Stimulus - Learn Tools to Crush It in Your Medical Career

110. A Strategy Mid-Shift Overwhelm | Conquer the deluge and get home on time

Oct 2, 2023

In this coaching session, Dr. Brit Long learns how to navigate mid-shift overwhelm, become more efficient, lower stress levels, and experience more joy in his career. The podcast covers developing a framework for managing mid-shift overwhelm, prioritizing tasks, managing critical patients, efficient triage and documentation, and overcoming challenges for well-being and career longevity.

01:00:34

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Quick takeaways

The framework for dealing with mid-shift overwhelm in the emergency department consists of prioritizing tasks, delegating responsibilities, and ensuring an efficient workflow to avoid leaving late.

Recognizing the trigger moment when overwhelmed workload takes a toll, the suggested approach focuses on stabilizing critical patients, assessing new patients, batching results, running the board, calling consultants, managing patient dispositions, and completing necessary documentation.

Implementing the framework may be challenging, but strategies like bringing a workstation into patient rooms, setting boundaries with colleagues, and using alarms or reminders can help ensure timely chart completion and efficient workflow.

Deep dives

Framework for Mid Shift Overwhelm

The podcast episode discusses a framework for dealing with mid shift overwhelm in the emergency department. The framework consists of five layers: stabilization of critical patients, assessing three new patients and documenting their H&Ps in real time, batching results review and consulting with the team, managing patient dispositions and completing documentation, and addressing rate-limiting procedures. The framework aims to prioritize tasks, delegate responsibilities, and ensure efficient workflow to avoid falling behind and leaving late.

Linking Your Phone to Your Hospital's Dragon

01:54

Introduction

2min

Managing Mid-Shift Overwhelm

18min

Creating a Framework and Prioritizing Tasks during 'the Cracking'

3min

Managing Critical Patients and Efficient Triage

27min

Managing Patients, Procedures, and Documentation

5min

Overcoming Challenges for Well-being and Career Longevity

2min

Embracing a Scientific Mindset and Experimentation for Career Success

2min

Addressing Mid-Shift Overwhelm and Creating an Actionable Plan

3min

In this real-life coaching session, we walk Dr. Brit Long through building a framework to help navigate being overwhelmed during the middle part of an emergency department shift. Since this session, he has become more efficient, gotten home earlier on a consistent basis, lowered his stress level, felt less burnout, and experienced more joy in his career.

Guest Bio

Brit Long is an assistant professor of emergency medicine in San Antonio, Texa, and Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Content at emcdocs.net. He is one of the most published authors in the field of emergency medicine. In addition to that, he is a father of two and works in both academic and community settings.

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For full show notes of this episode and all sorts of other goodies, visit our podcast website

We Discuss:

The fundamental differences between the beginning, midpoint, and end of the shift
Why mid-shift is so fraught
What we usually do when feeling overwhelmed
Why willpower will almost always fail as a sole strategy for keeping up with documentation
The specific steps for navigating mid-shift overwhelm
Early detection of overwhelm
A mid-shift action plan
How to keep up with documentation
The real reason timely documentation is important
Breaking through your comfort zone
Brit’s plan for triaging tasks
Why deferring charts is so seductive and a slippery slope

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Stimulus - Learn Tools to Crush It in Your Medical Career

110. A Strategy Mid-Shift Overwhelm | Conquer the deluge and get home on time