Practice Council

JenERally · Jun 23, 2015

Hi all,
I am just wondering if anyone on here is involved in their ED Practice Council. I have been in the ED for a year now and our PC has been pretty much non-existent since I started. We do have additional committees of Emergency Preparedness, Trauma and Triage. I am just wondering what are some of the goals and projects other practice councils have taken on. Thinking of attempting to revitalize the committee, but need a direction to go in. Any ideas would be great. (This is for a Level 1 Trauma Center at an Academic Institution)

I attended a cardiac resuscitation symposium recently, and there was a TON of really interesting information presented that might interest you.

-AHA will release its 2015 guidelines in October, and there are several ongoing studies that will likely affect the guidelines. Most interesting for me was the move away from Epi alone during ACLS to a combination of Epi q5 min with max of of 3 doses + vasopressin 20 units + Solumedrol!

-Therapeutic hypothermia bundle of care thought to affect prognosis more than actual core temp itself (patient outcomes for 36â€¢ similar to 33â€¢ when tight control of physiological parameters (prevent rebound pyrexia, avoid hypotension, glycemic and electrolyte control, etc) maintained.

-Initiation of ECMO during witnessed inhospital cardiac arrest after approximately 30 minutes of refractory VF, even before ROSC achieved.

Editorial Team / Moderator · Jul 7, 2015

I am part of our Unit Practice Council. We have worked on things like triage protocols and an informational presentation to be displayed in the waiting room. Also staff morale things like a mechanism for people to recognize coworkers who go above and beyond, a suggestion box, a monthly celebration for that month's birthdays, ways to encourage others to obtain their CEN, etc.