Emergency and Disaster Management - Essay Example

Emergency and Disaster Management Written for Academia Research.com Emergency and Disaster Management The article that was chosen for this review was entitled "Safety of Telephone Consultation for 'Non-Serious' Emergency Ambulance Service Patients", published in the British Medical Journal in 2004. While this article was obviously written for paramedics or other emergency medical personnel, the text of the article was written in a straightforward, easy to understand format, which is a benefit for those who may not have medical expertise or for research purposes of new emergency medical students.

Further, the title clearly explained the content of the article itself. Within the article, the abstract did a fine job of reporting the purpose, importance, methodologies and key findings of the research. When reviewing the article, the reader will be impressed with the skillful blend of quantative data for in depth exploration of the topic and informative, well written narrative that is easy to understand.The research questions were clearly structured so that they could be accurately answered, facilitating the collection of accurate data.

For example, the question "Would the patient have come to harm (due to his/her clinical condition) if he/she did not receive an ambulance within 14 minutes" clearly specifies that information is being sought centering around the actual emergency medical situation, a defined time period for treatment, and a specific course of action for emergency medical treatment. This question was stated in a "yes or no" format, to avoid any type of liberal interpretation of the question and inaccurate answers that were not relevant to the research.

Other questions corresponded to the risk level of the patient, "please grade the risk level of the patient", and open ended comment sections were incorporated into the survey to allow for some interpretation by the respondent, but did not take away from the effectiveness of the excellent questions that began the survey and we see quoted above. In order to better understand and appreciate the survey that was used, a copy of the actual survey and the article follows this review.Cross tabulation was used to calculate the results of the survey, which provided an accurate and informative quantative analysis because of dependent and independent variables that existed within the survey.

When we are referring to the dependent variables within this particular survey, we are referring to the time limitation that was put on emergency response and the use of a specific method of treatment, as well as the factor of the telephone being used for diagnosis. Independent variables included the risk factors for the given medical conditions being considered within the questioning and the course of action afterwards. The results, being so clearly presented and explained, make this article and research a valuable basis for further research.

By using ratio analysis, an appropriate method was employed in order to provide the proper methodology for the given points that were being made. The hypotheses, because of their straightforward nature, seemed quite reasonable given the nature of this particular article and accompanying research.While this review has given a great deal of information about the quality, content, methodology and quantitative nature of the article and research reviewed, it will be especially meaningful, given the academic nature of the research, to assign a letter grade to the article in order to bring this review full circle and provide a simple, yet effective way to express feelings about the article.

Because of the easy to understand nature of the text of the article, combined with a valid and useful topic which was clearly stated and research/quantative analysis which was thorough and informative, this article could fairly be graded on the conventional A to F scale with a B+. The reason for the B+ grading is that it was an excellent article and analysis overall; however, in all honesty, the assignment of an A grade for the writing would have to be done by a highly qualified medical person or statistician.

In closing, I would recommend this article either for informational purposes or in-depth research.ReferencesBritish Medical Journal (2004) (British Medical Journal 2004 Safety of Telephone Consultation for "Non Serious" Emergency Ambulance Cases)British Medical Journal. (2004). Safety of Telephone Consultation for "Non Serious" Emergency Ambulance Cases. Retrieved January 27, 2006, from British National Institute of Health Web Site: http://www.qsch.com