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Aislinn Vaughan

Publications and source records attributed to Aislinn Vaughan.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Mentorship in a community-based residency program.

The concept of mentorship has become a timely issue in surgical residency education. Traditionally, surgical training programs contained resident teams consisting of chiefs, seniors, juniors, and interns on 4- to 8-week blocks. With the new hour regulations, many programs have had to make changes in the format of their teaching programs to accommodate the new hour restrictions and yet still strive to maintain excellence in residency education. We examined a rotation with a mentor or a small group of surgeons in an apprenticeship model. This consists of one resident following one to three surgeons in a practice, in essence being their apprentice. One of the strongest advantages of this is the exposure the resident has to the true lifestyle of a practicing general surgeon. There is also strong continuity of care, because that one resident goes to office with their mentor, scrubs all their cases, rounds with them, and sees the patients in follow up. This continuity concept ultimately results in better outcomes for the patients.

Continuity of Patient Care↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Port-A-Cath placement without the aid of fluoroscopy or localizing devices: a community hospital series.

BACKGROUND: Traditionally, Port-A-Caths are placed with the aid of intraoperative fluoroscopy or other localizing devices. Confirmation of catheter placement and location are made intraoperatively, and this practice adds considerable cost to the overall procedure with questionable benefit. We examined the experience of a community surgeon who does not use fluoroscopy or localizing devices to see whether this complication rate or need for manipulation of the catheter was high as well as cost savings per case. METHODS: A retrospective review of 107 Port-A-Caths cases were evaluated for patient age, indication for port placement, sex, pneumothorax, need for repositioning of catheter, access site, catheter tip location, need for operative intervention related to port placement, and death. Location of the catheter was confirmed by dictated chest x-ray results and need for repositioning by the surgeon's operative note. Cost of fluoroscopy as well as C-arm use and chest x-ray studies were also used to calculate savings. RESULTS: Of the 107 Port-a-Cath cases, two (1.9%) pneumothoraces occurred and two (1.9%) catheters were repositioned; no deaths and no operative interventions related to Port-a-Cath placements occurred. Seventy-six (71%) of the ports were accessed via a left subclavian approach, and the remainder were accessed via right subclavian, right internal jugular, left internal jugular, and external jugular approaches. One catheter was repositioned due to a kink noted on postoperative chest x-ray study, and the other was noted to be ascending the left internal jugular vein. Cost of the C-arm was USD 174 for less than 1 hour and for fluoroscopy was USD 396 for less than 1 hour. CONCLUSION: In our study, only two catheters (1.9%) needed to be repositioned. This comes at an estimated savings of USD 40,000 for this series. Based on our experience, Port-A-Caths can be placed safely without fluoroscopy or localization devices with no added morbidity and significant cost savings to the patient.

Catheterization, Central Venous↗