Pre-Hospital Care Podcast

In this conversation I talk with Tim Archer. Tim is a former Group Captain, he held a number of senior appointments in the RAF during which time he gained an MA in Leadership Studies from the Centre for Leadership Studies at Exeter University, a Post Grad Certificate in Executive Coaching from Lancaster University Business School and was awarded a full-time 12-month Fellowship back at the Centre for Leadership Studies. After a spell as Director Public Sector at the Leadership Trust in the UK, he moved to the United Arab Emirates for 8 years where he was a government advisor during which time he developed, designed and taught experiential leadership development and coaching programmes. He currently works for Cardiff University developing their leadership modules for the MSc in Public Health. We have a wide ranging conversation that touches on: The definition of leadership Mission command - military doctrine (what to do, not how to do it - no disseminated responsibility)  myth of military leadership  - Constructive decent Vs destructive concept The OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) Leadership Vs Management (Kotter) Trust and cohesion – Peak rapport Homeostatic leadership Compassionate Leadership Situational leadership Leadership in conflict Leader as a coach  Systems leadership - NHS Model - leading when not in charge I hope you enjoy this episode with a fascinating guest and friend.

This has been the most downloaded episode of all time on the Restore Podcast and very relevant to the pre-hospital community. I have decided to re-post it on the PHCP as it affects every aspect of life and of blue light personnel.  In this episode I interview a senior Detective Inspector within the police who works within the Modern Slavery and Child Exploitation Unit in London. English born and raised, of African decent and operating for 14 years within the police through the hierarchy of leadership he has a unique perspective into the contemporary climate. I first met Henk as a friend about 8 years ago and have valued his perspectives and insights as a friend and colleague battling shift-work, the reality of London and everything in-between. We discuss some of the fundamental assumptions, biases and racism within society and aspects of law that need to be re-considered. We also discuss his standing as a leader within the institution and how we can all model progress and address the bias and racism. We also talk about representation of black and ethnic minorities within the emergency services and how this can be addressed. We also talk about the institution of the police and how the concepts of trust and of 'Non-maleficence' (do no harm) needs to be restored from the community towards the police.  I hope you enjoy this episode. 

In this episode I talk to Wayne Auton and Tom Archer who work respectively for the Scottish and Welsh Air Ambulances (EMRS & EMRTS). Wayne is a former Royal Marine and currently a Specialist Paramedic in retrieval and transfer medicine as well as pre-hospital critical care. Tom is a Critical Care Practitioner & lecturer on the Critical Care MSc in Cardiff University. In this episode I talk with Wayne and Tom about innovation within the domain, advice to aspiring critical care colleagues, top tips in leadership & group dynamics. I also ask then about how they have navigated the past 6 months both personally and as a service. The Emergency Medical Retrieval Service (EMRS) provides critical care and transfer to definitive treatment for patients in remote healthcare locations across Scotland. They provide Consultant and Retrieval Practitioner delivered aeromedical retrieval from rural health care facilities throughout Scotland and well as pre-hospital critical care of major trauma patients, telemedicine advice to rural health care colleagues, rural facility outreach training and research in pre-hospital medicine and major incident support across the country. The Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service (EMRTS) Cymru is an aeromedical retrieval service that provides Consultant and Critical Care Practitioner-delivered pre-hospital critical care across Wales. It was launched at the end of April 2015 and is a partnership between Wales Air Ambulance Charity, Welsh Government and NHS Wales. EMRTS provide pre-hospital critical care for all age groups (i.e. any intervention/decision that is carried outside standard paramedic practice) and undertake time-critical, life or limb-threatening adult and paediatric transfers from peripheral centres (inc. Emergency Departments, Medical Assessment Units, Minor Injury Units) for patients requiring specialist intervention at the receiving hospital.  I hope you enjoy the episode with these two great friends. You can find out more about them both here:  Wayne: https://www.wayneauton.com/blog-1/https/wwwwayneautoncom/blog-page-url/new-post-title Tom: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-archer-857b2354/?originalSubdomain=uk

In this conversation I talk with Andrew Latimer. Andrew is an Acting Assistant Professor in the the Department of Emergency Medicine. He is involved with quality improvement, education, and clinical and operations research in Emergency Medical Services including involvement with Seattle Fire Medic One, King County EMS, and Airlift Northwest. His research interests are in the pre-hospital care of critically ill and injured patients, pre-hospital airway management, and air medical retrieval medicine. In this episode we look at the concepts of 'measure and improve' which have proven to make Seattle one of the world's leading institutions on cardiac arrest survival.  Their main domains of practice around out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and advanced airway management (inclusive of drug-assisted intubation). The Medic One Program began in 1970 when the first group of firefighters were trained as paramedics in cooperation with Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington. Since then, the Medic One Program has gained notoriety due to the training and pre-hospital emergency patient care paramedics deliver within the community. Medic One provides the community with Advanced Life Support (ALS) activities that, in the past, could only be performed by physicians. In addition to responding to medical emergencies, medic units respond to all working fires, hazardous materials and rescue responses. I hope you enjoy this episode with a fascinating clinician & individual.

