Ep 280 - Best Bits of 2025: Staying Human Under Pressure

Winter pressure doesn’t just affect patient flow.
It affects people.

This second episode in the Best Bits of 2025 series focuses on the human side of emergency medicine: culture, moral injury, compassion, and the small but meaningful behaviours that help clinicians stay grounded when work is relentless.

The clips in this episode are drawn from full St Emlyn’s podcast episodes released during 2025 and reflect some of the most thoughtful conversations of the year.

In this episode, we explore:

• What a genuine learning culture looks like on shift — and why it matters more than workload

• Moral injury in emergency and prehospital care, and how it differs from day-to-day moral distress

• Compassionate resuscitation and “the pause” after a death

• Why small, practical actions can counter hopelessness, even when systems are broken

• The EPICC framework and the role of self-compassion in clinical practice

This episode is designed for listening on shift, on the way home, or during a quieter moment over Christmas and New Year.

Featured episodes

Clips in this episode are taken from the following full St Emlyn’s episodes:

• Episode 256 — Monthly Update (November 2024): Learning culture in emergency medicine

• Episode 261 — Moral Injury with Caroline Leech (recorded at Tactical Trauma 24)

• Episode 258 — Compassionate Resuscitation with Matt Hooper (London Trauma Conference)

• Episode 264 — High Performance Teams with Dan Dworkis (Tactical Trauma 24)

• Episode 271 — Monthly Update (April and May 2025): EPICC and self-compassion

All full episodes are available in the podcast feed.

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