Warning

The content you’re about to read or listen to is at least two years old, which means evidence and guidelines may have changed since it was originally published. This content item won’t be edited but there will be a newer version published if warranted. Check the new publications and curriculum map for updates

Authors: Nikki Abela, Craig Davidson, Charlotte Davies  / Codes: GP1, SLO7, SLO9 / Published: 10/03/2016

Welcome to the RCEM CPD event in Leeds.

We’re here to give you updates and some pearls that we’ve gleaned from the conference.

The final day at #RCEMCPD16 opened with a very entertaining talk on interesting cases from Francis Morris (yes, he is on twitter.. as of today).

His knowledge nuggets are so difficult to do justice to on a blog, but luckily we managed to get a short video where he demonstrates his 20-second ankle examination technique.

Tony Shannon followed with a lecture on health informatics, His notes on how to “work smarter not harder” is something I, personally only discovered over the last few years but can go a long way to keeping burnout at bay. (It rhymes as well!) There’s lots online if you haven’t tuned into it yet, (our references do not do justice to what google can find) but the trick is to pick and choose what will work for you.

Ahmed Hankir followed, with an insightful and entertaining performance (honestly, it was a lot like watching a drama play – this man can perform) on mental health in medical staff. The take homes from that are that mental ill-health is prevalent in medical staff, and there is a rather lot of stigma attached to it. So keep your ears to the ground, and be kind, as everyone you meet may be fighting a hard battle. (with apologies to Plato).

After a coffee break, we had a Schwartz round which brought clinicians into a “workgroup” style meetings to discuss emotional aspects of work. Two consultants very bravely shared negative clinical experiences and how they learned and moved on from them.

These conversations are intrinsically difficult, but they are so important to make us better clinicians, and be it a Schwartz round or another methods (like those outlined by Simon and Natalie in this podcast), it is really important that departments integrate this into their regular practice at work.

Moving on from these difficult conversations, Dyfrig Hughes spoke about why things go wrong in the ED. Making quite a few comments about healthcare and aviation, which if you’re into FOAMed, you’re likely to have heard of before, but he also spoke about why we make decisions, and why an experienced clinician’s decision making is quicker and different from that of novice junior physicians. Guess and gestalt is not a new concept, but don’t get too comfortable with the way you come to conclusions, as pattern recognition is itself an easy process, and although our overloaded brains choose this route, it is fraught with bias, so sometimes it is worth enforcing strategies to eliminate this.

Moving on with the concept of error, Peter Cutting has a BlogSpot on actual medical errors, with learning bites on how to improve on them.

It’s all a bit negative, but we are in it to get better, and the final talk of the day, and the conference, was by Simon Carley and ended on a high note with his talk about self-actualization, mastery and the EM midlife crisis. Confused? I don’t blame you. That’s why we caught him for a separate podcast which will be on the site soon. St. Emlyn’s also have 3 #RCEMCPD16 blogs on their site about the presentation, which you should check out.

It’s been an entertaining and inspirational 3 days for us at RCEM Leeds. We hope we have managed to spread this feeling with you.

Further Reading:

  1. Inc. 5 Scientifically Proven Ways to Work Smarter, Not Harder
  2. I am Chris Nickson, co-creator of LITFL: How I work Smarter
  3. Quote Investigator: Be Kind; Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle
  4. Point of Care Foundation: Schwartz Round
  5. St. Emlyn’s: When things go wrong – the difficult conversation
  6. SMACC: Guess or Gestalt by Carley
  7. Emergency Medicine – Risk, Error and Learning
  8. St. Emlyn’s blog #RCEMCPD16