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Prehospital emergency care, 5th ed
The Journal of Emergency Medictne, Vol IS, No 5 pp W--760, 1Y9? Copyright 0 1997 Elsevier Science Inc Printed in the USA All rights reserved V73h4h7Y/“)-/ 217.00 + (h-l
ELSEVIER
0 PREHMPITAL EWERQEMCY CARE, 5TH ED. by BQ Hafen, KJ Karren, JJ Mistovich, HA Werman. 928 pp. New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1996, $43.00. Prehospital care is a rapidly expanding frontier as increasingly it is recognized that patient outcomes often are shaped by treatment decisions made long before patients reach the emergency department. In an effort to provide an improved framework for prehospital intervention, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) defined a new Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)-B curriculum in 1994 focusing on certain fundamental patient assessment skills. This new emphasis on patient assessment represents a philosophical shift from the previous paradigm for prehospital intervention based on disease entity diagnosis, because it was recognized that a common set of interventions were made by the EMT-B regardless of the time spent wrangling over diagnoses. Against this background, Prehospital Emergency Care is designed as a coursebook to present an in-depth description of the components of this revised EMT-B curriculum. The contributors are long-time educators in the field of prehospital care. Overall, the textbook is informative and medically accurate with many strong features. Each chapter is structured to include a clinical scenario, core information from the DOT requirements, enrichment information focusing on specific disease entities, and closing review questions. The diagrams and photographs are visually well arranged. The flow charts form an integral and useful backbone for the text. The coursebook is part of a comprehensive multimedia package that includes a 66-min video program that highlights the role of patient assessment. Although this text is well written, its organization could be easily reworked to make it more user-friendly. First, the overall organization of the text would be better served by formally subdividing it into the eight modules that comprise the 1994 DOT curriculum. The importance
Reviews of Books and Other Media is coordinated
of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio
of a module may be misunderstood by the number of chapters dedicated to it in the current text format. This arrangement would give more equal weight to each module so that the Airway Module (allocated only one chapter) is recognized as equally important as the Operations Module (allocated five chapters). Second, the text would benefit by reducing the numerous subdivisions within each chapter that sometimes make it difficult to follow the relationship between the sections. This observation seems particularly applicable to Chapter 9. a 72-page explanation of patient assessment. In conclusion, Prehospital Emergency Care is a solid text that provides an excellent framework for the EMTB-to be. I am glad to see that these authors are continuing to update their prehospital text, which was helpful to me in an earlier incarnation when I became an EMT-B not so long ago. Denk F&Gerald, MD Department of Emergency Medicine University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Cincinnati, Ohio PI1 s0736-4679(97)0616@-1
q hiIOF !wimmc Edited by William L. Buntain, MD. 814 pp, 715 illustrations. Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders Company, 1995, $185.00. A foreword entitled, “The Carnage of Our Children,” is how one of the three insightful forewords begins this textbook. The editor also offers a touching essay written by a pediatric critical care nurse who eloquently reminds us of the heart wrenching experience of caring for the critically injured child. This introduction, for me, was purposeful. It compelled this reader to pay careful attention to the text that would follow.
by Edward J. Often,
MD,
of the University 01 Cincinnati College -
ELSEVIER
0 PREHMPITAL EWERQEMCY CARE, 5TH ED. by BQ Hafen, KJ Karren, JJ Mistovich, HA Werman. 928 pp. New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1996, $43.00. Prehospital care is a rapidly expanding frontier as increasingly it is recognized that patient outcomes often are shaped by treatment decisions made long before patients reach the emergency department. In an effort to provide an improved framework for prehospital intervention, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) defined a new Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)-B curriculum in 1994 focusing on certain fundamental patient assessment skills. This new emphasis on patient assessment represents a philosophical shift from the previous paradigm for prehospital intervention based on disease entity diagnosis, because it was recognized that a common set of interventions were made by the EMT-B regardless of the time spent wrangling over diagnoses. Against this background, Prehospital Emergency Care is designed as a coursebook to present an in-depth description of the components of this revised EMT-B curriculum. The contributors are long-time educators in the field of prehospital care. Overall, the textbook is informative and medically accurate with many strong features. Each chapter is structured to include a clinical scenario, core information from the DOT requirements, enrichment information focusing on specific disease entities, and closing review questions. The diagrams and photographs are visually well arranged. The flow charts form an integral and useful backbone for the text. The coursebook is part of a comprehensive multimedia package that includes a 66-min video program that highlights the role of patient assessment. Although this text is well written, its organization could be easily reworked to make it more user-friendly. First, the overall organization of the text would be better served by formally subdividing it into the eight modules that comprise the 1994 DOT curriculum. The importance
Reviews of Books and Other Media is coordinated
of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio
of a module may be misunderstood by the number of chapters dedicated to it in the current text format. This arrangement would give more equal weight to each module so that the Airway Module (allocated only one chapter) is recognized as equally important as the Operations Module (allocated five chapters). Second, the text would benefit by reducing the numerous subdivisions within each chapter that sometimes make it difficult to follow the relationship between the sections. This observation seems particularly applicable to Chapter 9. a 72-page explanation of patient assessment. In conclusion, Prehospital Emergency Care is a solid text that provides an excellent framework for the EMTB-to be. I am glad to see that these authors are continuing to update their prehospital text, which was helpful to me in an earlier incarnation when I became an EMT-B not so long ago. Denk F&Gerald, MD Department of Emergency Medicine University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Cincinnati, Ohio PI1 s0736-4679(97)0616@-1
q hiIOF !wimmc Edited by William L. Buntain, MD. 814 pp, 715 illustrations. Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders Company, 1995, $185.00. A foreword entitled, “The Carnage of Our Children,” is how one of the three insightful forewords begins this textbook. The editor also offers a touching essay written by a pediatric critical care nurse who eloquently reminds us of the heart wrenching experience of caring for the critically injured child. This introduction, for me, was purposeful. It compelled this reader to pay careful attention to the text that would follow.
by Edward J. Often,
MD,
of the University 01 Cincinnati College -