Primary survey: highlights from this issue

Abstract

September is upon us. Summer is not quite gone, and yet, we have already welcomed our newest junior doctors on their first rota in the ED. Our junior doctors change work environments frequently, but perhaps no change is as dramatic as moving from medical school—or a relatively predictable ward—to work in the ED. The first few days (or weeks) in an ED can be, frankly, scary. Trainees often feel like they arrived late at the cinema and have not quite gotten the plot. So, it may help those of you in more senior roles to read the qualitative study by Goodall and colleagues where, through observation and interviews, the authors tried to determine what is important to new doctor socialisation. According to the trainees, the formal induction was ‘ok’ but what really affected the creation of a safe learning environment was the behaviour of consultants. The paper describes what trainees (and consultants) thought were both good and bad behaviours. Interestingly, trainees felt that the most helpful consultants were those who admitted their own uncertainty. The ED population is ageing. Yet, most of our algorithms for triage, …