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Distinguishing peripheral dizziness from posterior circulation stroke can be difficult in the emergency department. This 2018 review discusses bedside assessment, including nystagmus, HINTS, neurological examination and gait. It emphasises the knowledge and practice needed to use these techniques, rather than offering a simple discharge rule.

The St Emlyn’s team looks back on 2017 through favourite blogs, podcasts, books and conferences. Alongside clinical and educational discoveries, contributors reflect on friendship, workload, wellbeing and the experiences that shaped their year, before sharing hopes and plans for 2018.

A 2017 conversation with the #bad_EM team explores African emergency medicine, shared learning and plans for the 2018 festival conference near Cape Town. The accompanying post considers why locally relevant FOAMed and support for African delegates matter.

Day two of EMSSA 2017 moves from resuscitation and paediatric trauma to emergency care in low-resource settings. This collaborative report brings together sessions on knowledge translation, snakebite and malaria, alongside discussions of bullying, staff safety and the ethics of volunteering.

The first day of EMSSA 2017 explores prehospital and emergency care in South Africa. This co-created report covers the future of EMS, violence against crews, analgesia and critical-care transfers, alongside reflections on compassion, resilience and sustaining a career.

Day two of dasSMACC 2017 asks how professional tribes, team dynamics and complexity influence care. The report also covers equality, knowledge sharing and resuscitation debates, bringing together reflections on how emergency and critical-care teams work under pressure.

A 2017 ResusFriday session uses simulation and shared learning to examine cardiac arrest care, including team roles, reversible causes and dual-axis defibrillation. The post explains why enthusiasm for the latter needed to be tempered by the limited evidence available then.

Can emergency medicine remain a broad specialty as clinical practice becomes more specialised? Reflecting on his SMACCDub debate with Scott Weingart, Simon Carley examines generalism, critical-care skills and the risk that subspecialisation fragments the team’s ability to care for undifferentiated patients.

What does an ED handover look like from the other side of the stretcher? Ashley Liebig draws on prehospital experience to discuss respect, a calm reception and uninterrupted communication, then asks teams to agree and practise a shared approach to transferring care.

A 2017 Northern Emergency Medicine conference companion introduces eleven papers on resuscitation, trauma, paediatric asthma and clinician wellbeing. Short appraisals and links to fuller discussions encourage readers to look beyond headline results before deciding what the findings mean for their patients.