As we usher in the new year, I am elated to join our EMRA family as editor-in-chief of EM Resident and to do my part in contributing to EMRA’s mission: supporting those of us in training so we can become the best doctors and leaders we can be, and ensuring emergency medicine becomes the best specialty it can be.
The core reason for my love of EM is our privilege of being anyone’s doctor, whenever they need us. Our hands come together and allow us to serve and support patients from all walks of life; our doors are open when patients have nowhere else to turn. As a specialty, EM has withstood wave upon wave of adversity, and as physicians in the specialty, we don’t allow ourselves to sink. I am proud that this issue of EM Resident reflects our current inclusive practice of EM, while simultaneously encouraging us to embrace all aspects of emergency care.
In this edition, our esteemed contributors urge us to maintain keen clinical sense during sepsis source inspection (“Sepsis Alert: Care Pathways in the ED,” page 26, and “Pelvic Sepsis: A Fatal Complication of Routine Hemorrhoidectomy,” page 48). They remind us that we are the frontline of medicine, the first doctors to care for concerns ranging from toxic environmental exposures (“Top Gun Toxicity: Military-Grade Hydrocarbon Exposure Management in the ED,” page 56) to the exploitation of human lives exacerbated by a pandemic (“Pilot Study: Evaluating Education Targeting Intimate Partner Violence, Human Trafficking in an EM Residency,” page 29).
Our authors also encourage the careful use of language across our practice, both when speaking to patients with disabilities and when caring for patients with different communication needs (“Emergency Physicians’ Perspective: Caring for Persons with Disabilities,” page 58, and “Words Matter: The Importance of Communication in Medicine,” page 46). The importance of effective communication is extended to difficult conversations regarding end-of-life care and how palliative medicine can ease the pain experienced by all in these unfortunate circumstances (“Palliative Care in the ED: Past, Present, and Future,” page 53, and “Tips for Palliative Medicine Consults in the ED,” page 50).
The articles referenced above highlight only a fraction of the talent and knowledge among our authors and within our profession; I am hopeful that each of you will find something that resonates on the pages of this edition of EM Resident. I also hope the content serves as a reminder of EMRA’s unwavering support as you care for and dedicate yourselves to your patients in this new year.
While our dedication to our patients remains the same, a new year is also a time for new beginnings. On that note, we would like to announce a shift in our publication strategy, moving from fewer pages printed 6 times per year to a more substantial page count printed quarterly. Our shift from bimonthly to quarterly comes with perks for you — our revered readers, contributors, and EMRA members. Each edition will have significantly more pages. For our readers, this means more articles, more clinical content, more information, and more knowledge-sharing in a focused time period. For our contributors, more pages translate to more space, which means we'll publish more of your papers. And for our membership, this change signals yet another reason to hold your head up high: As tangible newspapers and magazines disappear all around us in favor of a digital-only presence, EM Resident, EMRA's publication of record, is still going strong — both in print and online. I invite you to visit EM Resident online at www.emresident.org, where you'll find ahead-of-print papers, on-demand content from the pages of our print magazine, and much, much more.
Thuy Nguyen, MD
Email emresidenteditor@emra.org | Instagram @thuynguyenmd | Twitter @ThuyNguyenMD