REBEL MIND Ep7 - Growth vs Fixed Mindset in Medicine
REBEL Cast
🔑Key Points 🌱 Growth mindset transforms learning – Residents and students who believe skills can be developed are more open to feedback, more resilient after failure, and more engaged in practice. 🧠 Language matters in feedback – Simple reframes such as “You’re developing procedural skills” instead of “You’re not strong at procedures” encourage persistence and normalize the learning curve. 🤝 Mindset shapes team culture – Growth mindset leaders foster psychological safety, invite input, and create collaborative teams. Fixed...
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REBEL MIND Ep6 – How to Sleep When the World Says You Can’t
REBEL Cast
🔑Key Points ☕ Try the coffee nap! Where you combine caffeine and a 30-minute nap to then have that boost energy and alertness by the time it kicks in. 💤 Sleep isn’t optional—it’s crucial for memory, mood regulation, and physical recovery. It is fundamentally different from rest ❌ Replacing sleep with caffeine isn’t effective and can have negative health impacts. Make getting enough sleep a priority 🌞 Sunlight exposure is important for maintaining circadian rhythms and sleep quality. This applies even if you work as a nocturnist 💡 Creating a personalized sleep...
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REBEL MIND Ep5 - Applying Performance Science In and Out of the Emergency Department
REBEL Cast
📌 Key Points 🔍 Understanding the Why: The significance of understanding underlying causes, beyond initial diagnoses, in both sports and emergency medicine is explored. ⏱️ Recovery Focus: Emphasizing the importance of recovery time and small daily choices in optimizing performance for both athletes and emergency physicians. 📊 Data-Driven Insights: The Arena Labs approach uses personalized data, leveraging wearable technology and expert coaching to tackle burnout and enhance well-being. 🤝 Personalization and Partnership: Arena Labs’ collaboration with emergency...
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REBEL Core Cast 150.0: Emergency Medicine Consults: How to Call a Consult + Handle Pushback
REBEL Cast
In this episode of Rebel Core Content, Swami breaks down one of the most important (and most underrated) skills in emergency medicine: how to give a clean, effective consult—and what to do when you get pushback. Learn a simple 4-step framework to structure every consult (introduce yourself, lead with the ask, give a focused summary, and close the loop), plus ready-to-use scripts for common scenarios. We also cover how to respond to refusals, keep conversations professional, and escalate appropriately when patient safety or disposition is at risk.
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REBEL CAST: The RSI Trial – Ketamine vs Etomidate in Rapid Sequence Intubation
REBEL Cast
REBEL Cast: The RSI Trial — Ketamine vs Etomidate in Critically Ill Adults In this episode, we break down the 2025 NEJM RSI trial comparing ketamine and etomidate for tracheal intubation in critically ill adults (Casey et al., PMID: 41369227). This multicenter randomized trial enrolled 2,365 patients across ED and ICU settings and asked a clinically important question: does ketamine improve 28-day mortality compared with etomidate? What we cover: Primary outcome: no statistically significant difference in 28-day mortality Secondary signal: higher “cardiovascular collapse” with...
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REBEL CAST - RENOVATE Trial: HFNC vs BPAP in Acute Respiratory Failure
REBEL Cast
📌 Key Points 💨 HFNC met criteria for non-inferiority to BPAP for preventing intubation or death within 7 days in four of the five ARF subgroups. 🧪 Bayesian dynamic borrowing increased power across subgroups but created variable certainty, especially in smaller groups such as COPD. 🫁 The immunocompromised hypoxemia subgroup did not meet non-inferiority, leading to early trial stopping for futility. ⚖️ Rescue BPAP use, subgroup-specific exclusion criteria, and non-standardized BPAP delivery are important contextual factors that influence...
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REBEL MIND Ep4 – Rest Is Not Sleep: The Seven Dimensions of True Recovery
REBEL Cast
🗝️Key Points Rest isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity and differs significantly from sleep in terms of mental and physical recovery needs. Uncovering the seven types of rest can highlight diverse needs: physical, mental, sensory, creative, emotional, social, and spiritual. Rest from high-stress environments such as the ED is crucial for reducing exhaustion, enhancing decision-making, and maintaining empathy. The necessity for intentional rest: tailor your rest strategies to meet personal recharge needs effectively. Rest should be deserved, not...
