Introduction: In the last two posts (post 1, post 2) I introduced the fact that there exists a culture of ‘failure to fail’ in medicine. Faculty themselves have a large part to play and, apart from being too lenient, also unwittingly introduce bias during learner evaluations.In this final post I want to share my approach to trainee evaluation. I believe that most clinicians already know how to make judgments about learners – they …
My Approach to Clearing C-Spines
I gave a talk the other day on clearing C-Spines, with Prezi linked here. As a disclaimer, this is my approach based on my clinical experience and from reading the literature – you should discuss this amongst your colleagues and review the literature to see if you reach the same conclusions. I would appreciate some comments – peer review if you will. Objectives of the Talk: Apply the Canadian C-Spine Rule and NEXUS criteria …
Type and SCREAM STAT! Futility of ordering routine Blood Type and Screens in the ER
My awesome hematology colleague Dr Karen Dallas was here again – giving us a learn-on on a recent audit of routine Type and Screen testing in our ER’s Background: Our biggest ER routinely sends a STAT Type & Screen to the Transfusion Medicine Lab [TML]. These requests are often accompanied with a request for blood. Sometimes these tests are performed appropriately for emergent cases, but the TML saw an opportunity to study this …
Emotional Intelligence and How It Can Make You a Selfish Altruist
I am a fan of Twitter. I use it to “keep my finger on the femoral pulse of Emergency medicine“. Thanks to one of my Tweeps [twitter peeps] Dr Sam Ko [Twitter link] I came across this talk on Emotional Intelligence by author Chade-Meng Tan. You can see the talk yourself here. I have recently taken interest in mindfulness [check out additional resources at the end of this post]. I have also been trying …
How Can EM Faculty Be Better Evaluators?
One of my colleagues – Dr Van De Kamp – gave us a talk on how we can improve on our evaluations of learners. [I have taken her talk and added some of my own reflections/literature].Duff et al in 2003 illustrate: “Giving the benefit of the doubt has consequences for future mentors, students and, may ultimately, have professional consequences” This talk was quite topical as a recent publication in the New York Times …
Requesting Consultations using Kessler’s 5-Cs
Bad consults are bad for patients. Consulting colleagues is a critical skill in Emergency Medicine. The success of a good consultation is more than simply getting the consultant to come see the patient. Rather, it’s about getting the best out of your consultant so that ultimately the patient benefits. Poor consultations not only make you look like a dork, they will also have downstream effects on how well your consultations are received for the …