BASICS Scotland Podcast

Christine talks us through dementia, what is it? What common forms may we come across and how does delirium differ? And how do we best manage and treat patients with dementia in the pre-hospital emergency setting?

Top 3 tips:

• Stay calm, a smile and touch is reassuring, maintain eye contact.

• Use words which ask for a simple answer

• Engage with relevant others where possible to ensure wishes are supported and the person feels safe

Links and resources:

Information on section 47

https://www.gov.scot/publications/section-47-certificate/

Dementia MKN

http://www.knowledge.scot.nhs.uk/dementia/organisations.aspx

Think capacity, think consent (link for further learning)

https://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/media/fqca5enl/capacity_and_consent-interactive.pdf

Dementia standards

Standards for care for dementia in Scotland

https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/advice-and-guidance/2011/06/standards-care-dementia-scotland-action-support-change-programme-scotlands-national-dementia-strategy/documents/0117212-pdf/0117212-pdf/govscot%3Adocument/0117212.pdf

Alzheimers Scotland

https://www.alzscot.org/

Adults with incapacity Act (2000)

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2000/4/contents

In this podcast Professor Lyon discusses Traumatic Cardiac Arrest; he looks at the rationale of the different management needed to medical cardiac arrest and talks through the practical application of the HOT algorithm, which he developed with colleagues to provide an effective tool for the management of Traumatic Cardiac Arrest.

• Do not assume the patient is in Traumatic Cardiac arrest (TCA)! When you hear that this is a TCA call, think this is highly likely to be a critically ill person that is going to need my intervention and go into that case positively thinking that you are going to create a survivor.

Traumatic Cardiac Arrest Algorithm

Elsevier – Development of a simple algorithm to guide the effective management of traumatic cardiac arrest

Professor Lyon is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, HEMS Consultant and Director of Research for Kent, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance and an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh.

Prof Lyon has an established research portfolio in pre-hospital resuscitation, trauma care and emergency medicine with an extensive publication record.

He has won numerous international awards including the top research award from the European Resuscitation Council. Prof Lyon was a lead doctor for the London 2012 Olympic Stadium and takes leading role in Event Medicine.

He is an active member of the UK International Search & Rescue Team and has previous experience in the British Armed Forces. Prof Lyon is a current member of the Resuscitation Council (UK) Executive Committee and author of several international pre-hospital guidelines.

Dr Stephen Hearns chats to us about the critical importance of how we perform when the pressure is on; he draws on his huge experience in Pre-Hospital medicine to show that staying at the peak of performance at a job is a trait that can be learnt and improves outcomes for the team and patient. He shares practical hints and tips on preparation, communications, controlling your stress and regaining your composure when the frazzle hits.

3 key points to improve performance under pressure-

• Drilling through turning predictable tasks into automatic actions and freeing up cognitive ’space’ for decision making

For more information on Stephen and his publications, visit https://corecognition.co.uk/

Stephen is a consultant in emergency and aeromedical retrieval medicine. He works with Scotland’s Emergency Medical Retrieval Service (EMRS). This aeromedical retrieval service delivers pre-hospital critical care for major trauma patients, rural hospital secondary retrievals and major incident responses. Inspired by experience gained working on London’s air ambulance and in Queensland Australia, Stephen led the establishment of this team from a small voluntary service in 2004 to what is now a fully government funded aeromedical retrieval organisation with an international reputation. Stephen has published a number of papers and book chapters relating to emergency medicine and pre-hospital care.

Introduction: 

Lucy talks us through the risk factors, signs and symptoms of maternal hypertension, the long term management and prehospital emergency treatments including that of eclamptic seizures.

Top 3 tips: 

1)   Pre-eclampsia is quite common and blood pressure and urinalyses should be checked at every available opportunity

2) Severe hypertension requires urgent management so if systolic greater than 160mmHg

3) Management of eclampsia involves basic ABC support and Magnesium Sulphate is the drug of choice for seizure activity

Links and Resources

Maternity NEWS charts

https://ihub.scot/improvement-programmes/scottish-patient-safety-programme-spsp/maternity-and-children-quality-improvement-collaborative-mcqic/maternity-care/national-mews/

NICE guidelines for hypertension in pregnancy

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng133

Want to find out more about BASICS Scotland?