9. The Problem
• Under stress, we have a suboptimal response
• Classic steps to correct :
– Denying the problem
– Put the blame on the motivation of the
individual or on their quality
– Augment our theorical knowledge
– Review the procedures or guidelines
10. The Problem
• In a crisis
– It’s hard to think clearly
– It’s hard to keep track of what is done and
what is to be done
– We forget to do things we know we have to do
– We get lost in the situation
• It’s not about value, or knowledge or motivation
11. Solution
• If we can understand how our brain works, we can
understand how to improve our response
17. Cognitive psychology
• System 2 is rational, slow, well thought, it's the one
trained during medical education.
– Based on knowledge
– Conscious process
– Analytic
– Slow
• System 1 takes over in stressful situations, in fatigue
or in unknown situations
19. Situational awareness
• We think that we have a good perception of our
environment, that’s a mistake, it’s a big challenge
20. Situational awareness
• In a crisis situation we need to find, choose,
integrate, interpret and organise information
Raw Data Useful, organised
21. Example
• Desaturation
• Elevated peak pressure
• Beautiful nurse
• Hypotension
• Tachycardia
• Race control on the
radio
• Peanut allergy
• Tear and blood in suit
• Rapid extrication
• Media at the door
• Desaturation
• Elevated peak pressure
• Beautiful nurse
• Hypotension
• Tachycardia
• Race control on the
radio
• Peanut allergy
• Tear and blood in suit
• Rapid extrication
• Media at the door
22. Example
• Desaturation
• Elevated peak pressure
• Beautiful nurse
• Hypotension
• Tachycardia
• Race control on the
radio
• Peanut allergy
• Tear and blood in suit
• Rapid extrication
• Media at the door
• Desaturation
• Elevated peak pressure
• Hypotension
• Tachycardia
• Tear and blood in suit
23. Example
• Poor response to 100%
O2, fluids and even
vasopressors
• Desaturation
• Elevated peak pressure
• Hypotension
• Tachycardia
• Tear and blood in suit
24. Example
• Poor response to 100%
O2, fluids and even
vasopressors
• Tension pneumothorax,
need to be
decompressed
25. Example
• Desaturation
• Elevated peak pressure
• Beautiful nurse
• Hypotension
• Tachycardia
• Race control on the
radio
• Peanut allergy
• Tear and blood in suit
• Rapid extrication
• Media at the door
• Tension pneumothorax,
need to be
decompressed
26. Situational awareness
• To maintain a good perception of our environment in
a crisis is a real challenge
• It requires a big cognitive effort
• Loss of situational awareness is at the origin of
many mistakes in a crisis
27. Our difficulties
1. The system 1 is limited facing complex
situations but it’s the one that naturally
overtakes our decision process during
crisis
2. Maintaining a good mental image of
the situation (big picture) and a good
situational sensitivity is a challenge
and a key in crisis management
28. How to improve our response under stress
1. Preparation and planning
2. Maintain situational sensitivity and
prevent fixation errors
3. Optimise team work
4. Practice, practice, practice
29. Careful
• A lot of the principles will seem obvious now
– This is theory, in a conference
– System 2
• They a systematically forgotten
– In real life, in a crisis
– System 1
30. How to improve our response under stress
1. Preparation and planning
2. Maintain situational sensitivity and
prevent fixation errors
3. Optimise team work
4. Practice, practice, practice
31. Preparation and planning
• Know the environment
– Take note of the resources before the crisis
– Know your coworkers
– Know you tools
– Know where to get your information
• Labs, charts, etc.
• Anticipate
– Have a plan in advance (everybody’s role)
– Permits to diminish the cognitive charge
– Help maintain a better situational sensitivity
32. How to improve our response under stress
1. Preparation and planning
2. Maintain situational sensitivity and
prevent fixation errors
3. Optimise team work
4. Practice, practice, practice
33. Maintain situational sensitivity and
prevent fixation errors
• Fixation errors, definition
– Selective perception of the environment
– Mental model stays wrong despite of enough
evidence to challenge it
– Diagnosis or plan stays unchanged despite
evidence to challenge it
– Loss of situational sensitivity
41. • How to maintain our situational sensitivity and avoid
fixation errors in a crisis?
– Frequently reassess the situation
• 10 seconds for 10 minutes
• Crisis are dynamic events
• Use time out
• Is the Dx good, do treatments work, is the problem
improving, are there new problems?
