Medic One Funded Projects
RCEM Annual Scientific Conference
Louise Gibson
Having spent some time working on a research project within the Emergency Department (ED) as a medical student, I was keen to continue my involvement with research after joining the department as an emergency medicine trainee last year. Under the supervision of Dr Matt Reed and the rest of the EMERGE team, I have been working with the 3RU paramedics on the PUCA (Paramedic Ultrasound in Cardiac Arrest) study. While the use of ultrasound in cardiac arrest has become common practice within EDs in order to identify potential reversible causes and to aid decisions about whether to continue a resuscitation attempt, paramedic use of ultrasound in the pre-hospital setting is not yet well established. The main aims of the PUCA study are therefore to determine whether paramedics can be trained to perform and interpret Echo in Life Support (ELS) and subsequently retain these skills; whether ELS can be performed within the 10 second pulse-check window and finally, whether the use of ELS impacts upon other important aspects of cardiac arrest management. Although we plan to continue data collection until January 2016, we submitted a poster detailing the work which has been done to date to the Resuscitation Council UK Scientific Symposium and were delighted to have this accepted for display at their conference.
I was extremely grateful to the Medic 1 Trust for their generous funding which helped make it possible for me to travel to Birmingham to attend the conference in November 2015 and to present my work. This was an excellent opportunity for me to revise and familiarise myself with the new Resuscitation Guidelines which were updated in October and to gain an insight into some of the evidence which helped to guide the changes made. In addition, I was fascinated to learn more about on-going research and developments in the field of cardiac arrest management and how these may go on to influence our practice in the future.
I would like to thank the Medic 1 Trust for your generous support which afforded me a great experience and an excellent learning opportunity.