Stephen left the military in 2012 after serving 14 years in the Royal Marines and the SBS. At the age of 27 Stephen was awarded the Military Cross (MC) by Her Majesty the Queen for his work in Afghanistan in 2008. The MC is granted in recognition of "an act or acts of exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy on land" to all members of the British Armed Forces of any rank. Since 2015 he has mentored youth in schools, executives, budding sports stars, professional athletes and delivered the Limitless Programme to diverse audiences, veterans charities and public services. In this conversation we have an honest talk about his challenges with mental health through his military service and beyond. Stephens honest and open recital of his challenges with self harm and victim mindset and how he broke this are both insightful and refreshingly honest. Through his revelations of seeking like minded community he recently started an online community (10,000) of military and blue light personnel to support, encourage and offer opportunities to like minded individuals. His story is both encouraging and a voice of hope that despite the depths of suffering you can overcome any level of adversity with healthy community and a healthy mindset. Please find the charity that is fundamental to Stephen's story here: rock2recovery.co.uk The online community of OpSpartan can be found here: https://www.opspartan.com More on Stephen can be found here: https://www.wioh.co.uk/about

In this episode we interview Matt Masson ex-extreme sports and ski instructor. In November 2011 Matt sustained a life changing head injury when he fell 26 ft through a plastic roof onto his head. He has had to re-build his life completely from re-learning to talk, to walk, to ski amongst many other things. Matt's inspirational story is a true testament to his mental determination, engagement with rehabilitation and timely pre-hospital care. His story and YouTube video can be found here: https://www.thewobblyjourno.com and https://youtu.be/xnJExrygdSk We re-unite him with Mike Nolan  the Flight Paramedic on the night (a friend and colleague) who walks him through his injury load, the sequential interventions and his initial presentation on the night. Matt is just about to release his first book together with his Mother titled 'Road to the top of the mountain'. Please enjoy this truly inspirational story told in first person. Our thanks also goes out to the Nurse liaison team at the Royal London Hospital that initially put both Mike and Matt in contact.

In this conversation I chat to Ben Meadley. Ben has extensive experience in prehospital critical care, and is an operational Intensive Care Flight Paramedic (MICA) with Air Ambulance Victoria. Ben has a keen interest in prehospital critical care, advanced clinical assessment, pre-hospital critical care interventions and developing clinical judgement in critical care practitioners. MICA paramedics’ training goes beyond practical skill precision to include more detail in anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology to greater increase capacity to make independent complex clinical decisions and interventions. MICA paramedics operate either as part of a two person crew or as a single responder. We look at many facets of the MICA system and the differentiation between land MICA and flight MICA systems. We dig down into Ben's experience and empirical knowledge and look at the fundamentals of high performance within the MICA system, why they exist and how they continually improve. I hope you enjoy this conversation.   

Steve is the medical director of The Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) with 5,000 staff and 1,300 response vehicles. QAS has a contemporary approach to clinical service delivery and innovation in prehospital trauma care. It also operates a tiered system of pre-hospital care with Advanced Care Paramedics (ACPs), Intensive Care Paramedics (ICPs) and a smaller cohort of HARU Paramedics.  In this episode we discuss a variety of topics: High Acuity Response Unit (HARU) both its inception and the clinical remit for the HARU. Governance around the HARU program and provider quality assurance for some of the procedures (RSI, on-call advice, blood products and the bleeding patients). Quality improvement and where the program is heading  The lessons learnt building the HARU and ICP schemes in QLD. I hope you enjoy this episode as I found it both insightful and helpful to look at how other systems approach high performing teams and continuous improvement. Eoin  

In this conversation with Piers Carter we examine the fundamentals of high performing individuals - the birth place of high performing teams. Piers has an eclectic background. Since 1997 he has been working with businesses; coaching, facilitating and helping them have better conversations – as individuals, teams and leaders. Prior to this, he was paid by the government to throw petrol bombs at the Police – as a riot control, Public Order & self defence instructor. Piers then began expedition-leading, giving him some incredible experiences all over the world working with adults and young people in developing countries and challenging environments. I have always found Piers to be an inspirational character with insight into some of the foundational pearls of wisdom that has changed my world on a day-to-day basis. In this conversation we talk about the power of choice, paying attention to somatic signals, how we gain better insight into personal triggers, the concept of centring, broadening our exposure to failure and many other things. I hope you enjoy this episode with a true legend and friend. You can find out more about Piers here: http://pierscarter.co.uk/ For more content from the Restore Podcast please head over to:  https://anchor.fm/eoin-walker1/episodes/Episode-11-High-Performing-Individuals-with-Piers-Carter-ee9u7p

In this episode I interview Karim Ahmed the clinical lead for the emergency department of the Royal London Hospital (RLH) in Whitechapel. We examine the impact of MTCs across the health economy and why they can add a survival benefit to the patient. We also look at the utility of overlaying fundamental and essential patterns of care to complex scene's and how this deconstructs some extremely challenging pathology. We also examine the social deprivation that tracks trauma & some of the outliers that can present to the RLH. We also get some pearls of wisdom from Karim in relation to trauma and the wider population of undifferentiated trauma patients that constitute the case load seen on any given day in London.  I hope you enjoy this episode with an insightful friend and colleague.