Book contents
- Emergency Medicine Thinker
- Emergency Medicine Thinker
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Section 1 Decision-Making
- 1 On Deciding to Not Decide
- 2 What Makes Emergency Medicine Decision-Making Unique and Why?
- 3 Pediatric Emergency Medicine Approach: Be Vigilant but Be Reasonable
- 4 Decision-Making in Emergency Medicine
- 5 Emergency Medicine Medical Decision-Making
- 6 Decisions
- 7 Emergency Thinking and Behavior
- 8 Emergency Medicine Decision-Making
- 9 Emergency Medicine Decision-Making
- 10 Emergency Medicine Thinking and Cognitive Load Considerations
- 11 Decision-Making in Uncertainty
- 12 Unlearning and Thinking Differently
- 13 Decision-Making in Emergency Medicine
- 14 An Object in Motion
- 15 Too Little or Too Much?
- 16 Decision-Making in Emergency Medicine
- 17 Medical Decision-Making in the Emergency Department: Balancing the Patient’s Health with the Clinician’s Perception of Risk
- Section 2 Clinical Pearls
- Index
- References
5 - Emergency Medicine Medical Decision-Making
Different and Essential
from Section 1 - Decision-Making
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
- Emergency Medicine Thinker
- Emergency Medicine Thinker
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Section 1 Decision-Making
- 1 On Deciding to Not Decide
- 2 What Makes Emergency Medicine Decision-Making Unique and Why?
- 3 Pediatric Emergency Medicine Approach: Be Vigilant but Be Reasonable
- 4 Decision-Making in Emergency Medicine
- 5 Emergency Medicine Medical Decision-Making
- 6 Decisions
- 7 Emergency Thinking and Behavior
- 8 Emergency Medicine Decision-Making
- 9 Emergency Medicine Decision-Making
- 10 Emergency Medicine Thinking and Cognitive Load Considerations
- 11 Decision-Making in Uncertainty
- 12 Unlearning and Thinking Differently
- 13 Decision-Making in Emergency Medicine
- 14 An Object in Motion
- 15 Too Little or Too Much?
- 16 Decision-Making in Emergency Medicine
- 17 Medical Decision-Making in the Emergency Department: Balancing the Patient’s Health with the Clinician’s Perception of Risk
- Section 2 Clinical Pearls
- Index
- References
Summary
The basis for making any medical decision boils down to a careful evaluation of the case including chart review, patient interview, physical exam, and, when needed, test results and response to treatments. The cognitive work required to make medical decisions for a single patient can be time-consuming, difficult, and complex. Performing this exercise across multiple undifferentiated, potentially sick patients concurrently in a time-constrained environment makes Emergency Medicine (EM) medical decision-making truly unique across all medical specialties. Of all the challenges in EM, time is our greatest foe. To start, in every patient evaluation we are not only responsible for that patient, but every patient in the department including those in the waiting room. The sickest patient, according to an old EM adage, is the next patient yet to be evaluated. Unlike the progression of clinic patients with scheduled appointments or the sequential rounding on admitted patients, the ED is entirely unscheduled.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Emergency Medicine ThinkerPearls for the Frontlines, pp. 40 - 45Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025