Persevering Through A Pandemic - 4 - Best & Worst Year
Release Date: 12/06/2021
92 - Emily Amos - From burnout to educating doctors on mindfulness and wellbeing
Mastering Intensive Care
My guest in this episode is Dr Emily Amos, a general practitioner and a passionate educator on mindfulness in Melbourne. Emily might not be an intensivist but she is a doctor with a powerful burnout story that led to her becoming an enthusiastic guide and teacher about mindfulness and self care. Emily has roles as a GP, a surgical assistant, a lactation consultant, a yoga teacher, a university tutor and a registered mindfulness meditation teacher. Her business, Whole Hearted Medicine, runs mindfulness & self care retreats for doctors. These immersive, CPD approved retreats offer...
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91 - Peter Brindley - Clinical leadership, podcasting and identifying when patients are dying
Mastering Intensive Care
My guest in this episode is Dr Peter Brindley, an intensivist in Edmonton, Canada. Peter is a tenured full Professor of Critical Care Medicine, Anesthesiology, and Medical Ethics, with over 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts, over 30 book chapters, and over 100 other articles, including regular opinion pieces for the British Medical Journal. He has written one book and co-hosts a podcast (). He has presented to audiences in 15 countries during appoximately 650 invited presentations, 50 plenaries and 10 named lectures. He is convinced happiness comes from finding meaning and showing gratitude. He is...
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90 - Andrew Holt - Dealing with a progressive condition towards the end of a long & supportive career
Mastering Intensive Care
Mastering Intensive Care is back after a long hiatus between episodes, and a fun divergence into a series about at athletic adventure. This episode features Dr Andrew Holt, a highly experienced intensivist at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, who was one of the mentors who significantly shaped my career. You’ll discover why Andrew was pivotal in my journey, what he sees as the key aspects of a good intensivist, what he has done in coaching and supporting trainees, how he was nearly waylaid by an early career mishap, and what's been profoundly challenging him in recent years. This...
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Mastering Intensive Challenges - Run Larapinta - Episode 9
Mastering Intensive Care
Thank you for listening to the ninth and final episode of the Mastering Intensive Challenges - Run Larapinta series. If you’ve listened to the series, you’ll know my friend Ed Litton and I entered a four-day stage trail running event, the Run Larapinta Stage Race, and ran, climbed, descended, scrambled and walked with 200 other enthusiastic participants along a mountainous and rugged trail in the spectacular red centre of Australia. Ed and I thought these conversations on the podcast might help others in setting and completing endurance exercise challenges, something we both prioritise in...
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Mastering Intensive Challenges - Run Larapinta - Episode 8
Mastering Intensive Care
This is the 8th episode of the "Mastering Intensive Challenges - Run Larapinta" series and if you’ve been listening to the previous ones, you’ll know that this episode is coming out after the four day stage race that fellow intensivist Ed Litton and I set ourselves the challenge of running many months ago. Two Intensive Care doctors, both novices at trail running, looking for something moderately hard, something we could do together, and something we could talk about on the show to hopefully inspire you and other listeners to go for a run or to set yourself your own exercise challenge....
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Mastering Intensive Challenges - Run Larapinta - Episode 7
Mastering Intensive Care
Fellow intensivist Ed Litton and I signed up for a big challenge 10 months ago when we registered to run in the Run Larapinta, a 4-day stage race in central Australia. We’ve both completed many endurance events, however neither of us have done any serious trail running nor have we ever run 130km in 4 days on a rocky and mountainous trail like the beautiful Larapinta trail in the Northern Territory of Australia. It’s now only a week away so Ed and I had a conversation to update each other on our recent training before answering 5 questions we thought were worth asking each other at this...
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Mastering Intensive Challenges - Run Larapinta - Episode 6
Mastering Intensive Care
To help Ed Litton and I get really prepared for the Run Larapinta stage race we are only a few weeks away from competing in, today we bring a seasoned ultra trail running doctor on to the podcast to share her advice. In this sixth episode of the Mastering Intensive Challenges series, we welcome Dr Cheryl Martin, who is an Emergency Medicine specialist, a podcaster and has huge experience in trail running, including ultra marathons. Cheryl’s podcast, the Mind Full Medic podcast, explores health, wellbeing, optimal performance and professional fulfilment, with a focus on doctors and...
