Compassionate Care to Improve Patient Outcomes and Your Career from EMU 2024

As a profession, we suck at compassion as it is trained out of us through medical school and beyond. Compassion in not simply innate; like any behaviour, it can be learned through deliberate practice. There is evidence that compassion may improve morbidity and/or mortality in patients after trauma, cardiac events, cancer, diabetes, back pain, migraine headache and other conditions, prevent physician burnout and reduces rates of medical error, reduce the rates of patient complaints and litigation, and improve physician efficiency and resource utilization by reducing non-essential test ordering. A cultural shift emphasizing the importance of compassion in patient care needs to occur to improve outcomes of our patients and our job satisfaction; as such, compassion should be part of our training and CME...

Ep 145 Physician Compassion – The Barbara Tatham Memorial Podcast

Dr. Barbara Tatham, EM colleague and educator, died of metastatic sarcoma at the age of 32 in October 2019. During her last year of life, in between surgeries, ICU stays and rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, she gave lectures on compassionate care inspired by her journey as a patient. In August 2019 we met at my summer cottage to record this podcast. We explored the evidence that compassionate care improves patient outcomes and staves off physician burnout. We discussed how compassion can be learned and applied easily and efficiently in your practice. We talked about the do’s and don’ts of compassionate care and ended with a call to action. It is my hope that, through this podcast, her voice and vision will reverberate and she will continue to champion compassionate care into the future…

EM Quick Hits 6 Blunt Cardiac Trauma, Atrial Fibrillation Anticoagulation, Hydromorphone vs Morphine, Myasthenia Gravis, Venous Access

In this EM Quick Hits episode: Andrew Petrosoniak on diagnosis and risk stratification of blunt cardiac trauma, Clare Atzema on latest guidelines for anticoagulation in atrial fibrillation, Maria Ivankovic on hydromorphone vs morphine for acute pain, Brit Long on clinical pearls in the diagnosis of myasthenia gravis, Anand Swaminathan on venous access tips and tricks, and bonus material from EM Cases Course June 2018 with Walter Himmel and Barbara Tatham on Physician Compassion and tools to prevent burnout...

EM Quick Hits 3 – Kawasaki Disease, Suturing Dog Bites, BVM in RSI, Anticraving Meds for Alcohol Misuse, ED Violence

On this EM Quick Hits podcast we have Natalie May on Kawasaki disease clues to diagnosis, Justin Morgenstern on suturing dog bites: the evidence, Anand Swaminathan on BVM prior to laryngoscopy, Michelle Klaiman on anticraving medications for alcohol use disorder and special guest Howard Ovens on managing ED violence with compassionate care...

EMU 365 Physician Burnout with Peter Brindley

Dr. Brindley explores ways in which physicians can find happiness and meaning in their work. A simple act of showing gratitude is just one of the tools in his toolbox for how to reduce burnout and promote resiliency...

Best Case Ever 41 Opiate Misuse and Physician Compassion

Opiate misuse is everywhere. Approximately 15-20% of ED patients in the US are prescribed outpatient opiates upon discharge. In Ontario, about 10 people die accidentally from prescription opiates every week. Between 1990 and 2010, drug overdose deaths in the US increased by almost four fold, eclipsing the rate of death from motor vehicle collisions in 2009. This was driven by deaths related to prescription opiates, which now kill more people than heroin and cocaine combined. Opiates are the most prescribed class of medication in the US. In 2010, one out of every eight deaths among persons aged 25 to 34 years was opiate-related. Four out of 5 new heroin users report that their initial drug was a prescription opiate. In Ontario, three times the people died from opiate overdose than from HIV in 2011. Yet, we are expected to treat pain aggressively in the ED. Dr. Reuben Strayer, the brains behind the fantastic blog EM Updates tells his Best Case Ever, in which he realizes the importance of physician compassion in approaching the challenging drug seekers and malingerers that we manage in the ED on a regular basis. This Best Case Ever is in anticipation of an upcoming main episode in which Dr. Strayer and toxicologist Dr. David Juurlink discuss how to strike a balance between managing pain effectively and providing the seed for perpetuating a drug addiction or feeding a pre-existing drug addiction, and how we best take care of our patients who we suspect might have a drug misuse problem.

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