Human Factors and Cardiothoracic Surgery

Thank you for adressing this topic, because its probably the one field where the most further progress in acute medicine is possible - but this goes along with creating a culture of transperncy and communication as it was stated in your hangout. And it´s probably one step back and readressing what medicine actualy is.

Excellent discussion. This always a very difficult process to go through, but it is critical not to let the potential learning opportunity slip by. The team is already dealing with an emotional and often tragic situation, and there are cathartic as well educational benefits to working through these difficult cases. I was told, like many surgery residents, that "Experience is something you would rather gain from somebody else's mistakes". And a more famous literary quote is "Good judgment comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgment" (Rita Mae Brown). I plan to use this discussion when working with our team so we all gain insight into how to deal with tough situations. We always want to avoid the "bad outcome", as was described in the example discussed, but when it occurs, we should maximize the wisdom that can be gained from the experience, painful as it may be. It would be a waste to do otherwise. Thanks again for this great post.

Thank you for posting this discussion, the new format and the topic. I will use it in our department as a way of bringing structure to this mixture of emergency, experience, leadership, hierarchy and psychology.