– Use your attention wisely
• Delegate all tasks that compromise your attention
or augment your cognitive charge
– Team Work
• Point 3
Maintain situational sensitivity
and prevent fixation errors
42. How to improve our response under stress
1. Preparation and planning
2. Maintain situational sensitivity and
prevent fixation errors
3. Optimise team work
4. Practice, practice, practice
43. Optimise team work
• Designate a leader
• Good leadership
and good
followership
• Good
communication
45. Optimise team work
• Leader
– Person best suited to make the good
decisions
– Plan action, take decisions, assing tasks
– Manage the information (situational
sensitivity)
– Communicate effectively
• Follower
– Stay intellectually active
– Communicate with the leader
• On Dx, give info the leader doesn’t have, etc.
– Skills that we can be developed, as leadership
46. Optimise team work
• In crisis we want to say a lot, but we usually say little
• Keep conversation to what’s pertinent to the case
(help maintain the leader situational sensitivity)
• Three C’s of effective communication
– Clear directives
– Citing names
– Closing the loop
47. How to improve our response under stress
1. Preparation and planning
2. Maintain situational sensitivity and
prevent fixation errors
3. Optimise team work
4. Practice, practice, practice
48. Practice, practice, practice
• The classic way to prepare for crisis
management does not work on the good
cognitive system
49. Practice, practice, practice
• Simulation
– Allows caregivers to be exposed to crisis
situations
– Helps to develop better judgement in the
system 1
– Doesn’t limit on technics and medical aspects
– Helps practice leadership and followership
– The more real (high-fidelity and in situ) the
more useful it is
– Debrief after each session
• Simulation is a safe place, participants should
feel comfortable to ask question in the
debriefing without being judged
50. Conclusions
• In crisis, we are not as good as we think to make
complex decisions
• We rely mostly on the system 1 to make our
decisions
• The system 1 has it’s limits
• We need to make efforts to maintain our situational
awareness
• Our medical training prepares us poorly for crisis
management
51. Conclusion
• The principles that we have learned,
and regularly use in simulation, offers
the hope to better ourselves and our
ability to take care of our patients more
efficiently and safely.
52. Bibliography
• Miller’s Anesthesia, 7ème édition (2009)
– chapitres 6 et 7
• Crisis Management in Anesthesiology, D. Gaba (1993)
– chapitres 1 et 2
• Kahneman D. A perspective on judgment and choice: Mapping bounded
rationality, American Psychologist, 58(9): 697-720, 2003.
• Kahneman D, Klein G. Conditions for intuitive expertise: A failure to disagree.
American Psychologist, 64(6): 515-26, 2009.
• Eva, KW. What every teacher needs to know about clinical reasoning. Medical
education, 39: 98-106, 2004.
• Endsley MR. Theoretical underpinnings of situational awareness: a critical
review. In Situational Awareness Analysis and Measurement (2000)
• Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and slow
Notas del editor
Only for 4 years and I’m an anesthesiologist so I guess I already have 2 strikes
This is an introduction
Daniel Kahneman
System 1 prefered in crisis situation system 2 in places where we are relaxed like here or in a classroom
Patern recognition
Let's say tonight you come back from the restaurant
Less intuitive, you have to think, but it cannot end in something else than a 00, 25, 50, or 75
Hard to do in a crisis
It's a good example of a task systeme 2 can do but not 1
System 1 prefered in crisis situation system 2 in places where we are relaxed like here or in a classroom
You can now see why new doctors on track can seems incompetent they are out of their comfort zone.
Sometime you may think you know what you are looking for and than miss some very important information
And sometime you think you found the problem but there is more
Patient in the clinic had pain so could not self extricate and car was on fire so rapid ex, Initially ok was becoming unstable now intubated, preparing for transfert to Hospital then :
Patient in the clinic, Initially ok was becoming unstable now intubated, preparing for transfert to Hospital then :
New informations as you are diagnosing and treating
no air on right side
Not sure what this line means: “Permits to diminish the cognitive charge”
Exemple de l’HSD aigu traumatique dans hors d’un centre de trauma: on oublie souvent de vérifier la colonne cervicale.
Hallo effect this is what happened to some of you with the gorilla
Delegating is hard for me, anesthesiologist, i do everything myself, but in crisis, i try to delegate, if i can't, i give the lead to someone else in between
May be done in advance
The best leader is not necessarily a Doctor, especially new docs on tracks need to learn that!!
Example of info to give to the leader amount of blood on transfusion massive