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  • Blog

The Doctor in Difficulty

The term “Doctor in Difficulty” is one that will have different emotions attached to it depending on your experience. We used to just think about “trainees in difficulty” but then realised non-trainees are just as likely to be in difficulty and need some support.
  • Blog

Tropical Diseases

Next to be seen is a 35 year old male, returned from Ghana, presenting with muscle pain, headaches, a history of fever and diarrhoea
  • Blog

Tonsillitis? With you in a tic… Neuropsychiatric Sequelae of Group A Streptococcal Infection

With potential to wreak systemic havoc for years following initial infection, Group A beta-haemolytic Streptococcus pyogenes (or, far more conveniently, ‘GAS’) is an organism truly worthy of our inner nerd.
  • Blog

3D printing for Emergency Medicine Training

3D printing is becoming ubiquitous. You may have a 3D printer, or you may be thinking of ways in which it can be useful. Here are a few thoughts on 3D printing in the ED together with a case study on how it is useful. Do add your tips, resources and suggestions in the comments.
  • Blog

Irritable Bowel Syndrome in the Emergency Department

Toni is a 35-year-old lady who attends the ED regularly with chest pain. Nothing seems to make it better, and her troponin is always normal. You wonder if there is a potential cause. Read on to find out that there is more to IBS than abdominal pain.
  • Blog

Incivility in the Emergency Department

To follow on from the RCEMLearning blogs on Bullying in the ED and Undermining in the ED, we will move on to an unwanted behaviour that is less subtle.
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Sight for Sore Eyes

Eyes are the windows to the soul. They have the power to mesmerise and enchant even the hardest of hearts. Yet, for many clinicians, they also instill genuine fear.
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TB in the ED: Still Here, Still Sneaky – Think TB!

Tuberculosis can feel like a disease from a different era. The truth is, it is still very much with us and in a busy urban ED you will see it. The real question is whether you think of it before the patient leaves the department, or three months later when they’re back worse.
  • Blog

Undermining in the Emergency Department

This is one of three RCEMLearning Blogs on Bullying, Undermining and Incivility in the Emergency Department.
  • Blog

Responding to Complaints

Answering complaints is an important role of the ED Consultant and it’s now part of the RCEM management portfolio. We’ve made a few suggestions about how to answer complaints but everyone will have their own tips, so feel free to leave a comment or two.
  • Blog

Bullying in the Emergency Department

Bullying is something that an unacceptably high number of healthcare workers will experience. Despite priding itself in being a friendly specialty with a flattened hierarchy, those working in emergency medicine, too, report experiencing bullying.
  • Blog

The Blurry Border: You’ve Found Papilloedema, Now What?

It’s 4:00 AM. You’ve just managed to find a working ophthalmoscope and after wrestling with it and staring through the gloom, you spot the optic disc
  • Blog

Bites and Infestations

This blog will focus on some of the finer details in bite management, or complications that may be seen. (Apologies in advance for any itching caused by this blog).
  • Blog

Anti-Obesity Drugs: What EM Physicians Need to Know

GLP-1 agonists, hailed as “wonder drugs,” help shed weight rapidly. But how do they work and what risks lurk beneath? What do we need to know about them in the emergency department?
  • Blog

The Droopy Dribbler: Paediatric Presentations of Bell’s Palsy

Paediatric cases of Bell’s Palsy are relatively uncommon. Understandably, witnessing a rapidly developing facial asymmetry in a child will cause worried parents/guardians to rush to see a doctor.
  • Blog

Winter is Coming: Bronchiolitis Update for 2025

As the days get shorter, the leaves fall from the trees, and winter draws nearer, so does the surge of bronchiolitis begin its annual descent upon paediatric emergency departments across the country.
  • Blog

Autism and the ED

This blog looks at the challenges that patients with Autism face in the emergency setting.
  • Blog, ECG

Do away with the Heartache – ECGs in Children

ECGs can be challenging, right?  And so can children. Add the two together and……..arrghh - Paediatric ECGs!!
  • Blog

Anecdote-based Emergency Medicine #1: excited delirium

The relative tranquility of the night shift thus was about to be broken. I swallowed my apprehension and walked outside.
  • Blog

Is Normalisation of Deviance the “Standard” in Medicine?

The idea of “normalisation of deviance” is the brainchild of an American sociologist, Diane Vaughan, who thought that essentially people become used to accepting deviant behaviour as normal practice, the more it occurs.
  • Blog

Confidentiality, Capacity and Consent in PEM

It’s Friday evening and you’re at work in the ED (where else would you rather be??). Jack is a 15-year-old boy who has taken an overdose of paracetamol a couple of hours ago. He texted his girlfriend soon after and she called an ambulance.
  • Blog

Rest, Sleep and our Breaks – the conversation we can’t tire of

This blog is to convince you why the conversation about our breaks, our sleep and our rest is one to start having, keep having and not stop having. 
  • Blog

C-spine skills

Most patients arrive with c-spine immobilisation, now called "restriction of c-spine movement or ROCSM", in situ. If they haven't, and they need it, there's a few steps to take.
  • Blog

ED Education in Theory

Education is not a new thing. That is not to say it is completely understood, but there are many theories behind good and bad education.

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