Leadership

Stevan Bruijns reflects on working across South African and UK emergency care, challenging assumptions about who teaches and who learns. His account considers the risks of overseas placements, reciprocal learning and practical ways to support colleagues in lower-resource settings, including collaborations that do not require travel.

The Virchester ‘ED Spa’ offers staff a non-clinical space to pause, recover and connect. This account explains how the room developed and how the five ways to wellbeing shaped its activities, from a gratitude tree and shared library to supporting colleagues through difficult shifts.

When emergency-department pressures affect morale, how can colleagues make the working day more supportive? Janos Baombe shares experience-based ideas about gratitude, helping others, explaining plans and choosing words carefully. He also reflects on emotional responses to difficult cases and the value of acknowledging them within the team.

A 2017 conversation with the #bad_EM team explores African emergency medicine, shared learning and plans for the 2018 festival conference near Cape Town. The accompanying post considers why locally relevant FOAMed and support for African delegates matter.

The October 2017 podcast round-up revisits major incidents, thromboprophylaxis, oxygen in acute coronary syndromes and emerging cardiac biomarkers. It also reflects on the physical demands of EM training and the specialty’s annual scientific conference.

Will expanding training places secure the emergency department workforce? This response to England’s 2017 workforce plan examines recruitment, new clinical roles and protected teaching time, while arguing that consultant wellbeing and sustainable careers need much greater attention.