Case Review is a regular section of the Journal of Emergency Nursing which features actual emergency situations with particular educational value for the emergency nurse. Cases which are well-suited to this section include: New, unusual, or complex clinical problems, cases in which new therapies were utilized, cases which inspired improvements in emergency care, and cases where emergency nurses/nursing were instrumental to the outcome. In some instances the care of the patient may have been less than perfect. In this event, use the discussion section to underscore how things might have been done differently. Things can be said constructively, without laying blame, and readers often learn much more from others' mistakes. "Typical" or "classic" cases can also be used to teach readers.

The most important aspect of the case review is what you learned and what readers can learn from you. The purpose of the column is to teach readers. Try and pull out important information and highlight it rather than giving every aspect of the case equal weight. For example, don't feel you have to list every lab value or other finding. Include only what is pertinent to this particular patient's problem.

Contributions should include a case summary focused on the emergency care phase followed by pertinent case commentary. It may be helpful to organize the case summary section according to prehospital events, initial assessment, diagnostic process, interventions, and follow-up. The case commentary should concentrate on the teaching message and be supported by recent definitive references from the literature--original sources of information, such as published studies, rather than textbook chapters. Often, the discussion includes how the teaching case's clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment compares with the literature. For example, are this patient's responses "classic," puzzling, consistent with the latest studies? A common mistake in the discussion section is to discuss the disease or injury, rather than the case. Keep in mind that the job of a journal is to update and remind readers, not to impart a knowledge base.

Manuscript length should be no longer than 4 to 6 typed double-spaced pages. The use of photographs, radiographs, tables, and charts is encouraged. Tables should be typed, double-spaced. Illustrations should be high contrast and high quality. It is not necessary to obtain permission for the patient involved. We do not print patients' names; authors should also avoid including patient descriptors which are not integral to the case.

Review the author guidelines for the Journal of Emergency Nursing for further information concerning format, submission, and review of manuscripts.

Case Review Submit through the Journal of Emergency Nursing online submission and review Web site http://ees.elsevier.com/jen/. For more information, refer to Submission of Clinical and Research Articles and Case Reviews by clicking on Author Guidelines at: http://www.ena.org/publications/jen/authors.asp.