From Chaos to Clarity: Leadership in the Resuscitation Bay

Image credit: Pexels

Author: Mary Haas, MD
Originally published: Common Sense
November/December 2016

You are managing a busy emergency department, when you hear via the overhead paging system that a new patient has arrived in your resuscitation bay. You scurry from the farthest corner of your department, where you were evaluating a patient with multiple chronic medical problems and multiple complaints. As you book it to the resuscitation bay, you carry the weight of several sick patients you are managing and the knowledge of several on stretchers waiting to be seen, not to mention the full waiting room. You arrive at the resuscitation bay, where a group of people are bustling around as if a storm is about to hit. You see the ambulance pull up to the doorway with lights flashing. In this moment, as leader of the resuscitation, you have the responsibility to transform chaos into clarity.

How to Be an Effective Leader in the ED

Image Credit: Pixabay

Author: Meaghan Mercer, DO
2013/2014 AAEM/RSA President
Originally Published: Common Sense November/December 2013

Leadership is creating a way for people to contribute to making something happen, developing an environment that allows cohesion and a drive toward a common goal. Leadership affects our lives on a constant basis and our role in the hierarchy changes as we shift from one environment to another: parent, boss, teacher, mentor. Leadership is a skill and learned behavior that becomes second nature over time and is important to cultivate, especially when working in the emergency department. In the ED we orchestrate the movement and flow of patients, staff, and resources, in a delicate yet chaotic balance. As we progress through residency, we gain the leadership skills to manage all the pieces until we unconsciously and fluidly become leaders in the field.