Day 2 was once again full of thought provoking conversations. Although I had seen the video “Just a routine operation” in medical school, it brought up many different emotions as I watched it yesterday. As an anesthesia resident, it disheartened me to see three seasoned anesthesia attendings have a complete lack of situational awareness while they tried to secure the airway. One of the first things they teach us in anesthesia training is that if what you’re doing doesn’t work, move to the next technique, procedure, etc. It is hard to know what those anesthesia providers were thinking in the moment but it would be very interesting to speak with them about the event.
Secondly, the facts presented regarding EMRs were astonishing. It is upsetting to know that EMRs have not fulfilled the goals and objectives that they were initially created to address. I am a firm believer that we should have the ability to connect the EMRs of this country in the name of patient safety and data sharing. There have been countless times where I have seen a patient’s care delayed because we were trying to get records from an outside hospital.
Lastly, it was great to hear the thoughts of John Nance and his expertise from the aviation industry. I found it interesting that he mentioned the idea of checklists in medicine to standardize practice according to evidence based best practices. When I have approached some of my attendings regarding creating a “guideline” for certain types of cases, I have met opposition and they said that it’s not smart to standardize anesthesia because not every patient/case is the same. When I return to my institution, I am going to bring up the idea again in the name of training junior residents so that they are not as lost when they first begin.