On Call: Principles & Protocols
Release date: October 1, 2025
On Call: Principles & Protocols – Australasian & UK 4th Edition
Marshall and Ruedy’s On Call: Principles & Protocols, Australasian and UK 4th edition is a unique, practical, symptom-based, risk-stratified bedside handbook for ward calls. Written for junior doctors and senior medical students in Australasia and, for the first time, the UK, it offers a carefully structured approach to the initial assessment, investigation, differential diagnosis, and short-term management of the problems most often encountered after hours.
This fully revised edition introduces new authorship, new chapters, and updated evidence-based guidelines. Its succinct, problem-solving format makes clinical reasoning at the bedside fast, efficient, and effective.
Structure at a glance
- General principles – Overview of the professional, organisational, ethical and social traits required of the junior doctor on call
- Emergency calls – Risk-stratified approach to life-threatening airway, breathing, circulation, neurological disability and environment factors (ABCDE)
- Common calls – Symptom-based chapters covering shortness of breath, chest pain, seizures, febrile illness, postoperative problems, and more.
- Investigations – How to interpret an ECG, common imaging, acid base, electrolyte and haematological tests.
- Practical procedures – 18 essential skills ranging from venous cannulation and ultrasound to chest drains, lumbar puncture and defibrillation.
- Formulary – Quick reference for the indications, actions, adverse effects, cautions, doses and routes of administration for the drugs most often prescribed on call.
- Laboratory tests – Normal values for all the common tests.
What’s new in the 4th edition
This edition introduces Associate Professor Viet Tran, an experienced emergency physician, educator, and author of Doctorswriting.com joins Anthony Brown, Mike Cadogan and Tony Celenza. Two UK specialists have been enlisted to ensure alignment with current UK practice, as this is the first edition explicitly written for both Australasia and the UK.
Updated Evidence and New Conditions
The book has been systematically updated against the latest guidelines, including cardiac arrest protocols, diabetic ketoacidosis, metabolic and renal disorders. New and emerging conditions are incorporated, such as:
- Arginine vasopressin disorder (formerly diabetes insipidus)
- Euglycaemic DKA
- Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH)
- Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES)
- Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia
- Blood transfusion complications (TRALI, TACO)
- ACE inhibitor–related angioedema
New chapters
- General Principles: Professionalism and teamwork; Transferring the unwell patient; Junior doctors’ health and wellbeing. Major revision of Ethical and legal considerations.
- Common Calls: Collapse including syncope; Falls; Postoperative ward calls.
- Investigations: Arterial and venous blood gases.
- Practical Procedures: Basic ultrasound and difficult peripheral cannulation. Major revision of chest drain insertion and removal.
- Formulary: Expanded to ten new subsections with over 135 new drugs, including gliflozins, semaglutide (Ozempic), and updated anticoagulant reversal.
Access and discount
On Call: Principles & Protocols, Australasian and UK 4th edition is available via Elsevier at a 30% discount valid until December 31, 2025 (Australia & New Zealand)
MBBS, BSc (hons) Global and Public Health, Queen Mary University of London. Currently working as a Resident Medical Officer in Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Australia. Interests in Radiology, medical education and global public health.
BMedSci (Pharm) MB ChB, Edinburgh University. Emergency and Internal Medicine training. Interested in neuropharmacology and electrophysiology
BA, BM BCh University of Oxford, PgCert (Medical Education)University of Dundee. Aspiring medical physician with a particular interest in respiratory medicine, public health and medical education