In this week’s COVID Catch, up a spotlight on the communication challenges that are emerging during COVID and some further detail on a new potential emergency inflammatory condition. Also a heads up to a handy “team timeout’ tool for use at handover.
Taj Hassan is the immediate past president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. With consultant posts unfilled and more and more patients presenting to the emergency department what does the future look like for the specialty? Can we avoid the vision of smoking spires and desolate wastes?
In this weeks COVID Catch up the challenge of “unrequited stress’ is discussed. We’ve moved from a phase of decision drowsiness (fatigue from the unrelating demands of busy clinical shifts) into one of engagement exhaustion. Constant (often virtual) meetings with no obvious end in sight until the pandemic abates.
Erica Donovan rounded out our session on paediatric oncology with this talk about the late effects of paediatric cancers. When we think of cancer we think about making the diagnosis, the chemotherapy, the radiotherapy, the operations. Very rarely do we think of the impact of an essentially chronic disease that has taken a chunk of someone’s childhood away from them.
In her job as a paediatric oncology nurse, she has asked many, many patients exactly what matters to them. She introduces us to Te Whare Tapa Wha (the four-sided house) as a framework for considering the long term needs of her patients.
In this week’s COVID Catch two great blogs are highlighted; one from Critical Care Consultant Laura Rock on not answering “Feelings with Facts” and why this is relevant during the pandemic and one from PICU Consultant Miriam Fine-Goulden exploring how its important to hold onto the positives of COVID as well as the negatives.
