Ever "Google" Treatment?

[MMiz]

Joy's thread on a patient that superglued her lips together got me thinking.

I've heard that acetone removed superglue, but it turns out there are other treatments.

As a provider do you ever Google how to treat a condition or handle a situation?

 

[Akulahawk]

So far, not yet... Google for mobile devices wasn't exactly all that available when I was last in the field. I do use Google at times to point me in the right direction, but that's about it for looking that stuff up.

 

[medicsb]

There was a study recently published that found a large percentage of resident physicians use google (and even more use up-to-date, of course).

I've used google plenty of times to look for examples of skin lesions or just to put in some descriptors of an illness, because I'm blanking on the name. If you use google, you should already know which sites are going to be reliable. Yahoo answers isn't going to cut it.

Everyone should have sources available to use to help find answers. Medicine is far far too vast to know everything. You need to know when you don't know something and how to find the answer.

As a medic, I never accessed google. I always carried tarason emergency medicine and small pharm reference. When I got an ipod touch, I upgraded to epocrates and the tarascon app (which sucks, I should have kept the book).

 

[socalmedic]

I don't use Google on scene but do use epocrates, especially on overdoses and ingestion calls. I will use Google on the Toughbook when we get out to the ambulance to look things up. I think it would be foolish to not look something up if you dont know the answer but have the resources to find it.


...and yes I will tell the patient that I am looking up their condition. I have found that it puts them at ease knowing that I just looked up what I am doing, contrary to popular belief.

 

[JPINFV]

Sometimes. If I'm 99.99% sure and just want a quick nod, than definitely. There's a difference between using "questionable" sources as a starting point, and using them as a quick check. Along the same line, there's a reason med students and residents joke about Wikipedia.

I've also used Google to find a patient education article for a patient (WebMD in this case) after Krames failed me.

 

[Craig Alan Evans]

We stopped buying and updating hardcover reference books a couple of years ago. I use the web several times a day and during calls as a reference.

 

[Medic Tim]

had a pt come into our clinic with something in his ear. I took a look and there was something looking back at me . A quick google search led us to use baby oil in the ear. We were then able to grab the giant moth as it was trying to escape.

 

[CritterNurse]

The only time I've used google on a run was to check the spelling of medications when writing up my report. If the patient shows me bottles, I'll copy the name down, but if they rattle off a list of medications because they don't have the bottles with them, I often need to look up how to spell them.

 

[TransportJockey]

I've used google on a few overdoses. But normally will use eocrates or Skyscape or something else on my phone to help. Or just call poison control.

 

[ExpatMedic0]

had a pt come into our clinic with something in his ear. I took a look and there was something looking back at me . A quick google search led us to use baby oil in the ear. We were then able to grab the giant moth as it was trying to escape.

 

[Medic Tim]

We have a pic of the guy holding the moth on our bulletin board.

when we told our cross shift about it one of the nurses on that shift had something similar a few years ago......only with a big spider

 

[tacitblue]

Joy's thread on a patient that superglued her lips together got me thinking.

I've heard that acetone removed superglue, but it turns out there are other treatments.

As a provider do you ever Google how to treat a condition or handle a situation?

Absolutely. I regularly turn to emedicine for pathologies I am unfamiliar with or even for admission criteria and management information for things I am familiar with. Google scholar is also helpful when I want to see the science for myself behind a drug or procedure. It is also helpful to be able to pull up relevant illustrations of anatomy and things like that.

 

[dshadbolt]

We use it all the time when we need just a quick check. As long as you know the correct sites to use, google can be pretty handy.

 

[lightsandsirens5]

Ha! I had to google an EKG axis diagram the other day cause I totally blanked on my degrees of deviation and whatnot.