Episode 56: Resuscitation psychology with Dan Dworkis

Discussing the psychology of emergency response, team dynamics, and debriefing with Dan Dworkis, MD, PhD, FACEP. He’s the Chief Medical Officer at the Mission Critical Team Institute, a board-certified emergency physician, and an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC where he works at LAC+USC. He performed his emergency medicine residency with Harvard Medical School at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital / Brigham Health, and holds an MD and PhD in molecular medicine from the Boston University School of Medicine. He is the founder of The Emergency Mind Project, and the author of The Emergency Mind: Wiring Your Brain for Performance Under Pressure.  The Emergency Mind Project: www.emergencymind.com The Emergency Mind Book: bit.ly/emindbook The Emergency Mind Podcast: www.emergencymind.com/podcast The Mission Critical Team Institute: www.missioncti.com Find us on Patreon here! Buy your merch here! Takeaway lessons * Intact teams train together, while swarm teams are ad hoc and must perform without prior preparation. Many healthcare teams are somewhere in between, a “jello” team. How to effectively swarm and run such a team is one of the common challenges in a hospital-based emergency. * Intentionally limit information input when needed. In the initial stages of resuscitation and stabilization, much of the medical history and other details may not be pertinent. * Identify your role when you walk into the code and ask who’s in charge. If there’s no response, identify that it’s you. Ask if there are pads on, if there’s IV access, the last rhythm, and who’s doing compressions next. These are step zero in your management. If someone is already in charge, ask how you can help. * Usually there’s no need to use names, which are tough to remember in the heat of the moment. Roles are adequate. In the long run you can seek to build those relationships further. * Nurse leaders can be a great way to offload the provider leading a code and tackle logistics like delegating tasks to the best person to handle them. * Cross-disciplinary simulation training builds relationships between staff, but also stress-tests procedures and even equipment setups. * If you’re not in a leadership position, lead change like a flock of starlings. When you change direction and nudge the handful of people nearest to you, you’ll create a wave of change that can propagate outwards. What can you do on this shift to make you and your team 1% better? Ask yourself and others, what did you learn from this case? What surprised you, what did you learn? What can we improve next time? Small, subtle changes like this build over time. * Seemingly complex decision pathways can often be simplified by considering what you can do and what it depends on. Bifurcations that don’t change what you do at this juncture can be eliminated. * Don’t waste suffering. * Initial steps in debriefing is to make sure the team is physically and psychologically okay, and ensure the team and equipment are prepared for the next patient.