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Mastering Intensive Challenges - Run Larapinta - Episode 5
Mastering Intensive Care
This is the fifth episode in the Mastering Intensive Care - Run Larapinta series. Ed Litton and I are back on opposite sides of Australia, and neither of us has had the perfect three weeks since we last chatted. There are now less than seven weeks until the event starts, so we chat about our training, then swing over to what we are each thinking about the logistical challenges we will be presented with. We hope you’ll enjoy listening to the conversation, even if you prefer the couch to your running shoes. If we can inspire you to get out for some exercise, that would be even better. Thanks...
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Mastering Intensive Challenges - Run Larapinta - Episode 4
Mastering Intensive Care
Here is another episode in the Mastering Intensive Care - Run Larapinta series. For this one, I travelled to Perth to meet with my Run Larapinta co-participant Ed Litton and to head out for a few runs together over a three day weekend. We also set up the microphones to update each other with our preparations and to discuss our perspectives on the social aspects of exercise, mainly endurance sport. We talked about group training, family support, and even using the social media platform Strava to share inspiration. We hope you’ll enjoy listening to the conversation, whatever exercise you...
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Mastering Intensive Challenges - Run Larapinta - Episode 3
Mastering Intensive Care
This is a follow on episode as Ed Litton and I continue our discussion about the Run Larapinta Stage Race we will be participating in soon. Ed and I tell each other how our running training is going. Then we talk about our general views on nutrition and sleep, especially as we lead into a multi-day endurance event. One of us has picked up a little niggle. And each of us has a different approach to what we consume during long runs. It might not be what we talk about on regular episodes of Mastering Intensive Care but we hope you’ll enjoy listening to the conversation, whether you run, walk,...
info_outlineThe physical, mental and emotional burden of the COVID-19 pandemic on Intensive Care clinicians has been colossal. Many ICU staff, of all types and at all levels, have suffered significant psychological effects.
After hearing the pandemic experiences and perspectives of bedside clinicians in recent episodes, the focus of today’s episode is a clinical psychologist who’s been working inside several busy ICUs and supported hundreds of people across the United Kingdom during the pandemic.
In this fourth episode of the “Persevering Through A Pandemic” series, you’ll hear the thoughts of Dr Julie Highfield who has led a national UK-based wellbeing program in response to COVID-19. Dr Highfield works as a consultant clinical psychologist in several ICUs in Wales and has an additional role as the National Wellbeing Director for the Intensive Care Society in the UK.
In this episode Julie talks about:
- The first year of the pandemic feeling like the best and worst year of her life
- Her witnessing of ICU staff “just getting on with it” and “shelving their feelings”
- The types of support she provided – in both her local ICUs and across the UK
- Which support worked best for which staff
- The value of one-on-one sessions - yet their impracticality in a pandemic
- The types of group sessions she led
- Two typical examples of who Julie has been supporting
- What surprised her about the ICU teams
- The rise in the number of UK ICUs with a clinical psychologist
- The value of having a clinical psychologist embedded in an ICU
- How Julie fared herself during the height of the pandemic
- Her thoughts on the restrictions to visitors caused by COVID-19
- The lingering effects of this pandemic
- Advice for people who are considering championing wellbeing in their ICUs.
The culture around wellbeing in our ICUs is slowly changing and the effects of the COVID-19 may accelerate this. A good psychologist is vital to stimulating that change and to providing valuable assistance.
My hope is that this episode, as part of a focused series of episodes, will help Intensive Care clinicians to reflect on their own experiences and to learn valuable lessons about psychological aspects of the pandemic. Thank you for listening to the wise and supportive Dr Julie Highfield, an ideal person to share perspectives on how ICU clinicians have been “Persevering Through A Pandemic”.
Andrew Davies
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About the Mastering Intensive Care podcast: The podcast aims to inspire and empower Intensive Care clinicians through conversations about the human side of Intensive Care to bring their best selves to work by focusing on compassion, collaboration and personal wellbeing.
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Links to featured guests
Julie Highfield on Twitter @DrJulie_H
Wellbeing Hub at Intensive Care Society website
Psychologists In Critical Care UK (PINC-UK)
Links related to Mastering Intensive Care podcast
Mastering Intensive Care podcast
Mastering Intensive Care page on Facebook
Mastering Intensive Care at Life In The Fast Lane
Andrew Davies on Twitter: @andrewdavies66
Andrew Davies on Instagram: @andrewdavies66