It is a little known fact that to be successful as an emergency physician in the UK it is vital to take a three month rotation in Archery. Archery is a key skill for us all dating back to Medieval times when we introduced the longbow into warfare. This devastating tool could cause panic in opposing forces, scattering them into many wide and ineffective directions. In short they were an effective tool to cause and disruption inthe opposition ranks whilst the noble English armies of old strode forward with their visions of the future. Soldiers trained using targets to hone their skills and to focus on the aim - meeting the target.
Of course these days we do not have real bows and arrows in the emergency department, but archery remains alive and well. In the modern NHS we still train our troops in archery, or at least in the principle aim of archery - to meet the target.
With our long history of target setting and target hitting it is therefore no suprise that we are world leaders in standards/targets/indicators....., whichever term you prefer in fact and it has to be said that a target culture in the NHS has been criticised widely, even being blamed for the exodus of trainees to Southern climes, but there is arguably more to it than that.
In last weeks episode we touched on new targets around trauma care in the UK and that raised many questions and opened a debate on twitter. This week we want to take those thoughts further and ask what we, as the archiest of arch archers across the entire NHS can do with these externally set targets.
What we forgot to say in the podcast is the absolute need to work alongside a short stay admissions unit under the ED umbrella. Without that you would really struggle to deliver safe and efficient care. We both work in units with short stay admission units that allow us to deliver safe diagnostic and therapeutic interventions to our patients.
So, with some trepidation Iain and I ask whether all targets are a bad thing....
vb
S
Ep 231 - February and March 2024 Monthly Round Up - Liver disease, mCPR, Global Health and Elderly patients
Ep 230 - Top Twenty Papers of 2023 - Part 2 - Haemorrhage and Cardiac
Ep 229 - Top Twenty Papers of 2023 - Part 1 - Airway
Ep 228 - January 2024 Monthly Round Up - New Year Resolutions, intubating poisoned patients and wellbeing in the ED
Ep 227 - December 2023 Round Up -Major bleeding decison making, E-scooters, AI and advanced resuscitation possibilities
Ep 226 - October and November 2023 Monthly Round Up - Trauma, Resuscitation, Aortic Dissection and Silence
Ep 225 - A deep dive into ECMO with Andy Curry
Ep 224 - September 2023 Monthly Round Up - Top Ten Papers and more
Ep 223 - July and August 2023 Monthly Round Up
Ep 222 - Monthly Round Up June 2023 - Airways, AMAX4, Head Injuries, TXA and more
Ep 221 - Brief Resolved Unexplained Events with Jilly Boden at the PREMIER Conference
Ep 220 - Penetrating Injuries with John O’Neil at the PREMIER Conference
Ep 219 - Blast Injuries with Chris Hillman at the PREMIER Conference
Ep 218 - Non epileptiform seziures with Steve Warriner at the PREMIER Conference
Ep 217 - Weaning the wheezy child with David James at the PREMIER Conference
Ep 216 - April 2023 Monthly Round Up: HALO procedures and Blood Transfusion
Ep 215 - March 2023 Monthly Round Up
Ep 214 - Shock from St Emlyn’s Medical School
Ep 213 - Sensitivity and Specificity (CAN 10)
Ep 212 - February 2023 Monthly Round Up
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