This is a topic for which the “how to” seems to be passed down from senior to junior medical students and never written down. I remember being pretty clueless about this process when I went through it. I was a relative late-comer to the Royal College EM sweepstakes, having decided to pursue that program only during the summer before fourth year. This was compounded by my inability to plan anything in advance, ever. I …
The Agitated Patient in the ED: Moderate & Severe Agitation
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 what to do with moderately and severely agitated patients while the final chapter will delve into the work-up of these challenging patients. If you’ve been …
The Agitated Patient in the ED: Assessment & Mild Agitation
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 themselves and anyone near them. Assessing and treating these undifferentiated patients in the ED can be a formidable task even if it is possible …
Interview Inducing Elective Behavior
In response to my post on reference letters (The Reference Letter Triple Crown), one of my favorite bloggers Facebooked me the following request (note, she also plays the “Would you rather” game!): I would rather lick a public toilet seat than have to ask someone for a reference letter. I apparently went into the wrong profession to have that personality trait. Any tips on getting over the awkwardness?? As I’d rather she …
Top 10 Ways to Rock EM Clerkship
In our commitment to keeping posts up-to-date, this post was updated by Eve Purdy in December 2014. You’re a bright-eyed young medical student and you think you want to be an emergency doctor. You haven’t made life easy for yourself. While it may not be the case in other parts of the world, Emergency Medicine in Canada has become a highly sought-after specialty. The stats from our matching service indicated that last year …