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Marshall & Ruedy's On Call. Principles & Protocols. Edition No. 4

  • Book

  • October 2025
  • Elsevier Health Science
  • ID: 6057559
Marshall and Ruedy's On Call: Principles & Protocols, Australasian and UK 4th edition offers a carefully structured, risk-based approach to the initial assessment, investigation, differential diagnosis and short-term management of a wide variety of on-call ward problems.

This fourth edition has been completely revised, with the addition of a new author, new chapters and updated content based on the latest evidence-based guidelines. The layout is in a succinct, easy-to-read format that outlines a practical, fast, efficient and effective bedside approach to clinical problem-solving on call.

Table of Contents

Section A - General Principles

  • Approach to the diagnosis and management of on-call problems
  • Professionalism and teamwork
  • Documentation and communication
  • Ethical and legal considerations
  • Death, dying and breaking bad news
  • Transferring the unwell patient
  • Junior doctors’ health and wellbeing
Section B - Emergency Calls
  • Critically ill patient
  • Cardiac arrest
  • Acute airway failure
  • Acute respiratory failure
  • Acute circulatory failure
  • Disability: acute neurological failure
  • Environment, exposure and examination
  • Hospital-based emergency response codes
Section C - Common Calls
  • Shortness of breath, cough and haemoptysis
  • Chest pain
  • Heart rate and rhythm disorders
  • Hypotension
  • Hypertension
  • Altered mental status
  • Collapse including syncope
  • Falls
  • Headache
  • Seizures
  • Weakness and dizziness
  • Abdominal pain
  • Postoperative ward calls
  • Altered bowel habit
  • Gastrointestinal bleeding
  • Haematuria
  • Decreased urine output and acute kidney injury
  • Frequency and polyuria
  • Leg pain
  • Febrile patient
  • Skin rashes
  • Transfusion reactions
Section D - Investigations
  • Electrocardiogram
  • Urinalysis
  • Arterial and venous blood gases
  • Chest X-ray
  • Abdominal X-ray
  • CT head scan
  • Hyper- and hypoglycaemia
  • Hyper- and hyponatraemia
  • Hyper- and hypokalaemia
  • Hyper- and hypocalcaemia
  • Anaemia
  • Coagulation disorders
Section E - Practical Procedures
  • General preparation for a practical procedure
  • Infection control and standard precautions
  • Blood cultures
  • Peripheral venous cannulation
  • Basic ultrasound and difficult peripheral cannulation
  • Arterial puncture
  • Administering an injection
  • Local anaesthetic infiltration
  • Nasogastric tube insertion
  • Urinary catheterisation
  • Paracentesis
  • Pleural tap
  • Chest drain insertion and removal
  • Lumbar puncture
  • Joint aspiration
  • Cardiac monitoring and the electrocardiograph
  • Defibrillation
  • Electrical cardioversion (DC reversion)
  • Transthoracic cardiac pacing
Section F - Formulary
  • On-call formulary

Analgesics and local anaesthetics
Cardiovascular
Respiratory and allergy
Gastrointestinal
Neurological
Psychotropics
Antimicrobials
Endocrine and metabolic
Genitourinary
Antidotes

Section G - Laboratory Values
  • Normal laboratory ranges

Authors

Anthony F. T. Brown Professor of Emergency Medicine, Mayne Academy of Critical Care, Faculty of Medicine MD Program, University of Queensland, Brisbane; Senior Staff Specialist (Pre-Eminent Status), Emergency and Trauma Centre, Royal Brisbane and Women' s Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. Professor Tony Brown has written extensively in the medical literature, including a bestselling handbook on emergency medicine now in its eighth edition. He holds a Professorial academic teaching title at the University of Queensland Faculty of Medicine, and still works full-time in clinical emergency medicine. He was awarded the Order of Australia (AM) in 2018, "For significant service to emergency medicine as a clinician, author and educator". His teaching awards include the inaugural Teaching Excellence Award 2001 at the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine; the Excellence in Clinical Teaching Award 2001 at the Royal Brisbane Hospital; the Outstanding Teaching Award 2015 at the Royal Brisbane Clinical School, University of Queensland; and The Michael Perera Teaching Award, Royal Brisbane Clinical Unit, Phase 2 MD Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland in 2021. Mike Cadogan Staff Specialist in Emergency Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth; Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of LITFL.com, Australia. Mike Cadogan (sandnsurf) has a special interest in medical education, AI-powered medical informatics and the integration of social media with healthcare. He designs and implements web-based online education programs for undergraduate and postgraduate students. He is the co-founder of LITFL.com, and consultant for Medmastery.com and PMcardio.com. Antonio (Tony) Celenza Professor of Emergency, University of Western Australia, Perth; Staff Specialist, Department of Emergency Medicine, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, Australia. Professor Tony Celenza is the Head of the Discipline of Emergency Medicine at the UWA Medical School, and Director of Clinical Research in the Emergency Department of Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. He has been Director of the UWA MD Program and has designed and conducts courses in Airway, Respiratory, Cardiovascular, Neurological, Orthopaedic, and Wilderness Emergencies for rural practitioners, medical students, and emergency trainees. He is passionate about medical education and has received several international, national and local awards for excellence in education and teaching. Viet Tran Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Tasmanian School of Medicine, University of Tasmania; Director, Tasmanian Emergency Medicine Research Institute, Department of Health, Tasmania; Staff Specialist, Department of Emergency Medicine, Royal Hobart Hospital, Tasmania, Australia. Associate Professor Viet Tran is a clinician, researcher, educator, and patient advocate. He is founder and director of the Tasmanian Emergency Medicine Research (TASER) Institute, where he inspires patient care through an evidence-based and data-driven approach. He is also the founder of Doctorswriting.com . He was awarded the Early Career Research Award 2022, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania; and the Vice Chancellors Award for Teaching Excellence in 2023, University of Tasmania.