Small step towards a just culture
When David was talking about just culture on our last day at Turf Valley, and empowering every member of the team to speak up without fear, I remembered a story…
As pediatric residents we rotate in the newborn nursery, and it becomes a routine to ask the nurses to collect the babies at 5:45 AM, to start and get the blood for the routine bilirubin check and newborn screens, and sometime before 6AM, we start examining the babies. Many times I help nurses collect the babies, and explain to the new mothers what is happening with their newborn infants. I have a system I follow daily after aligning all infants in the room with big windows on the third floor: I start examining all the babies one-by-one, and go through each system, making sure I finish with the red light reflex on each one of them. When the attending arrives… Continue reading
Good Communication Can Save Lives
Communication can save lives
Why can’t we slow down and see the patient? Why do we expect to get an informed consent when we don’t even sit down while we talk? Why can’t we talk?
It is usually during your training years when you get your first informed consent from a patient. Very often you don’t get the complete training and teaching on how this should be done. Is there a norm? Are people discussing consents in different ways? You’re so happy to have the opportunity of doing a procedure, so nervous and often uncomfortable that you forget you’re dealing with people’s lives… Did you ever stop to think how “informed” is your informed consent? Did you ever try to see how it feels to be the one signing the consent? How many times were you so excited about the procedure you were about to perform that you forgot to… Continue reading