Blog
Enhancing Your Emotional Intelligence: A Practical Guide
In our busy daily lives, we often find ourselves navigating through a complex web of emotions, our own and those of others. In the grand tapestry of personal and professional growth, one skill stands out as a guiding force, helping us weave through the challenges and triumphs with finesse: Emotional Intelligence (EI). Imagine a world where self-awareness, empathy, and effective communication are not just buzzwords but pillars supporting your journey to success. Emotional intelligence is the secret sauce that transforms mundane interactions into meaningful connections, shaping the way we perceive ourselves and others. As we delve into the realms of EI, it becomes clear that it is not just a skill but a powerful tool that can elevate every facet of our lives. Emotional intelligence is a cornerstone for healthcare professionals, shaping your ability to provide compassionate, patient-centred care, collaborate effectively within teams, and navigate the emotional complexities inherent in the healthcare environment. Whether you’re aiming for career advancement, nurturing relationships, or simply seeking personal fulfilment, honing your emotional intelligence opens doors to opportunities you might not have imagined. Let’s embark on a journey to unravel the mysteries of EI, exploring practical steps that can transform the way you navigate […]
Empowering Excellence: The Impact of Strong Nursing Leadership on Patient Care
Effective leadership in nursing is essential for creating a supportive and efficient healthcare environment. Listed below are eight ways in which enhancing nurses’ leadership skills can contribute to improved patient care: Communication: Strong leadership skills help nurses communicate more effectively with patients, their families, and other members of the healthcare team. Clear and open communication promotes better understanding of patient needs and facilitates collaboration among healthcare professionals. Team Collaboration: Nurses with strong leadership skills can foster a collaborative and cohesive healthcare team. A well-coordinated team is better equipped to provide comprehensive care, address patient needs, and respond to changes in a patient’s condition promptly. Critical Thinking: Leadership training often includes developing critical thinking skills. Nurses who can think critically are better equipped to assess complex situations, make informed decisions, and respond quickly to changes in a patient’s condition, leading to improved patient outcomes. Conflict Resolution: Leadership skills include the ability to manage conflicts effectively. Nurses who can address and resolve conflicts within the healthcare team create a more positive work environment, which can directly impact the quality of patient care. Decision-Making: Strong leaders in nursing are adept at making timely and well-informed decisions. Quick and accurate decision-making is crucial in […]
Medworld: Medical leadership applied as an ICU Doctor during Covid-19
The global disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the effects of the increasing demand on healthcare systems as well as highlighting both abilities and areas requiring additional coordination and development. As seen in the media, the pandemic has unveiled the central role of healthcare systems and how it makes a difference in human lives. However, more importantly, during these times it is the leadership skills, adaptability and resilience of the healthcare professionals and hospital board members that have a central role in leading successful and safe working environments. I believe that the pandemic has underlined the importance of the combined knowledge and expertise of healthcare professionals from different professional backgrounds, to support a working environment that many of us never experienced before. The pandemic itself is incredibly stressful for healthcare professionals as we have had to distance ourselves from our families to keep them safe as well as fearing for our safety by looking after patients infected with the Covid-19 virus. Going to work at the hospital also means following certain routines such as having a temperature check, only entering the hospital via certain entrances and wearing face masks at all times. It also means that we […]
The Study Budget for Doctors in Training
The study budget covers: Courses and education activities to support you achieving the curriculum Courses to help you prepare for postgraduate exams Discretionary courses that add value to you individually and support the wider system There is no annual limit to the study budget. This will insure you will receive the funding you need to progress through your speciality curriculum for the entire length of your course. Generation Leader courses can be covered by your study budget How to access the study budget: To access the study budget you should discuss this with your educational supervisor or line manager. A guide from Health Education England To help with you study budget application, we have created a template: Dear (Insert name of Educational Supervisor/Training Programme Director), This letter is to request access to funding from the study budget as I have recently purchased a certified leadership course. This course is a medical management and leadership course that supports me in achieving the curriculum. It also qualifies as a discretionary course that adds value to me individually and supports the wider system. According to Health Education England a course must meet these requirements in order for the costs to be covered by the […]
Medical Report Writing
