Research on how emergency departments break bad news mostly measures how confident staff feel, not how patients and grieving families fare afterward, according to a 2026 scoping review of 156 publications.1 Research Highlights Training was judged by staff confidence: of 36 evaluations of bad-news training, 23 measured confidence or comfort, mostly by self-report. None measured …
A virtual reality (VR) headset and a simple hand massage from a companion both eased pain and anxiety during emergency room stitches, compared with usual care alone, in a 2026 randomized trial involving 87 adults in Iran.1 Research Highlights 3 arms: 90 adults with cuts needing sutures were randomized to usual care, usual care plus …
A 2026 emergency department claims analysis estimated 3.87 million United States ED visits in 2021 where take-home naloxone could have been clinically relevant, compared with 226,453 ED-treated opioid-overdose visits in the same database.1 The finding reframes naloxone distribution as an emergency-care workflow for overdose risk, polysubstance exposure, long-term opioid use, and patients who arrive after …
A 2026 national survey of Dutch emergency physicians found wide variation in first-line medication choices for extreme agitation: without intravenous access, 34.7% preferred midazolam, 23.1% preferred droperidol, 14.3% preferred droperidol plus midazolam, and 10.4% preferred esketamine.1 The result is a practice map, not an outcome trial, but it shows how emergency clinicians are balancing rapid …
A 2026 cross-sectional study in Moshi, Tanzania found that only 26 of 246 injury patients who drank alcohol, or 10.6%, had ever told a healthcare provider about their alcohol use.1 The calibration result was contrary to the prediction: measured alcohol stigma did not track disclosure, while alcohol-related consequences did. Research Highlights Disclosure was rare: among …