“Stan, what’s the deal with negotiations…”

“Stan, If you don’t ask for what you want, don’t expect the Neurosurgeon, God or the Tooth Fairy (in that order) to do it for you…” Unfortunately no puntastic titles this time… I have had the fortune and privilege of working with doctors from different cultures and countries during my training in the NHS. The […]

“Doctors make mistakes…Can we talk about that?…”

Close scrutiny will show that most ”crisis situations” are opportunities to either advance, or stay where you are. (Maxwell Maltz) Perhaps the worst sentence in medicine: “Do you remember that patient you saw yesterday?…..” We all make mistakes, even the most eminent surgeons do, like Sanjay Gupta. Todays post took a while to publish. A dear […]

“Three little words…..”

As I wrote this, there was some very sad news that @docjohnhinds had died. So I am dedicating this post to him. He had inspired so many people in PHEM/EM community. Sorely missed but never forgotten…. Apologies, it’s been a while since I have posted anything primarily as I’ve been trying to get my head around […]

“Your dream is someone else’s nightmare….”

For those of us who work in an emergency medicine/ pre-hospital care we all have experience of saying or overhearing someone say: “I fancy seeing a big code red trauma or big sick patient today….”. We say it not to sound unsympathetic or uncaring but the sickest patients are the ones that drive and challenge […]

“Stimulate to Simulate Stressful Scenarios to Debrief the Debriefer…”

Want to know more about how to debrief? Read on!…

“Ok new docs, just aim to be a ZERO…..”

I was talking to a friend of mine, who is an ED consultant in London (@wgbrook– follow him!) the other day about his ED induction programme for the new F2s joining the department in April. He said he was going to talk about “aiming to be a zero” to them. This concept came from Cmdr […]

Emergency Medicine: “Are we still flying by the seat of our pants?….”

Hi all, just a short post today as its been a hectic week! Are we still “flying by the seat of our pants” when working in the ED? It may certainly feel like it sometimes! Some of you may not agree about what this post says but it is my personal opinion and if it […]

“In Wenger we trust…”

This post is nod to my wife and the inlaws, who are big Arsenal FC fans…. What has Wenger got to do with medicine? Unfortunately I couldn’t find a tenuous link between Arsene and working in an ED, but Etienne Wenger does have a link. Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger are cognitive anthropologists who developed […]

“There will be some moulage patients you never forget…..”

In my humble opinion, there are two life saving procedures that as ED docs, we should be able to perform. As they are rare, i thought i’d share some of my thoughts on what it felt like being in a stressful situation and some common learning points. Both cases are based on moulages and simulation […]