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REBEL Core Cast 149: Review of Corticosteroids in Community-Acquired Pneumonia
REBEL Cast
🗝️ Key Points 💉 Hydrocortisone Saves Lives: The 2023 Cape Cod Trial (NEJM) showed a clear mortality benefit and reduced need for intubation in severe CAP patients treated with hydrocortisone. 📊 Guidelines Are Catching Up: The SCCM (2024) and ERS now recommend steroids for severe CAP, while ATS/IDSA updates are still pending. 🔥 Redefining “Severe”: Patients requiring high FiO₂ (>50%), noninvasive or mechanical ventilation, or PSI >130 meet criteria for steroid therapy — even outside the ICU. 🍬 Main Risk = Hyperglycemia: Elevated glucose was the most...
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REBEL CAST – IncrEMentuM26 Speaker Spotlight : Drs. Sara Crager and Ryan Ernst
REBEL Cast
📝Introduction Welcome to this special edition of the REBEL Cast, where we unravel key highlights and educational insights from the IncrEMentuM Conference in Spain. This event is a cornerstone for advancing emergency medicine education, drawing esteemed speakers and participants from around the globe. As emergency medicine gains traction in Spain, this conference has become an essential platform for knowledge exchange and professional growth. Today, host Dr. Mark Ramzy shines a spotlight on two phenomenal educators: Drs. Sara Crager and Ryan Ernst who shared their expertise and...
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REBEL MIND Ep3 - Performance Coaching in Medicine
REBEL Cast
📌 Key Points 💪 Building Resilience: Rebel MIND, in partnership with Arena Labs, introduces a science-based performance coaching platform specifically tailored for healthcare professionals, focusing on stress management and burnout prevention. 🤝 Personal Insights: Jackie Penn shares her journey from exercise science to digital coaching, highlighting the importance of tailored coaching in high-pressure environments like healthcare. 🎯 Clinician-Centric Approach: Understanding unique challenges faced by ER doctors, the program provides practical tools for stress and transition...
info_outline🔑Key Points
- 🌱 Growth mindset transforms learning – Residents and students who believe skills can be developed are more open to feedback, more resilient after failure, and more engaged in practice.
- 🧠 Language matters in feedback – Simple reframes such as “You’re developing procedural skills” instead of “You’re not strong at procedures” encourage persistence and normalize the learning curve.
- 🤝 Mindset shapes team culture – Growth mindset leaders foster psychological safety, invite input, and create collaborative teams. Fixed mindset hierarchies, on the other hand, silence voices and can compromise patient care.
- 🔥 Growth mindset protects against burnout – By reframing mistakes as part of the process, clinicians reduce perfectionism and shame, bolstering resilience and wellness.
- 🔍 Practical steps start with self-talk – Add the word “yet” to limiting beliefs (“I’m not good at X…yet”) and shift feedback questions toward improvement (“What’s one thing I can do better next time?”).
- 🛠️ Embracing mistakes with a growth mindset – Leads to more effective feedback loops and improvement do this by building a culture of psychological safety is crucial for growth and reducing medical errors.
👀Previously Covered and Related Content:
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- REBEL EM: The EM Mindset
- REBEL EM: Titles Dont Make Leaders
- REBEL EM: Mind of the Resuscitationist with Scott Weingart
- EM Crit: Making Things Happen with Cliff Reid
📝 Introduction
Welcome to this episode of REBEL MIND, where MIND stands for Mastering Internal Negativity during Difficulty. Here we sharpen the person behind the practitioner by focusing on things that improve our performance, optimizing team dynamics and the human behavior that embodies the hidden curriculum of medicine.
Mindset shapes everything we do in medicine—from how we teach and learn to how we show up for patients at the bedside. Drawing from Carol Dweck’s influential book Mindset, this episode of REBEL MIND explores the critical difference between a fixed mindset (believing abilities are innate and static) and a growth mindset (seeing skills as things that can be developed through effort and feedback).