How proficient are you at medical report writing? As doctors, writing a medical report is a skill we are required to possess. Often, we’re requested to write medical reports for: •Insurance companies •Patient inter-or intrahospital transfers •Patients •Legal purposes Knowing how to structure a comprehensive medical report is therefore essential. It also demonstrates our: •Communication skills •Ability to summarise a patient’s conditions •Ability to produce differential diagnosis •Ability to include relevant medical information and physical examination findings •Ability to provide a plan for continuing management It also provides an opportunity for us to showcase our critical thinking abilities and comprehension of a patient’s condition. Particularly for any interhospital transfer, the skill of writing a medical report is of the utmost importance for patient safety, as you the treating clinician, will know a great deal about the patient. Learn how to structure a medical report on the Medical Leader Programme. About Generation Leader Generation Leader provides the most innovative, relevant and impactful online healthcare management and leadership courses for healthcare professionals. Our courses are aligned to the leadership curricula of the UK’s Royal Colleges and made specifically for healthcare professionals. Our courses have been created by medical doctors who know how […]
What Makes a Great Doctor?
We put this question to Mr Shahnawaz Rasheed, a leading Consultant Colorectal Surgeon based at The Royal Marsden Hospital. “The way I classify outstanding doctors is in the following 6 categories: Relationships -How do I interact with my colleagues and other specialists, both junior and senior? -What am I like? How do I communicate? Am I good at building rapport with patients? Attitude -Do you look after patients like they are members of your own family? -Attitude is the most difficult category to train Skills -How do you assess patients and how well do you perform all your clinical duties? Knowledge -It’s great to be a fantastic communicator but you need to have the knowledge to underpin your communication. You need to understand what you’re talking about. -You have to maintain the knowledge of the area that you’re working in, this is absolutely essential. Meticulousness -Attention to detail is essential. -It’s not good enough to make one correct diagnosis every ten patients we see. With every single patient the level of the attention to detail has to be there throughout the whole time you manage a patient. Empathy -Kindness is essential. We do this job to serve […]
Transitioning From Registrar To Consultant: Here’s What To Expect
It’s been 18 months since I completed my training at the Royal Free Hospital in London. I took 6 months out to travel and recharge then transitioned into a locum consultant role. The process was smooth for me as I was familiar with the environment and how the hospital functions and operates. “You always have the feeling that you’re not ready to become a consultant. I think that’s normal and natural” I was apprehensive about transitioning into a consultant job. You find a lot of people who are senior registrars who try to do other things to delay the consultant posting. You always have the feeling that you’re not ready to become a consultant, but my advice would be to take that step. You don’t need to know everything, and you don’t need to be perfect. Even as a consultant you’re still learning and growing each day and you still go to your senior colleagues for advice and support. There has to be a recognition that when you’re transitioning it will be uncomfortable, but you need to embrace that feeling of discomfort. Periods of discomfort in our careers tend to be the times when we learn and grow the most, […]
How to structure your ward round
Trainees might experience ward rounds as service orientated with little time for teaching. However, they are important in developing skills in patient management, requesting appropriate and timely investigations and physical examinations. The quality of teaching and learning is of course impacted by high volumes of workload [4]. The Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM) conducted a survey in 2017, consisting of 400 respondents which highlighted that 71% of junior doctors had experienced situations which required them to possess leadership and management skills within their working day [3]. This demonstrates the prevalence of these skills and the importance of their applicability within the daily work of a junior doctor. Their ongoing development and daily practice is essential. Trainee doctors might feel their job mainly is about service provision and may feel undervalued and unsupported. However, their job on the ward is important as their input has a large impact on the patient’s day to day management. There are many learning opportunities, which can be highlighted by changing the structure of how ward rounds are carried out. Suggestions on how to structure your ward round 1 – Shared mental model from all team members; doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, social […]
The Things All Doctors Need to Know About Ward Rounds
After qualifying as a doctor, you soon begin to understand the central role a ward round carries within your day. This is of course assuming that there are no emergencies requiring your immediate attention. As monotonous and time consuming as they may be, ward rounds are integral to managing inpatients, are central to hospital care and have been part of our job for over a century. What happens during a ward round? During a ward round the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment plans for each patient take place and they also serve as a method by which medical trainees and junior doctors areeducated. In practice, from my own experience as a junior doctor, ward rounds consist of; a group of healthcare professionals huddled around the patient’s bedspace with the junior doctor juggling patient notes and blood results, taking notes, presenting the patient and management to date, carrying out clinical examinations and completing radiology request forms. Unfortunately, the opportunity to learn from senior team members is often lost in the pursuit of a smooth ward round. Immediately after a ward round the consultants and senior registrars return to clinic, theatres and medical take in A&E and therefore further learning opportunities are lost. […]
How do I Break Bad News to Patients and Their Families?
