Confronting Stress Before and After High Acuity Shifts: A Discussion with Performance Psychologist Dr. Jason Brooks
It’s almost the end of your sixth shift in a row. You are trying to finish up notes when you hear an overhead page. You find yourself in the middle of a pediatric code that has a poor outcome and you have 5 minutes to spend with the family before being pulled into another patient’s room. You have no time to address the difficult case you just encountered. As an emergency physician, this may happen on a daily basis but some cases hit closer to home. How do you recover after these shifts, and how do you prepare for the next difficult patient encounter? Members of the ALiEM Wellness Think Tank recently spoke with performance psychologist Dr. Jason Brooks about how to mend these wounds and improve performance in the workplace. We provide a summary of our conversation and link to the podcast.