Where did I put that adrenaline?
Feb 25th, 2012 by Martin Dawes
Ever worried about a patient collapsing in your office? At my last practice we had the adrenaline stuck on each door. The first day we did that a patient came in and collapsed. Now we regularly check the expiry date as well! At the practice I worked with in Oxford, UK, the practice nurse had put a steroid injection and the adrenaline in a plastic box with a small IV line, and when you opened the lid there was a little label inside the lid that listed which went in the muscle and which went in the vein and how fast each should be given. “Just in time” information is critical not only in ER, but where people with illnesses tend to come – like your clinic.
One of residents has addressed this problem of what you need in your clinic for emergencies in a video that is part of their R2 project. I thought that if any of you are reading this blog maybe you might help him out by watching the video at www.OfficeEmergencies.ca – the resident is form Nanaimo and is running this project and I do urge you to go visit this site as the video is very short and very useful. You will learn, very quickly, what you might need in your office and be surprised that most of the equipment will cost only $101 I like the precise estimate – not $100 but $101! – soon to be the cost of a tank of gas in British Columbia the way prices are going.
Resident projects are a feature of this department that is encouraged as part of developing the academic role of the family doctor. The huge variation in ideas and the enthusiasm that residents demonstrate for answering their questions is really evident. Research rounds are held every other Wednesday morning at 8.00am to 9.00 am at the department in Vancouver, and virtually so you can log in. This is a perfect place for residents to present their ideas and have help developing their protocol. It is friendly, supportive and open to all faculty. The residents are starting to use this as a regular sounding board and mentorship setting – maybe you should listen in?
In the rest of the world of family medicine the deadline for the Family Medicine Forum applications was the 24th february but the site is still open if you have a last minute workshop idea.
Martin