Update: UEMS adopts new European Training Requirements for Emergency Medicine

 The European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) has approved  new training requirements for clinicians working in emergency medicine (EM). The European Training  Requirement (ETR) is, essentially, the curriculum for physicians dealing with all health emergencies in adult and paediatric patients. The ETR is intended  to strengthen training in EM across the board, and defines the skills and capabilities needed to work as a specialist in EM.

 The document was unanimously approved by all of the National Medical Associations at the UEMS council in April along with approval from the UEMS specialist Sections and Boards.  This is particularly important as it ensures the approval and support of all specialties for the scope of practice of emergency medicine and the role EM plays in healthcare in Europe. The document defines clearly the key working relationships with other specialties and emphasises the need to work as collaborators and partners with colleagues to provide the best care for patients. The document includes descriptions of the professional skills required, including those of educator, scholar, communicator, collaborator and leader.

 The document was written by a group comprised of members of the UEMS Section and Board for Emergency Medicine, the EUSEM education committee and the young Emergency Medicine doctors. This group worked for 18 months on updating and refreshing the existing ETR and is delighted to have achieved unanimous approval for it.

 The ETR is clearly vital to the care of all patients, but is particularly important in relation to caring for emergencies in children, where a recent survey has shown significant gaps in child health training across Europe. The ETR now states explicitly that at least 20% of the five- year minimum training in EM should be spent in dealing with paediatric emergencies. It is hoped that by standardising the training required, reduce  variation in the care provided to children in emergency departments will be reduced,  as well as inequalities in healthcare.

 “This ETR publication is timely and coincides with a paper in  the European Journal of Emergency Medicine* that reports the results of a survey of all member countries of EUSEM to determine current training in paediatric emergency medicine. Results from the survey showed that while the total time spent in emergency medicine training in European countries was generally adequate, paediatric EM training took up a very small proportion of that time – from one to 11 months. The new ETR should lead to an improvement in this ratio in the future,” says Dr Ruth Brown, from the Department of Emergency Medicine, St Mary’s Hospital, President of the UEMS emergency medicine section, and a co-author of the paper.

 It is important that trainees work with paediatric specialists to improve their skills and competencies, says the paper’s first author, Dr Ruud G. Nijman, from the Department of Paediatric Emergency Medicine, St Mary’s Hospital. London, UK. “More work needs to be done to improve the confidence and competence of clinicians in dealing with acutely injured and unwell children, and the new version of the training requirements are an important step forward in that respect.”

 “We welcome the new training requirements as they underline the worth of not just the specialism of paediatric emergency medicine, but emergency medicine as a whole,” said EUSEM President, Dr Jim Connolly.

The new UEMS requirements can be found here

Also read the full article on "Providing urgent and emergency care to children and young people: training requirements for emergency medicine specialty trainees" in EJEM.

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Quarterly EJEM research round-up - June 2024

Welcome to the quarterly EJEM research round-up, where we present our top picks from the last three months of EJEM editions.

Chiara Lazzeri, Associate Editor

Verdonschot et al [1]performed a retrospective two-centre study to investigate the number of in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients eligible to Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (ECPR). Clinical characteristics that may help to identify which patients benefit the most from ECPR were also detected. The study population comprised all IHCA and OHCA patients screened for eCPR between 1 January 2017 and 1 January 2020 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The features of this investigation are the large population included and the organizational characteristics of the Netherlands. This country, small and densly populated, is characterized by a short travel time to the hospital and the existence of is a nationwide response system exists that alerts trained citizens when an OHCA occurs in their neighbourhood. That is probably why in Netherlands the use of Automated External Defibrillator (AED) (29-65%) is higher than in other countries....

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NEW PUBLICATION: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BLOOD SAMPLING IN EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS

From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM).