Do you worry about having to break bad news to patients and their families? As healthcare professionals breaking bad news is part of our role. “Regardless of which specialty you’re in, knowing how to break bad news is a very important skill to develop and falls under the wider skill of communication. Whatever field you’re in being a good communicator with your patients and their relatives is important.” Generation Leader founder and Intensive Care Doctor, Hanieh Asadi, interviewed Consultant Intensivist, Dr Adrian Steele, to gain his insights and tips in tacking this discipline. Understanding how to tackle real life challenges by learning from current senior practitioners is key, as is the sharing of collective intelligence so we hope you find this article valuable. The full masterclass is available on the Medical Leader Programme. “Depending on your discipline it’s fundamental.” It’s something that matters an awful lot to families. The importance of knowing how to break bad news becomes more important as you get older, partly because other duties become more routine and partly because you’ve probably been in the situation where you’ve had bad news broken yourself, so you see how crucial it is,” says Dr Steele. As you get […]
How to Lead a High Performing Clinical Team
Generation Leader founder and Intensive Care Doctor, Hanieh Asadi, interviewed renowned Consultant Neurosurgeon, Mr Kevin O’Neill, around the topic of leading teams for effective performance within the clinical setting. Understanding how to tackle real life challenges by learning from current senior practitioners is key, as is the sharing of collective intelligence, so we hope you find this article valuable. The full masterclass is available on our platform. Question 1: What does effective team performance mean to you? “As a neurosurgeon performance is pertinent, both as an individual and particularly on a team level.” In order to answer this we have to understand what the team’s objectives are and what we are trying to achieve. Once this has been determined an objective outcome measure can be devised. “The core objective is patient centred. I always start with the patient pathway which then allows me to design an exemplar pathway based on what we can give the patient at that time. From this you can then determine what you need in terms of people and the different skillsets required,” says Mr O’Neill. “Very often the key element is getting the team together as resources as often limited.” Question 2: “What do you […]
Why Junior Doctors Need to Develop Leadership Skills
At Medical School the emphasis is on acquiring theoretical knowledge and developing clinical skills. It turns out however, that we are not taught some of the most important skills to succeed in our industry – management and leadership skills. During our undergraduate training in medical school, we are taught how to tackle medical emergencies and practical procedures in order to prepare us for our first hospital placements as doctors. Quickly we start understanding the amount of responsibility and the number of teams we are involved in and interact with on a daily basis. Not having any prior experience in leading teams, we fall back on the only way we know how to lead – giving orders and expecting our team and patients to comply. This method will shift the majority of the responsibilities of patient care on us but most importantly we will fall short in coping mechanisms during those times. It is not surprising that skills such as; knowing how to communicate with patients, relatives and colleagues, prioritising, ensuring patient safety through innovation, leading our own teams effectively and delegating are essential and if remain unrecognised, will lead to physician burnout and job dissatisfaction. “Developing Management and Leadership skills […]