Ten Commandments of Emergency Medicine
Wrenn and Slovis published the ‘Ten commandments of Emergency Medicine’ in 1991:
- Secure the ABCs.
- Consider or give naloxone, glucose and thiamine.
- Get a pregnancy test.
- Assume the worst: rule out serious disease.
- Do not send unstable patients to radiology.
- Look for the common red flags.
- Trust no one, believe nothing (not even yourself ): check lab results and rethink clinical decisions.
- Learn from your mistakes.
- Do unto others as you would your family (and that includes coworkers).
- When in doubt, err on the side of the patient.
Has anything changed? Should anything be added for the new millennium?
References
- Wrenn K, Slovis CM. The ten commandments of emergency medicine. Ann Emerg Med. 1991 Oct;20(10):1146-7. PMID: 1928892.
- Sun Yai-Cheng: Slideshare presentations; Emergency Physician at Jen-Ai Hospital Dali
- Ten Commandments of Clinical Research
- Ten Commandments of Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Ten Commandments of Emergency Radiology
Chris is an Intensivist and ECMO specialist at The Alfred ICU, where he is Deputy Director (Education). He is a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University, the Lead for the Clinician Educator Incubator programme, and a CICM First Part Examiner.
He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives. He was one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) has been recognised for his contributions to education with awards from ANZICS, ANZAHPE, and ACEM.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Bluesky, he is @precordialthump.bsky.social and on the site that Elon has screwed up, he is @precordialthump.
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