Welcome

I struggled to find PEM resources for my CT3 year, despite the variety of excellent resources out there. I hope this website will help point you in the right direction. I'm not a PEM expert, but am following the guidance CEM have issued (in the form of a syllabus) to put together this page. This page is not endorsed by CEM, and any mistakes are mine.

Please comment with corrections, additions and further suggestions.

All the information here is collected from the internet, and it might be out of date or inaccurate, so please use your judgement and adhere to your hospital's protocols. If you do notice any errors or omissions please comment so we can put them right!

To navigate, decide whether you want to start with a PMP or a PAP. You can then select which PMP or PAP you want to look at. You will then be taken to the summary page for that PMP, with links expanded topic collections. If you know what topic you want to look at already, click on the link on the right hand side.

Monday 29 July 2013

Auto-injectors

Sometimes we prescribe patients auto-injectors. Sometimes they bring them with them. If we don't know how to use them it can be embarrassing - although it isn't an "official" skill to have.

There are three types of auto-injector available in the UK, and which one your patient has depend on local variations. Most of them have a similar method of using - "black to attack, and grey away". There are plenty of videos on how to use them, and a friendly pharmacist may have a trainer device to use.

Jext
These are the newest type of auto-injector available and are very simple to use.

Epipen
This is the type of auto-injector most people know. It is very similar to the jext device. In the epipen the needle does not retract so there is a chance of a needle stick after using the device. It is easy to use.

Anapen
An anapen is slightly more complicated to use as it has lots more safety devices in built. Anapens were subject to a voluntary recall in March 2012, so we should not be seeing many anapens in the community.
LITFL has a nice little summary here.

1 comment: