Handheld Ultrasound ...

As it seems to be ultrasound month on BoringEM (see the guest posts from Paul Olszynski here: A Pictorial Approach to Ultrasound in Shock and Chris Byrne here: Point of Care Ultrasound: A Hyperechoic Future in Med Ed), I thought I’d chime in with a review of my new toy. I...

A Pictorial Approach to...

I just finished preparing an introductory talk on shock & ultrasound. Ultrasound in shock in 50 minutes! After having struggled considerably with the breadth of the topic, i struggled even more with the summary. How does one sum up such a huge topic? In the end, I decided to go with a...

The Agitated Patient in...

In my first post of a trilogy on the agitated patient in the ED I outlined BARS sedation score for defining levels of agitation, discussed how to risk stratify a potentially agitated patient and offered some tips on how to deal with the mildly agitated patient. This post will discuss...

The Agitated Patient in...

When the topic of agitated patients in the ED is brought up, most people conjure up an image of a psychotic manic patient or tell the story of a patient brought in after ingesting a combination of methamphetamine and bath salts. Acutely agitated patients like this are a danger to...

Lean: Fad or Healthcare...

In August of 2012 the provincial government of Saskatchewan signed an agreement with a consulting company to assist in the implementation of the Lean quality improvement system throughout healthcare system. This deal, which will cost up to 38 million dollars, will see Lean quality...

Would you rather misdia...

Over the past two weeks I have been completing a rotation focusing on the administrative aspects of the emergency department. Halfway through a shift with one of my admin mentors, the quality improvement ninja and philosopher king known to most as Dr. Mark Wahba, we played a brief game of...

Injecting into the Carp...

It’s been awesome working in the ED with the benefit of the knowledge gained on off-service rotations in specialties like Plastic and Orthopedic Surgery. Great learning experiences on these rotations have led to a run of success with injections into all sorts of places and have...

An Approach to Palliati...

Last weekend my residency program had a winter retreat. It was a smashing weekend. In addition to enjoying the excellent company, tobogganing, cross-country skiing, and Baileys-infused Tassimo coffee, we also learned a lot. Our guest speaker was Dr. Leneela Sharma, an emergency physician...