blburns Posted September 30, 2012 Share Posted September 30, 2012 I need some help. I have to begin working on my "Capstone Project" as a graduation requirement and I have no idea where to start. I can not for the life of me come up with an area of clinical uncertainty to formulate a question that can be answered by evaluating evidence based medicine. Any one have any ideas that could get me started? I have complete writer's block. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contrarian Posted September 30, 2012 Share Posted September 30, 2012 Are you a veteran...??? Mine was a Lit Review on Emerging treatments for veterans and civilians with PTSD and Co-occuring Substance Use Disorder. My Masters degree was concentrated in Psychiatry/Behavioral Medicine with a Addiction focus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingsquirrel Posted September 30, 2012 Share Posted September 30, 2012 thrombolytics for ischemic stroke? ultrasound vs CT for appendicitis dx? Think about what areas of medicine you are interested in and look at what the "hot" issues are in that field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contrarian Posted September 30, 2012 Share Posted September 30, 2012 ^^ Yep ^^ but be careful to pick something not TOO esoteric that has sufficient research to peruse... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaston Posted September 30, 2012 Share Posted September 30, 2012 What have you come across during rotations? Have any of your preceptors mentioned topics or procedures that are either new or they don't know much about? Have you heard something like this: "I heard there is a newer treatment coming out" or "I think they are developing a new test for this" or "I've heard THIS is a better approach/treatment/diagnostic study than THAT, but I'm not sure why". Dig through your experiences from clinical year, or if you are still in your clinicals then start asking your preceptors about interesting topics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted October 1, 2012 Administrator Share Posted October 1, 2012 I did mine on hyponatremia in the elderly taking antidepressants. There's a ton of MORE interesting questions around that topic than the one facet I picked. this article is staggeringly full of interesting things that bear further investigation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pafguy77 Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Maybe choose an area of medicine that interests you the most then focus on different areas of treatment or prognosis. I know this is generic but you'll be surprised what you find once you narrow your topic. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blburns Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 We are in our last quarter of didactic so that is why this is a tough place to start as far as clinical experiences. My background is EMS and most of that is evidence based, or not appropriate for this Capstone. I believe I have found a topic however and have started working to narrow it. Thanks everyone for your help and direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acebecker Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 One thing I would consider (given your EMS history) is the use of NS or LR in fluid resuscitation for trauma patients with blood loss/hypovolemia. The new reports coming back from the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan are that LR and NS are among the worst things you can do for a person who is bleeding out. The research is playing catch up, from what I understand. If you can find some data and put together a meta-analysis, this is a topic that will upend most of our thought on the subject over the past several decades. Just a thought. Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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