impact ambulance sanitation measures and will add to the national and global knowledge pertaining to the microbiome of emergency medical patient transport systems. Ambulances in East Tennessee were sampled using environmental sampling contact plates. At least one active ambulance unit for each EMS service underwent sampling. Three samples were obtained from each of three areas: the floor of the ambulance transport area, the rear door panel inside the transport area and stretcher. The plates were then incubated at 30-35C for 48 hours. Colony counts were manually performed before the plates were shipped for species identification via MALDI-TOF DNA analysis by MIDI laboratories (Newark, DE). One plate from each ambulance door and stretcher was sent for bacterial identification. Only one sample returned free of growth. All floor samples, several stretcher samples, and three door samples presented vast growth with colonies too numerous to count. The results from bacterial identification showed all flora were human commensal flora or environmental flora. The flora found on ambulance doors with opportunistic capabilities are as follows: Staphylococcus hominis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterobacter cloacae, Enterobacter xinagfangensis, Bacillus cereus, Klebsiella oxytoca, and Bacillus subtilis; and the flora found on the stretchers with opportunistic capabilities are as follows: Staphylococcus haemolyticus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus cohnii ssp urealyticus, Bacillus cereus, Corynebaccterium mucifaciens, Staphylococcus pettenkoferi, Klebsiella oxytoca, Staphylococcus capitis, Bacillus subtillis, and Staphylococcus caprae. In this era of increasing antibiotic resistance, it is concerning that several microbes with pathogenicity were found, including species that often confer the spread of resistance such as Klebsiella oxytoca and Enterobacter cloacae. Overall, the finding of numerous diverse colonies does not support adequate sanitation of the ambulances. Further study is required to identify the most effective sanitation methods, and further metagenomic study is needed to explore the presence of genes that facilitate the spread of microbial resistance.

This report outlines developing a mechanism for a relatively low in price, portable, and mechanical ventilator prototype designed to bridge the gap in ventilator access brought about the COVID-19 pandemic. The key goal is to create a portable and easy to use device which will be capable of providing constant and effective respiratory support in areas having limited resources. The ventilator uses the Oscillating Cylinder Mechanism (OCM), which makes the ventilation smoothly and continuously. This eliminates the need for the user to put maximum effort and the patient benefits. Different ideas about designs were being put forward, concentrating on the portability, functionality, reliability, safety, and effectiveness. The OCM was selected because of its ventilation parameter adjustment ability to accommodate patient-specific needs, thereby functioning in a variety of clinical settings. Although upfront complexity and cost are developed, long-term perks such as lower user fatigue and maintenance expenses compensate for the financial investment. The end design will help in the emergency medical care especially in demand emergency situations, in ambulances, and in intensive care.