Undermining in ED - A common sight

Hi all

This us again not an original article written by me. but found this article too good, not to reshare. Ill share the link to the orginal article at the end of the post.

Having seen this in and out of department since day 1 of working in corporate hospital , felt nice as I found more literature on this topic. I am yet to study in detail about it. A gist of articles and tools you can use to make your or your colleagues life easy. 

I would be surprised if you told me that you've never seen or experienced it at some point of your career.But we can work towards making the life easier for our colleagues just by acknowledging it. It happens in the ED , ICU , wards everywhere.

 

Being a healthcare professional is about lifelong learning, and occasionally getting things wrong. We have a duty to provide feedback to colleagues about this and take on board feedback ourselves. Sometimes when feedback is given, with the intention of improving competence and confidence over the long term, confidence can take a hit in the short term.

You are in handover at the end of your shift. The supervising consultant makes comments about the management plan you have instigated for every patient. The comments are all negative though you can’t identify anything in particular that you have done wrong.

The consultant here may think they are providing feedback, but the public space and lack of any constructive criticism mean that it is unlikely to be interpreted in these terms. The timing is also poor, unless something is safety critical it is rarely helpful or necessary to provide this information when someone is exhausted at the end of their shift.

Every time you are in handover with this particular consultant you experience similar things. You begin to dread these shifts and avoid picking up patients for fear of the criticism you will inevitably receive.

Undermining is a common experience. One of the free-text response to the 2020 EMTA Survey highlights one reason why this might be the case:

“Sometimes people do undermining, not even realising, when under stress. Managing stress on the shop floor is skill, especially when understaffed.”

Undermining can be unintentional. It can even occur despite our best intentions. So, how do you stop yourself from undermining a colleague? Reading this was a great start, but you can do more.

If you identify that you have undermined, what can you do to improve? Try and check how your feedback has landed.

Being guilty of undermining someone does not make you a bad person or a lousy emergency physician. But ignoring the problem and failing to try and improve it may very well be a red flag that you are struggling.

Civility saves lives campaign

http://ow.ly/RfaK50K6wzA

EM Leadership Module 

http://ow.ly/RfaK50K6wzA

Improving workplace behaviours

http://ow.ly/RfaK50K6wzA

Undermining in ED- original article

https://www.rcemlearning.co.uk/foamed/undermining-in-the-emergency-department/

So far so much