“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” Michelangelo
The stand out moments for me this week have mostly been around 1:1 development time with different members of our wider ED clinical team. Letting them grow and spread their angel wings as I hopefully reinforce their sense of autonomy, authenticity and ways to engage.
The most precious encounter was with one of the registrars taking care of a patient who visits our ED frequently. This time though, the registrar was able to shift his focus to work with that part of the patient that keeps coming back to the ED for help – instead of the part of the patient that makes her relapse into destructive behaviours as soon as she leaves. This change in intention opened a whole new path for both the patient and the registrar (who had seen her several times before with the same problem.)
Compassion in practice, one patient at a time.
From a systems point of view, the ED older patient flow pathway we put forward last week has been accepted and the pilot starts tomorrow. A record breaker for getting stakeholder engagement (not to mention agreement !) so quickly.
For the week ahead, my intention is to prioritise some self care and self compassion. To remind myself of what I share so often with my team – when we pour for others, we must sometimes stop to fill our own cups too.
Emergency Department Compassion 