In this episode of the St Emlyn's podcast, hosts Iain Beardsell and Liz Crowe talk with Nathalie Pattyn at TacTrauma24 in Sweden about the phenomenon of skills fade amongst emergency physicians.

Nathalie discusses her extensive background in medicine, psychology, and neuroscience, and shares insights from her research on how skills can deteriorate during low workload deployments, such as her 15-month clinical stint in Antarctica.

They delve into the lack of systemic measures to address returning to practice after long absences, how cognitive and psychomotor skills are affected by skill fade, and the contrast between teaching technical skills and ensuring they become automatic and stress-resilient.

The conversation highlights the need for evidence-based guidelines to ensure healthcare professionals maintain their proficiency, which ultimately benefits patient care and the healthcare system.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction 00:13 Natalie's Background and Expertise 00:38 Skills Fade in Emergency Medicine

01:01 Personal Experience with Skills Fade

02:14 Regulations and Policies on Skills Maintenance

04:19 Imposter Syndrome vs. De-skilling

06:42 Aviation vs. Medical Field: Skills Certification

08:27 Aging and Cognitive Decline in Medical Skills

09:57 Teaching vs. Training in Medical Education

12:42 Future Directions and Systemic Solutions

14:31 Conclusion and Contact Information

Nathalie Pattyn, MD, MPsy, PhD, received a degree in medicine from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (magna cum laude, 2001), a Master in Clinical Psychology from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (cum laude, 2004), a PhD in Psychological Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2007) and a PhD in Social and Military Sciences from the Royal Military Academy (2007).

She also holds a postgraduate degree in Aerospace Medicine; a postgraduate degree in Emergency Medicine; a postgraduate degree in General Practice ; a postgraduate degree in Disaster Medicine ;and a Master in Global and Remote Healthcare.

She completed her Junior Officer Course with the Belgian Defense College in 2005, and her Staff Officer Course in 2008. She has a mixed clinical, research and operational background, having been deployed as a medical officer in various Middle Eastern and African countries, and having completed missions in Antarctica for a total duration of more than two years.

Her longest deployment was 15 months to the Halley VI Research Station in Antarctica, where she worked as the station physician while setting up a new biomedical research laboratory for the European Space Agency. She is currently still working as an emergency physician and a flight surgeon.

Her research interests include the psychophysiological measures of performance in elite populations; and Human Factors approach to isolated and confined environments, ranging from space to submarines.

In 2010, she founded a research unit within the Royal Military Academy, dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of human performance in operational environments. This led her to be the project manager for designing a tailored Human Performance Program for the tier one unit of the SOF community in Belgium.

She is currently an Associate Professor in Physiopathology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and in Human Performance at the Royal Military Academy.

You can read Nathalie's excellent book "Handbook of Mental Performace" for free here.