Training for Stress by Chris Nickson

The INTENSIVE Podcast Episode 2

The talk in this podcast discusses:

  • the acute stress response and how it affects performance
  • strategies and techniques for maintaining and improving performance in stressful situations

This talk is based on the ‘Learning to take the heat’ workshop held as part of the SMACC conference over the past few years (see Learning to the heat at #SMACCUS.) Since then, a superb post was published at St Emlyn’s on Robert Lloyd’s experience working in South Africa, titled An Englishman in South Africa: Robert Lloyd. This reads as a case study in how anyone can succumb to the acute stress response when they perceive a threat to exceed their ability to cope. It is also a case study in how to go about rectifying the issue using stress training techniques. Hats off to Robert for sharing his experience, it is a must read!

Key review articles:

  • Leblanc VR. The effects of acute stress on performance: implications for health professions education. Acad Med. 2009;84(10 Suppl):S25-33. [pubmed]
  • Petrosoniak A, Hicks CM. Beyond crisis resource management: new frontiers in human factors training for acute care medicine. Curr Opin Anaesthesiol. 2013;26(6):699-706. [pubmed]

Other great FOAM resources include:

Also of relevance, as the inevitable sequela of excessive chronic stress, is the overview of Burnout I wrote as part of the LITFL Critical Care Compendium.

This is the emergency surgical airway video that was shown at the start of the talk:

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2 comments to “Training for Stress by Chris Nickson”
  1. Pingback: Global Intensive Care | Training for Stress

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