“Whose turn is it?” - Moral injury and predicting wait times: October 2025 Primary Survey

The atmosphere of the emergency department can be a hard thing to put into words, with intense emotions washing over patients and staff alike. This month we feature a poem, powerfully illustrating the drama and stress inside the ED bubble. One of the recurring sources of uncertainty for patients is the question, “How long until I’m seen, doc?”, and there’s a paper following up on that issue with a personalised approach. A framework that has been employed by NHS England, aimed at dealing with the problem, is Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC). The next paper finds there is a limited evidence on the impact of SDECs, as well as confusion around their definition. Another paper on the subject of patient flow shows that while digital solutions are promising, you can’t replace a streaming nurse for critical decisions. To finish the episode is a 10-year retrospective review on the use of blood in paediatric trauma, drawing on the data of the Trauma Audit Research Network.

Read the highlights: October 2025 primary survey

• Whose turn is it?
• Poetry: the art of expression
• “How long until I am seen, doc?” Modelling paediatric emergency department waiting times to make personalised predictions
• Impact of same day emergency care services on urgent and emergency care delivery outcomes: a systematic review
• Blood product use in paediatric trauma: lessons from the TARN data

The EMJ podcast is hosted by:

Prof. Richard Body, EMJ Deputy Editor, University of Manchester, UK (@richardbody)
Dr. Sarah Edwards, EMJ Senior Associate Editor and Social Media Editor, Royal Derby Hospital, UK (@drsarahedwards)

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