PHA-705B EMERGENCY MEDICINE
Discussion will include how to competently handle the diverse critical and cultural problems encountered in an Emergency Department. In an effort to foster critical medical decision making and problem solving, topics include, but are not limited to the following: providing a differential diagnosis for headaches and the approach to evaluating headache; management of hemorrhagic strokes; NIHSS utilization; initial management of a patient with Altered Mental Status (AMS); history and exam of a patient with abdominal pain; history, presentation and management of ectopic pregnancy; delineation of the types of etiologies for chest pain; how Evidence Based Medicine plays a role in risk stratification and practice recommendations; "red flags" in evaluating patients with neck and back pain; the role of EMS providers in the delivery of emergency care; discussion of how to triage in disaster situations and colors/priorities of patients to be managed; issues related to obtaining parental consent when treating a minor in the ED; management of a pediatric patient and how they differ from adults; the pregnant trauma patient; the Glasgow coma scale; physical exam of a patient with respiratory distress; toxicology; environmental emergencies. Contemporary medicine mandates rapid recognition of strokes and the NIHSS designation.