If you are a physician, nurse, or advanced practice clinician working in a hospital setting, chances are you have been handed numerous additions to your ID badge with limited value. In the case of an actual fire in the hospital (71% occur in the kitchen), you simply need to look down at your badge mid-inferno to remind you to RACE and PASS.
In contrast, medication errors in the ED are very common; one study found the incidence to be nearly 23%. When I was working as an RN, I made several myself: I gave 10u of regular insulin IV instead of SQ. I pushed 100mcg of Fentanyl instead of 50. Years later, I remember them clearly. I remember both the patient's face and the shame I felt when I went to tell the physician what had happened. In both situations, no harm occurred, but I was still shaken at the thought of what could have happened.
At Hippo Education, our mission is to empower the people of medicine to learn, grow, and thrive by creating education and community. We all need continuing education, but at Hippo, our goal is to make that information engaging, impactful, and actionable. To that end, we have created what we think will be a useful addition to your ID badge, regardless of your role in the ED: the Hippo EM “Badge Buddy”.
While the incidence of medication errors in the ED doesn’t surprise me, the lack of pragmatic solutions does. Nurses often find themselves understaffed and overworked, which translates into moments where minutes matter, and help isn’t always close by. The “common and critical meds” badge buddy serves as a quick reference for both the common medications we give in the ED and the critical care medications we often find ourselves racing to start in dire moments. The card will give you all the essential information you need right when you need it, to make sure the medication is delivered safely and correctly.
When Captain Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger famously landed an Airbus A320 in the Hudson River following a rare dual-engine failure, he did so because he was a seasoned, trained professional who remained calm and collected under pressure, but also because he knew to reach for his checklist. When Dr. Atul Gawande set out to improve the safety of surgical procedures, he turned to the aviation industry. For decades, the field of aviation has prided itself on a high level of safety and consistency despite the complexity of its systems.
For emergency physicians, the ability to secure an emergent airway during moments of chaos is a paramount skill. Success depends on the execution of several key actions and interventions both before, during, and after intubation. To this end, our team at Hippo has developed a peer-reviewed checklist of these actions and organized them in an easy-to-follow format. We have also included a list of common critical care medications, complete with dosage and titration instructions, for those key moments where you need to get the ball rolling, but there is no computer nearby for reference.
Our Hippo Education badge buddies are available for free download. If you see our booth at a conference, stop by and say hello; chances are, we have a few printed out and laminated to hand out.
Download Badge Buddies here:
Common and Critical Meds Badge Buddy
RSI and Critical Meds Badge Buddy
I would love to hear any feedback about these, if you found them useful, or any suggestions for future “badge buddies”. Shoot me an email @ emvertical@hippoeducation.com, I would love to hear from you!