One of my new colleagues in the Emergency Department has started a fantastic project which she summarises below. For those of you who follow ‘The Thunderbox Papers‘ this will have a similar feel and ethos. Jo Fellowes (@HEFTACP) is an experienced Advanced Clinical Practitioner and it was no surprise to me when she was offered the training a few years ago. I met Jo during my time on the Critical Care Outreach team when she worked on the Acute Medical Unit. When there was a sick patient there I knew I could walk away knowing they were in safe hands.
Jo’s initiative is a great idea and I suspect she will come up with many more.
You can find the nuggets on the HEFTEMCAST site which is led by one of my consultant colleagues Dr Simon Laing (@laing_simon)
ED KNOWLEDGE NUGGETS:
ED Knowledge Nuggets are an informal educational tool aimed at all members of the emergency department with a focus on our nursing colleagues.
Nuggets are initially to be delivered monthly and each focus upon a common presenting complaint/illness in the ED. Using the O’Driscoll reflective tool, the aim of each nugget is to provide a brief, yet informative information sheet/picture enabling the reader to establish the key issues surrounding patient management and assessment.
Other members of the team are encouraged to participate in nugget development and anyone can submit their own, providing they use the agreed nugget template and receive approval from the original authors.
Knowledge nuggets will eventually be used and developed throughout the ED, including ‘Resus Knowledge Nuggets’, ‘Minor Injury Nuggets’ and ‘Little Nuggets’ which will be aimed at the paediatric team.
Knowledge nuggets are also going to be published through social media and on the heftemcast website.
Topics which are to be covered primarily:
Renal colic
Cholecystitis
Asthma
ACS
CVA
UTI
Sepsis
AAA
GI Bleed
Pneumonia
Deliberate self-harm
Heart Failure
Appendicitis
PV Bleeding & Miscarriage
Head Injury
Alcohol withdrawal
DKA
This list is just the beginning! There will be many more topics to cover throughout the nugget development process, such as some resus nuggets covering things like ABG’s, ECG’s, MEWS etc.