FOAM Eye-Catchers 13: Mental Training for Resuscitaiton

Despite resuscitation teams operating in extremely high stress environments and such stress being known to substantially impair optimal performance, historically very little attention has been paid to preparing these teams to mentally function at their best. Recently strategies taken from other high stress environments such as armed “special forces” teams and high performance athletes have been applied to critical care with some impressive demonstrated and potential benefits.

Several excellent critical care podcasts (links provided below at the end) by Jason Brooks, Chris Hicks, Mike Mallin & Scott Weingart provide an excellent insight into how we can specifically train our minds for the rigours of the resuscitation room, using psychological techniques from “stress inoculation training” or “stress exposure training”. Note, while this post focuses on the resus room, these techniques could be applied to other stressful situations at work or in your personal life. Continue reading

FOAM Eye-Catchers 7: SMACC GOLD Highlights

Having recently returned from the FOAM-ite mecca, SMACC GOLD, in this edition I take a look at just a few of the many highlights.  Given there were frequently 3 speakers on at the same time, there were many talks that I missed so this is not an all inclusive list by any means. Continue reading

FOAM Eye-Catchers 4

Time for a Rethink on IV Fluids in Sepsis?

Earlier this year in March, I was fortunate enough to pilgrimage to the inaugural FOAMite mecca – SMACC (Social Media And Critical Care) Conference in Sydney. Quite frankly, it was the best conference I’ve ever attended. Some of the highlights included talks by Prof John Myburgh, in particular one on IV fluids in Sepsis, available for free via SMACC talk archive.

Recently Emcrit released a paradigm shifting lecture by Dr Paul Marik on fluids in sepsis that builds on some of the theme’s of Prof Myburgh’s talk. Not long after, Scott Weingart released his response to Dr Marik’s lecture.

All 3 talks are well worth listening to in full. However I’ve summarised some of the key concepts below as well as the FEAST study which is a landmark study discussed in both talks: Continue reading