NextGen Learning To Elevate Your Airway Practice
Listen Here
The Effects of Stress
You know what to do, but the mind betrays us in a moment of need. This is usually because we neglected to confront the impact of acute stress on performance. Fortunately, there are ways to inoculate ourselves against that stress response.
Listen Here
Identify Stress-Related Killers
Stress can degrade your performance in specific ways. Here we highlight three stress related killers often seen in failed airway scenarios so you can recognize them in yourself or your team members, and be better prepared to deal with them when the situation arises.
Performance Training
Here are four techniques you can use to enhance your performance under pressure. Each method provides you with all the resources for self-guided practice and in-person learning in our performance lab.
box breathing
- Listen to the intro audio 🎧
- Use the GIF to practice 🫁
- Use it before any procedure
visualization skills
- Listen to the intro audio 🎧
- Watch FONA procedure video
- Use guided audio to visualize
- Then try it without the audio
10 Points
positive self talk
- Listen to the intro audio 🎧
- Write down 3 positive self-talk phrases
- Practice using them
triggers
- Listen to the intro audio 🎧
- Write down a trigger phrase
- Practice using it
Incrementalize
When faced with a complex and challenging clinical situation, the ultimate objective of stabilizing your patient can feel overwhelming. The concept of incrementalization—breaking an enormous task into smaller, manageable components can streamline workflows, enhance team communication, and facilitate cognitive offloading during difficult situations. Let’s dive into ways incrementalization works in stressful, situationally difficult airways.
1. Task Decomposition in Patient Care
- Division of Responsibilities: Assigning specific roles (e.g., primary physician, nurse, respiratory therapist) to ensure clear accountability.
- Role Assignment: Breaking down responsibilities (e.g., airway management, medication administration, scribe) allows each team member to focus on a specific task, reducing cognitive load and increasing efficiency.
- Stepwise Management: Addressing immediate life-threatening issues first (e.g., securing the airway) before progressing to stabilization and long-term care.
- Checklist Utilization: Using checklists (e.g., pre-intubation checklist) to ensure all critical steps are completed, reducing the risk of oversight.
2. Team Communication
- Closed-Loop Communication: This ensures that instructions are received and understood, with team members repeating back orders. For example, “Administer 1 mg of epinephrine” followed by “1 mg of epinephrine given” confirms the task is completed accurately.
- Briefings and Debriefings: Pre- and post-procedure briefings break down complex scenarios into planned actions and reflections, promoting shared understanding and continuous improvement.
- SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation): This framework segments communication into clear components, ensuring concise and structured information exchange.
3. Cognitive Offloading
- Task Prioritization: Identifying and sequencing critical interventions—such as stabilizing vitals before ordering diagnostics—helps manage workload and focus on immediate priorities.
- Cognitive Aids: Using reference cards, protocols, or decision trees reduces the mental burden by providing structured guidance (e.g., ACLS algorithms during resuscitation).
- Team Updates: Frequent, brief check-ins allow team members to offload updates and adjustments, collectively refining the approach to patient care.
4. Iterative Decision-Making
- Dynamic Assessment: Continuously reassessing the patient’s condition (e.g., after each intervention) and adjusting the plan based on incremental changes supports a responsive and adaptive care approach.
- Stepwise Escalation: Starting with less invasive interventions and escalating based on patient response (e.g., oxygen therapy to intubation) provides a controlled way to manage complex situations.
5. Collaborative Workflow
- Delegation and Support: Know your team. Senior providers may delegate tasks incrementally, allowing junior staff to handle manageable components while offering supervision and support.
Lean on Your Team
it’s not all on you
Learning to manage stress is essential, but reducing it is also vital. Your team is an important resource if you know how to use it. Developing techniques for team communication that can support cognitive offloading and improve your bandwidth is part of cultivating a Fearless FONA mindset.
Summary
Enter the Stress Lab
for performance training
All of these techniques can be practiced with team partners and coaches in our performance lab during in-person PAC Live! Events. Check out the space and the series of performance-enhancing exercises built into the program to take your skills to the next level.
BEAT THE STRESS
Our in-person stress lab is designed to help you put your new skills to the test and innoculate you against the effects of time-dependent procedure related stress. Come visit.
What’s Next
Find Or Click Me
Nice work—you’re through this section! To keep going, scan the QR code on the physical poster at the next station in our pop-up training space to access the next set of digital content. Prefer to stay online? Just click the poster image here to continue your journey.
Online Only
If you can’t be with us in person, you can still use this enhanced digital content as an online course. Visit the digital home page of this learning space by using the link below. Otherwise, head to the next poster above to continue through the physical learning space.
Reference – Psychological Skills to Improve Emergency Care
Providers’ Performance Under Stress
Michael J. Lauria, BA, NRP, FP-C*; Isabelle A. Gallo; Lt Col Stephen Rush, MD;
Jason Brooks, PhD, MSc; Rory Spiegel, MD; Scott D. Weingart, MD
You must be logged in to post a comment.