We’re prepared for whatever patient walks in the door, but some patient care situations are more emotionally draining than others.
Help for Hard Conversations
- ED Code Status Conversation Guide: For older adults with serious, life-limiting illness (i.e., terminal illness with less than one-year prognosis), the decision to initiate critical care/intubation is complex and emotional.
- ACEP’s Palliative Medicine Section created this resource to help emergency physicians navigate this difficult decision.
Coping with Grief
Every patient death is different, but each one has an impact.
- Coping with Grief: How Physicians Can Heal After Patient Deaths
- The Lived Experience of Physicians Dealing with Patient Death
- We Must Start Paying Attention to Physician PTSD in Emergency Medicine
- I Cried at Work Today
- PalliativeDoctors.org
ED Violence
Violence in the ED is a serious and growing concern. Visit Violence in the ED: Resources for a Safer Workplace for related statistics and advocacy updates. You’ll find tips for de-escalating agitated patients, active shooter protocols and ACEP’s policy statement.
