Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of mortality in the United States and represents over half of trauma related deaths.
In the past nine months, the world has witnessed the outbreak of not one but two waves of pandemic influenza due to a new virus of swine origin. World public health authorities moved quickly to contain what appeared initially to be the severe pandemic that had been anticipated for so long.
If your patient tells you he's had asthma since he was a teenager, don't assume that he must already know how to self-manage his condition.
(Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series on prevention of hospital-acquired infections in the ED. This month, we give strategies to improve compliance with hand hygiene, tips for cleaning the equipment you use and tell you how to determine if your patient has arrived at the ED with an infection. Last month, we covered avoiding infections when invasive procedures are performed, reducing the risk of infection with peripheral IV insertion, using alternatives to invasive procedures, giving central-line education to ED nurses, and decreasing the use of central lines and urinary catheters.)
