‘Practice’ is about building a skillset, and fostering a way of life (via ‘immersion’) that serves to strengthen perception of one’s available resources when crunch time arrives. However, reality dictates that certain scenarios are impossible to prepare for, particularly in the emergency medicine arena. The more chaotic the workplace, the higher the frequency of unavoidable threat appraisals. Therefore, it is crucial […]
‘Why tomorrow’s patient needs a digital NHS’
Dr Robert Lloyd @PonderingEM is our MC – he’s talking of the front line challenges in the NHS #DHLcollaborate pic.twitter.com/7cCmubkm82 — Keith Grimes (@keithgrimes) February 22, 2017 On February 22, I had the honour of compèring an event that brought together NHS leaders, senior clinicians and digital entrepreneurs – #DHLcollaborate. It was the one-year summit of DigitalHealth.London, an organisation […]
‘My Mental Toughness Manifesto’ Part 2: PRACTICE
In MMTM Part 1, two-step cognitive appraisals were explained. This process dictates whether one enters a challenged or threatened mindset in the event where an immediate performance is required under acute stress. Feeling challenged, of course, is one of the two chief components of a mentally tough individual. “I am 100% committed” “I feel challenged” In this post, we […]
‘My Mental Toughness Manifesto’ Part 1: Cognitive Appraisals
It has been an exciting period for me recently. Last month I was at the International Special Training Centre (ISTC) in Pfullendorf, Germany, where I had the honour of speaking to a group of Special Operations Combat Medics in-training from eleven nations across NATO. Staying at the base, meeting the guys, and contributing to their fantastic 26-week […]
Resources for ISTC NSOCM students
This is a post intended for the NSOCM students I presented to last week at the ISTC The title of my session was: ‘Practice, Perform, Process’: Strategies for Building Mental Toughness. Here are some of the resources I used to design the session, which I believe will be useful for you guys. Books On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology […]
The ‘Deliberate Practice Mindset’
Performance improvement is an interest of mine. I have previously blogged and podcasted about the strategies I employed to lift my game (from rock-bottom) when working in an extreme environment – a South African township ED. I first became aware of ‘deliberate practice’ after reading an excellent St. Emlyn’s post last year. I had never encountered […]
EMJ Blog – What do Emergency Medicine and Donald J. Trump have in common?
In the aftermath of Donald J. Trump’s US Presidential election victory, I expressed outrage via my keyboard. That led to the creation of a blog post that’s now published on the EMJ Blog. In the post, I use the Trump phenomenon as a vehicle for discussing the alarming lack of basic human decency that I witness on an almost […]
