Background Emergency clinicians have a crucial role during public health emergencies and have been at the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the knowledge, preparedness and experiences of Australian emergency nurses, emergency physicians and paramedics in managing COVID-19. Methods A voluntary cross-sectional study of members of the College of Emergency Nursing Australasia, the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, and the Australasian College of Paramedicine was conducted using an online survey (June-September 2020). Results Of the 159 emergency nurses, 110 emergency physicians and 161 paramedics, 67.3-78% from each group indicated that their current knowledge of COVID-19 was ‘good to very good’. The most frequently accessed source of COVID-19 information was from state department of health websites. Most of the respondents in each group (77.6-86.4%) received COVID-19 specific training and education, including personal protective equipment (PPE) usage. One-third of paramedics reported that their workload ‘had lessened’ while 36.4-40% of emergency nurses and physicians stated that their workload had ‘considerably increased’. Common concerns raised included disease transmission to family, public complacency, and PPE availability. Conclusions Extensive training and education and adequate support helped prepare emergency clinicians to manage COVID-19 patients. Challenges included inconsistent and rapidly changing communications and availability of PPE.

We carried out a density functional theory (DFT) modeling of the stable conformations of n-pentane (C 5 H 12 ), n-hexane (C 6 H 14 ), and n-octadecane (C 18 H 38 ) as well as their Raman spectra. The functional/basis combination OLYP/4z provides the best agreement between the calculated and experimental characteristics (the angles and bond lengths, Raman shifts, depolarization ratios, and relative Raman intensities) among the twelve approximations considered here.Using the DFT calculations, we obtained the Raman spectra of individual conformations of n-pentane and n-hexane molecules. We modeled the n-pentane and n-hexane Raman spectra by summing the spectra of individual conformations, taking into account the conformation energies and the Boltzmann distribution. Such spectra turned out to describe the experimental spectra quite well. This fact indirectly confirms that the conformational composition of n-pentane and n-hexane molecules is well described by the Boltzmann distribution.The calculated contents of n-pentane and n-hexane molecules in the all-trans-conformation were in a good agreement with the experimental values calculated by using the integral intensities of the Raman lines. We specified the experimental Raman bands belonging to the symmetric C-C stretching mode of the n-alkane molecules in accordance to our DFT calculations. In the cases of both n-pentane and n-hexane, mostly the vibrations of molecules in the all-trans-conformation contribute to this band intensity, while the contributions of molecule vibrations in all other conformations are negligible. We also defined the assignment of the Raman bands in the range 700-900 cm −1 to the vibrations of molecules in different conformations.

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