Emergency Care BC

In this episode of End of Shift, Eric and Joe continue their discussion with Dr. Shannon Jackson, talking about blood types and donation as well as sickle cell disorders.

The older ED crowd will remember this classic Supertramp track from the 1974 album, Crime of the Century. It's our springboard to talk about bleeding disorders. Dr Shannon Jackson is a clinical hematologist and the medical director of the Provincial Adult Bleeding Disorder program based out of St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. The Program deals primarily with acquired bleeding disorders: Factor (VIII and IX) deficiencies, von Willebrand disorder and some platelet disorders.

Conventional medical school and residency curricula glossed over nutrition for patients and certainly made no mention of how to look after oneself on shift. Eric and Karine discuss the roles that caffeine, hydration and nutrition play when working in emergency medicine. They look at some good and not-so-great strategies and provide some advice for shift performance enhancement.

End of Shift went on the road in late 2021 to catch up with Dr. David Pledger. David practiced in both Las Vegas and Vancouver before settling in Nevada. He fills us in on the interesting differences between US and Canadian emergency care and comments about how COVID impacted his adopted state and British Columbia.

In this episode of End of Shift, Eric and Joe talk with Dr. Carolyn Kelly-Smith, an ED physician and an Advanced Medical Provider for North Shore Rescue, about the practice of medicine (and sometimes not) in austere environments.