Weekend working

This is a controversial area in the setting of UK healthcare practice. Claims have been made about patient safety being affected disproportionately during the weekend in comparison with the rest of the week. This paper looks at ED working and has an important commentary to accompany it. The editor has also made a podcast which is definitely worth listening to! https://soundcloud.com/bmjpodcasts/that-old-weekend-effect

Temperature management in an adult ED: Oral, TM and Temporal artery v rectal temperature

Temperature regulation is maintained in the pre-optic anterior nucleus of the hypothalamus, the ‘gold standard value’ in physiological animal models being recorded at the arch of the aorta. However, in ED, this is a little difficult to obtain!

Temperature is one of the ‘vital signs’, and remains part of the routine assessment of most patients. Surprisingly, temperature measurement is still undergoing scientific investigation albeit that the first use of thermometers in humans (by Santorio Santorio) was in 1612.

This paper takes as a gold standard, the rectal temperature and compares it in 3 other sites, namely the tympanic membrane …