Jacob Lentz attended the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is in his first year at UCLA Emergency Medicine Residency Class of 2019. Prior to medical school, Jake worked as a comedy writer for the Jimmy Kimmel Live Show for 8 and a half years. Here at Pondering EM, Jake blogs about his journey through […]
Why the Comedy Writer Chose Emergency Medicine
Author: Jacob Lentz After we met in a hospital in Cape Town and he laudably showed me both how to start IV lines (something nurses do in the States, so much appreciated) and how not to contract TB (also appreciated), Robbie asked me to write an entry for Pondering EM on the topic of why a comedy writer would […]
Hunting the Culprit: (Properly) Understanding ECG Leads
Recently I was lucky enough to have attended the ‘EMECG’ course in Cape Town, SA. It was a 2-day event that took place at the beautiful V&A waterfront. Not a bad backdrop to learn about ECGs #emecg pic.twitter.com/aOVqfwJLht — Robert Lloyd (@PonderingEM) April 11, 2015 The faculty delivered high yield, EM-centric ECG education in a […]
Pondering Paeds: Buckle In!
Author: Dr. Katie Knight I believe that anything we do in the paediatric emergency department should aim for the most streamlined care pathway and least hassle for the child, parent and whole family. Quality improvement projects that change something to achieve the above are right up my street. I was involved in introducing a new […]
Precordial Stab
I am currently on a 3-month elective in Cape Town, South Africa. I’m experiencing an awesome city, sampling a new flavour of emergency medicine, and getting exposed to some regular major trauma (an area of EM I am interested in, but have had minimal experience with so far). On day 3, I was involved in an amazing case… ‘If […]
Pondering Paeds: Bloods, Sweat and Tears
Author: Dr. Katie Knight We’ve just had the big 6-monthly changeover in junior doctors across London, cue many nervous looking F2s, GP trainees and EM trainees setting foot in paediatric A&E for the first time. Aside from the dreaded paediatric trauma call, the thing that really freaks a lot of junior doctors out is sticking […]
Journal Club: ‘Changes in Medical Errors after Implementation of a Handoff (Handover) Program’
The ED is usually the only part of the hospital that has multiple doctors and nurses working at full speed 24 hours/day. A night shift as an ED registrar rarely allows for a wink of sleep, and we are constantly chopping and changing between day and evening shifts when not on night duty, punishing our bodies. Finishing work on […]
