Recently participated in a Faculty Development workshop with some brilliant colleagues – Dr Rob Woods together with Sean Polreis and Deirdre Bonnycastle [see her work on my fav links page] . Below I will share the pearls that I gleaned. Some of the concepts derived from the ED STAT course put on by the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. “Smartest person in the room is THE ROOM”. Train the trainer [or “T3” if …
Trust me! (no explanation required)
Two stories: ONE Yesterday I had a patient come to the ER because she didn’t trust the family doctor she had just seen at the clinic who “gave me a prescription for puffers worth hundreds of dollars without even listening to her chest!”‘ I did my usual and diagnosed the child with reactive airways (likely asthma due to positive family history) … I told the parent that I agreed with the original diagnosis, …
Courage to Make Lemonade
I just found out that a colleague and mentor [to whom I owe much] had a skiing accident in which he broke his neck. It’s early days, but the outcome may not be so good. From what I hear he was joking around before going in for an 11-hour spine operation. He was joking about trying to take down a tree with his head [and was haggling a price for the skis he …
Contagion – Pearls on Working Through a Pandemic
Unlike my usual posts this one is more ‘medical’ so here’s my disclaimer: the following is my opinion. You need to read around my post and make up your own mind. This one of the best products in the market with the added value that refrigeration is not necessary. Our Online Canadian Pharmacy is also accredited by the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA). Watched the movie Contagion the other night. Scary stuff. There’s a …
Thou Shalt Not Oompa-Loompantasize Children
Got a letter of praise forwarded to the ER manager by the Patient Advocate Office the other day … ZZZZZT! Wha? Did he just say “praise” or did he say “complaint” … [re-read … no it says “praise”]. Staggering! Furthermore it came from a patient encounter that I had in paeds ER. Hmm … I thought about posting a screen-capture of the letter, but it’s honestly embarrassing to receive such praise [and I’ve …
Reflections on Efficiency
I was at a great conference on Emergency Medicine in San Francisco. My wife and I went to a diner for breakfast. While there I was struck by how efficient the whole experience was. I think that things that made this experience really efficient were: Enough space so we didn’t wait in line Menu’s already on table Menu itself was stuff that they were really good at and relatively simple to create – …