We sat down with Dr. Kim Bambach, an emergency medicine physician and medical educator, and Dr. Frank Lodeserto, a dual-trained intensivist and internal medicine program director, to unpack how mindset influences medical education, bedside performance, and physician wellness. In this episode, we delve into how the mindset of clinicians can profoundly influence their performance, professional growth, and ultimately patient care
🤔Cognitive Question
How does adopting a growth versus a fixed mindset influence clinical performance, medical education and patient outcomes?
🌱What is Growth vs Fixed Mindset?
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- In Carol Dweck’s research, two primary mindsets are highlighted:
- Fixed mindset: Which sees intelligence and skills as static
- In the medical field, adopting a fixed mindset might lead a clinician to avoid complex cases due to fear of failure.
- Growth mindset: Which views abilities as improvable through dedication and effort.
- In contrast, a growth mindset encourages embracing challenges as opportunities for learning and development.
- Fixed mindset: Which sees intelligence and skills as static
- In Carol Dweck’s research, two primary mindsets are highlighted:
🏥How This Applies to the Emergency Department or ICU?
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- In high-stakes environments like the ICU or the ED, the mindset adopted by healthcare providers can distinctly shape patient care and team dynamics.
- A fixed mindset might lead to defensive behaviors and a reluctance to engage in challenging cases, potentially stunting personal and professional growth.
- Conversely, a growth mindset not only fosters resilience and adaptability but also enhances team collaboration and patient outcomes by encouraging open communication, continuous learning, and acceptance of constructive feedback.
⏩Immediate Action Steps for Your Next Shift
- **Monitor Self-Talk**: Notice your internal narrative when faced with challenges. Replace negative, fixed-mindset thoughts with growth-oriented ones like “Not yet” or “What can I learn from this?”
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**Promote a Culture of Inquiry**: Challenge yourself and your team to engage in constructive questioning and explore alternative diagnoses or treatment plans to encourage a growth-centered environment.
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**Model Vulnerability**: Share personal learning experiences and mistakes with colleagues to normalize the growth process and reduce the stigma of imperfection.
- **Reframe Feedback**: Instead of broadly asking, “How did I do?” inquire, “What’s one thing I can improve on next time?” This shift helps maintain focus on growth rather than performance validation
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- Feedback is a whole another topic that we plan to have dedicated episodes and blog posts. This is an area where sometimes faculty struggle and often learners are asking for more/improved feedback.
💬Conclusion
Cultivating a growth mindset in medicine isn’t merely about staying positive; it’s about embracing continuous learning in the face of challenges. It involves creating supportive environments that encourage vulnerability, experimentation, and resilience. By adopting these practices, clinicians can improve not just personal competencies but also enhance patient care quality and safety.
🚨 Clinical Bottom Line
Clinicians who embrace a growth mindset not only enhance their skills but also contribute to a more dynamic, adaptive, and error-resilient healthcare environment. Remember, the best clinicians are those who never stop learning, not the ones who never make mistakes.
📚Further Reading and References
- Claro S, Paunesku D, Dweck CS.
Growth mindset tempers the effects of poverty on academic achievement. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Aug 2. Epub 2016 Jul 18.
PMID: 27432947 - Hopkins SR, et al.
Trainee growth vs. fixed mindset in clinical learning environments: enhancing, hindering and goldilocks factors. BMC Med Educ. 2024 Oct 23
PMID: 39443909 - Memari M, Gavinski K, Norman MK.
Beware False Growth Mindset: Building Growth Mindset in Medical Education Is Essential but Complicated. Acad Med. 2024 Mar 1. Epub 2023 Aug 30.
PMID: 37643577
Cite this article as: Mark Ramzy, "REBEL MIND – Growth vs Fixed Mindset in Medicine", REBEL EM blog, November 28, 2025. Available at: https://rebelem.com/rebel-mind-growth-vs-fixed-mindset-in-medicine