Medical and Surgical Emergencies Guide – France (ANEMF)

Name of the activity: Medical and Surgical Emergencies Guide

Country/NMO: France (ANEMF)

Program: Teaching Medical Skills

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Aid to students

General description:

This guide is a tool to help med students during shifts in the emergency room and make it easier and less stressful. Two versions are available : the paper one and the app for mobile phones (easier to put in your coat’s pocket). This guide provides students with decision trees (from symptoms to treatment, passing by clinical examination and paraclinical examinations (biology, radiology…)). Our actual work is about updating the digital tool and make it more interactive.

Focus area:

First Aid/CPR/BLS, Surgical Skills, History Taking, Diagnostic measures, Clinical Examination, Diagnostic tests interpretation

Problem statement:

During a emergency shift, students didn’t have a tool to help them for medical or surgical emergencies, to check the care they were planning for the patient (diagnosis and examination, treatments…). It could be very stressful in this context of emergency.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

TG : Medical students, especially during rotations in the Emergency Room.
Beneficiaries : med students, as their shift would be less stressful ; patients, as their medical care would be more efficient.

Objectives and indicators of success:

– Obj : Easy access for students –> ind : number of students downloading the app, number of students having the book
– Obj : Useful and appropriate tools –> ind : satisfaction of students
– Obj : Updated information –> ind : satisfaction of students

Methodology:

Our activity is a combination of two tools :
1) A paper guide with decision trees for the main pathologies we’ll encounter in emergency room (medical and/or surgical). Created in 2004 and regularly updated. This book is printed with ANEMF funds and sent to med students in all the French faculties.
2) An app you can download for free on Android or iOS, created in 2014. Now this app is not very interactive and looks like screenshots of the book but we’re working to a new version with interaction.

Plans for evaluation:

– Regular statistics about the rate of downloading the app
– Feedbacks and suggestions of students (improving the app, updating data) in the “app forum”, in our website and contact email address, oral feedbacks…
– Feedbacks of professors (mostly about updating data) we are in contact with for this activity but also our professors in faculty