Traditionally, human factors and performance psychology are low down the priority list (or non-existent) in medical training. Students graduate from medical school with ‘academic-style’ mindsets, arguably ill-prepared for the practical, performance-dependent branches of medicine. In short, our training predisposes us to the yips. But change is afoot. On 24th June, I attended the London Performance Psychology Symposium at the Blizard Institute, close […]
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Improving organisation-wide learning from “Coffee & Cases”: A quality improvement project (Sydney HEMS)
At 10am every morning at Bankstown base, our team discusses cases over coffee. This process is called “Coffee and Cases” (C+C). This blog post is an accompaniment to a presentation at the August ’23 GSA HEMS Clinical Governance Day. The purpose of the talk was to update the service on the Quality Improvement Project I […]
Reflecting on two months as a Sydney HEMS registrar
*Originally posted on the Sydney HEMS blog Uniform fitted. Induction complete. 10-mission milestone reached. It has been a learning frenzy. I’m a UK-trained emergency physician, and am two months into my year as a Sydney HEMS registrar. Some of my early reflections on the experience have had time to crystallise into bloggable form… I’m one […]
PonderMed #21: Two pilots, one doctor… at the Grand Round
Captain Alexander Jolly and Captain Dave Fielding are commercial airline pilots. I met them through Project Wingman, a pandemic-induced collaboration between the UK aviation industry and the NHS. For the last few months they (along with a few of their colleagues) have been helping us train. Specifically, they are debriefing and writing up human factors performances (overseen […]
Pilot sim #6 feedback: The septic child
Here is our latest in situ simulation write-up. This was one was done on the paediatric ward. Included is human factors feedback from our aviation colleagues who were present for the sim. SCENARIO 6 month old baby on paediatric ward Becoming increasingly drowsy, ward paediatric doctor alerted by nursing staff Fulminant sepsis secondary to chest […]
Pilot sim feedback #4: Propranolol overdose
Here is the write up from our latest (very challenging) in situ sim. It includes feedback on human factors from our colleagues in aviation. SCENARIO 17-year-old girl with a background of anxiety. Deliberate OD of propranolol (unknown quantity). Hysterical mother in attendance (superb performance from Dr. Lucy Parker!) Initial A-E assessment done. Patient bradycardic and […]
Capt Dave Fielding: The importance of “readback”
“Communication is not like a conveyor belt where the meaning is transferred from one person to another arriving – and being interpreted – exactly the same way it was sent” Redding and Sincoff (1984) Over the course of the simulation sessions we have observed, the biggest thing that has struck Alex & I has been […]