How well do you know your colleagues?

How much do you socialise with them?

Do you have an annual retreat for your colleagues and their families?

 

After you listen to this episode you may reflect on these questions. To give your patients the very best care possible it seems obvious that your team needs to know each other, understand the strengths and weaknesses of each other, and combine and communicate well in the clinical environment.

So how much time does your department devote to fostering a department culture that feels like a family? Including getting to know each team member’s actual family. How much do you do? My Intensive Care department does this pretty well but we could always do better. And we haven’t done a retreat in my time working there.

In the final episode of 2018, you’ll listen to Dr June Goh who is all about fostering such a family environment. She came up with the idea of taking her colleagues and their families on an annual weekend retreat over a decade ago. And she organises regular resident and medical officer engagement sessions with fun activities. All of which I suspect brings them tighter together as a more harmonious team, thereby helping their patients.

June is a Senior Consultant in Singapore General Hospital and the Director of Neuroanaesthesia and Neurocritical Care. She is very involved in teaching both medical students and post graduate doctors as member of the Core Faculty Anaesthesia Residency Programme, Chair of the Residency Welfare Committee, Adjunct Assistant Professor Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and Clinical Lecturer in the Yong Loo Lin Medical School. She chairs the Singapore General Hospital transplant oversight committee. June also currently serves on the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music Board, Dover Park Hospice Governing Council and co-chairs the fundraising committee. She has been an active member and past president of the Association of Women Doctors Singapore (AWDS) helping out with the various activities organised by AWDS. June is currently President of the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations and is passionate about women's family and health issues.

This episode was recorded in May 2018 as a live interview in front of a conference audience at the 5th SG-ANZICS Asia Pacific Intensive Care Forum. Thanks to that meeting's Organising Committee, representing Singapore’s Society of Intensive Care Medicine (SICM), Singapore, and the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS), I was invited to conduct several live interviews for this podcast. Many thanks to Tan Hon Liang and David Ku for this opportunity.

In this conversation June also spoke on topics such as:

• Her early career
• Her perspective on Singaporean gender equality
• How she mixed bringing up her children with being a busy doctor
• Building trust and rapport to strengthen communication with patient’s families
• Her perspective on some of the innovations in medical education
• Coping with work stresses to stay balanced
• Managing our device usage in the smartphone era
• Identifying and mentoring successors to our institutional roles
• Her thoughts on lifestyle factors such as yoga, exercise and sleep
• Her enjoyment of fashion

The Mastering Intensive Care podcast is aimed to inspire and empower you, as an intensive care clinician, to bring your best self to the intensive care unit, through conversations with thought-provoking guests. My hope is that by listening to the show you’ll hear at least one thing to help you improve, as either a healthcare professional or as a person, with the ultimate aim of helping your patients.

Please help me to spread the message by simply telling one of your colleagues, posting on social media or subscribing, rating and reviewing the podcast. To connect, leave a comment on the Facebook “mastering intensive care” page, on the LITFL episode page, on twitter using #masteringintensivecare, or by sending me an email at [email protected].

This is an enjoyable, thought-provoking and wide-ranging discussion with a woman doctor who is advancing the cause of women in and out of medicine whilst also compassionately caring for her patients and her team

 

Thanks for listening.

Andrew Davies

 

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People, organisations and resources mentioned in the episode:

June Goh at Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations: http://www.scwo.org.sg/about-us/who-we-are/dr-june-goh/

June Goh at Association of Women Doctors (Singapore): http://www.awds.org.sg/dr-june-goh/

SG-ANZICS Asia Pacific Forum: http://sg-anzics.com/

Human Organ Transplant Act (Singapore): https://www.gov.sg/factually/content/what-is-hota-all-about

Article by June Goh on Gender Equality: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/commentary-on-gender-equality-and-whether-women-can-have-it-all-9114542

June Goh featured in Bazaar Magazine: https://www.harpersbazaar.com.sg/exclusives/bazaar-magazine/bazaar-stylish-women-2017-june-goh-rin/

June Goh featured in The Peak Magazine: https://thepeakmagazine.com.sg/interviews/june-goh-doctor-teacher-family-woman-fashionista/

New Normal Project podcast: http://newnormalproject.libsyn.com/

New Normal Project podcast - Episode 45 with Neal Barnard: http://newnormalproject.libsyn.com/episode-45-neal-barnard-how-to-start-plant-based-eating-and-which-health-benefits-you-might-expect

New Normal Project podcast - Episode 46 with Andy Ramage: http://newnormalproject.libsyn.com/episode-46-andy-ramage-using-an-alcohol-free-challenge-to-reframe-your-relationship-with-alcohol

Mastering Intensive Care podcast - Episode 37 with Michael O’Leary: http://masteringintensivecare.libsyn.com/episode-37-michael-oleary-dealing-with-the-frustrations-of-the-changing-icu-landscape-sg-anzics-special-episode

Book: “In Shock” (by Dr Rana Awdish) https://www.ranaawdishmd.com/book

Mastering Intensive Care podcast: http://masteringintensivecare.libsyn.com

Mastering Intensive Care page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masteringintensivecare

Mastering Intensive Care at Life In The Fast lane: https://lifeinthefastlane.com/litfl/mastering-intensive-care

Twitter handle for Andrew Davies: @andrewdavies66

Instagram handle for Andrew Davies: @andrewdavies66

Email Andrew Davies: [email protected]