ABSTRACT

Blood Sampling Guidelines have been developed to target European emergency medicine-related professionals involved in the blood sampling process (e.g. physicians, nurses, phlebotomists working in the ED), as well as laboratory physicians and other related professionals. The guidelines population focus on adult patients. The development of these blood sampling guidelines for the ED setting is based on the collaboration of three European scientific societies that have a role to play in the preanalytical phase process: EuSEN, EFLM, and EUSEM. The elaboration of the questions was done using the PICO procedure, literature search and appraisal was based on the GRADE methodology. The final recommendations were reviewed by an international multidisciplinary external review group. Continue reading

 

 

 

This study was conducted in a joint collaboration between EuSEN, EFLM, and EUSEM.

 

 

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Temperature control after successful resuscitation from cardiac arrest in adults: a joint statement by EUSEM and ESAIC

Background: Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is the third leading cause of death in Europe, with a high burden of disability for patients and their families [1]. When the heart stops, the body and brain cells quickly deplete of oxygen. Without intervention, brain damage occurs rapidly, and death is inevitable. Unfortunately, the prognosis for OHCA patients remains poor, even when return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) is achieved. Only a few (less than 10%) of OHCA patients can be discharged from the hospital, and only two-thirds of these are discharged with a good neurologic outcome to lead an independent life [1].

Reperfusion injury starts immediately following ROSC. Multiple pathophysiologic cascades lead to reactive astrogliosis and microglia activation and neuronal death by necrosis and apoptosis. This is one of the key component of what has been described as ‘post-resuscitation syndrome’ [2]. Mild hypothermia in the temperature range of 32 to 34°C was shown to mitigate these different pathophysiologic cascades simultaneously, efficiently limiting brain cell damage [3]. Numerous animal studies confirmed the beneficial effect of mild hypothermia [4]. In 2002, two landmark randomized clinical trials (RCT) in patients after cardiac arrest with shockable rhythm showed improved neurological outcomes following treatment with mild hypothermia in the range of 32 to 34°C compared to no temperature control [5,6]. As a result of these studies, in 2005, the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) guidelines recommended the use of mild hypothermia in the range of 32 to 34°C for 24 h in unconscious adults resuscitated following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with a shockable rhythm; for non-shockable rhythm and in-hospital cardiac arrest, temperature control was suggested as a weak recommendation [7].

Click here to read the full article.

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Breaking news: Emergency Medicine Takes a New Turn in the Netherlands

On the 26 October 2023, we received the incredible news that the Dutch Society for Emergency Medicine (NVSHA) had received confirmation from the Ministry of Health that Emergency Medicine has been officially recognised as a primary specialty in the Netherlands.

This achievement has come about as a result of the hard work of NVSHA and its leadership over a sustained period of some 25 years.

EUSEM warmly congratulates the NVSHA on this remarkable achievement, which will undoubtedly bring tremendous benefits to the entire healthcare system and emergency medicine doctors in the Netherlands. 

As a society whose aim is to achieve the recognition of Emergency Medicine as a specialty across Europe we feel honoured to have the NVSHA as a member and thank NVSHA for their work. We look forward to continued collaborative work to make Emergency Medicine in Europe the best it can be.

Click HERE to read the full article in Dutch 

 

 

 

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New publication: Status of the specialty Emergency Medicine in Europe

By Wilhelm Behringer (a) and Ruth Brown (b)

aDepartment of Emergency Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Austria and and bImperial College Healthcare NHS trust, UK
Correspondence to Wilhelm Behringer, MD, MBA, MSc, Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical University Vienna, Vienna General Hospital

Received 28 July 2023 Accepted 29 July 2023.

Extract

Emergency Medicine is a relatively young specialty in Europe [1,2]. It started in Europe 1972, when the first 30 consultant posts were established in the UK, at that time under the name Accident & Emergency medicine, which was changed to Emergency Medicine in 2004 [3]. The European Union of Medical Specialists (Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes, UEMS) represents hospital medical specialists within the member states of the EU, and includes 43 specialist sections representing independently recognized specialties. Continue reading....

 

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