Mastering Intensive Care 017 with Flavia Machado

LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog Flavia Machado – Improving communication, saying “I don’t know” and working with limited resources (DasSMACC special episode) Do you say “I don’t know” when you really don’t have an answer? Might seeking that knowledge help your patients? This is just one component of a wonderful conversation I held with Professor Flavia Machado when I interviewed her at the recent DasSMACC conference in Berlin. Flavia is doing a great job at raising the awareness of sepsis globally but her other great job is in running a large Intensive Care department in Sao Paolo, Brazil, where she told me that the resources are quite limited. To deal with this challenge she believes optimal communication is vital. How does Flavia lead her ICU on the issue of communication? She does this (1) by having an environment where her team members can ask important questions, (2) by using the WhatsApp messenger app on smartphones, (3) by teaching trainees using courses on how to break bad news, how to speak with families, and how to deal with doctors who have different clinical opinions, and (4) by saying “I don’t know” when finding the knowledge will help the patient. Flavia is the Professor of Intensive Care at the Federal University of São Paulo in São Paulo where she is Head of the Intensive Care Section of the Anesthesiology, Pain...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Intensive Care Mastering Intensive Care Andrew Davies communication flavi machado limited resources Source Type: blogs