On The Wards: On The Pods Medical Podcast for Doctors

James talks to Dr Chris Elliot and Dr Kylie Yates about the importance of communicating effectively with parents. This interview provides tips for junior doctors on how to undertake these tasks when working in a busy Emergency Department.

Summary Writer:  Emily Nash

Editor:  Chris Elliot

Interviewee: Chris Elliot and Kylie Yates

About Dr Chris Elliot

Chris Elliot is a Consultant Paediatrician who works in a teaching hospital in Sydney and in private rooms. As well as clinical Medicine he is enthusiastic about health communication and teaching. Chris is a Conjoint Lecturer for the University of New South Wales and writes the occasional article on child health for mainstream media. He also teaches Advanced Paediatric Life Support and sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. Chris completed his Internship at Bankstown Hospital and Paediatric training through the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network. On the days when he is not at work he enjoys playing with his children, and also when they play by themselves.

About Dr Kylie Yates

Kylie Yates is a staff specialist general Paediatrician at St George Hospital. She is an APLS instructor and co-developer of their Paediatric units simulation based training programme. Kylie is enthusiastic about introducing new ideas to hospital practice but still thinks talking to families is the best bit of the job. She graduated from the University of Sydney and was trained in Paediatrics at Children's Hospital Westmead.

James talks to Dr Zara Watson about epistaxis.

Summary Writer:  Elizabeth Campbell

Editor:  Bruce Way

Interviewee:  Zara Watson

About Dr Zara Watson

Zara Watson is an unaccredited Ear Nose Throat Surgery Registrar at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and University of Sydney graduate.

James talks to Bridget Johnson about palliative care and helping people with a life-limiting illness to live their life as fully and comfortably as possible. This is done by identifying and treating symptoms that may be physical, emotional, spiritual, or social.

Summary Writer:  Emily Nash

Editor:  Bridget Johnson

Interviewee:  Bridget Johnson

About Bridget Johnson

Bridget Johnson is a Palliative Care physician who enjoys working in a teaching hospital and palliative care unit in Sydney. Bridget completed her Bachelor of Medicine in 2003 at the University of Newcastle and was a physician trainee at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She completed her advanced training in 2013 and since then has worked as a palliative care staff specialist.

James talks to Dr Shafqat Inam about thrombocytopaenia, or low platelet count, in this podcast.

Summary Writer:  Nicholas Malouf

Editor:  Shafqat Inam

Interviewee:  Shafqat Inam

About Dr Shafqat Inam

Shafqat Inam is currently a Haematology registrar at Royal Prince Alfred and Concord Hospitals, and Associate Lecturer at the University of Sydney. He studied medicine at the University of New South Wales and completed his junior medical officer and basic physician training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Shafqat has a particular interest in research and medical education.

James talks to Joanne Rimington about prescribing opioids. Safe opioid dosing may be challenging for junior doctors. Errors when prescribing opioids can be severe & even life-threatening.

Summary Writers:  Linda Wu, Emily Nash

Editor:  Joanne Rimington, Tim Suharto, Nhi Nguyen

Interviewee:  Joanne Rimington

About Joanne Rimington

Joanne works as a senior pharmacist for education and training, South Eastern Sydney Local Health District. She previously worked as a clinical pharmacist at Prince of Wales Hospital. Joanne’s main areas of interest are improving inter-professional education opportunities, strategies to improve management of high-risk medicines including narcotics, as well as improving knowledge and understanding by patients of their own medicines to enhance medication safety.

James talks to Associate Professor Amanda Walker about the NSQHS Standards, the National Safety & Quality Health Service Standards, also known as the National Standards. The NSQHS Standards are a framework for ensuring that all health services across the country provide a consistent standard of safe and quality healthcare.

About Amanda Walker

Amanda Walker is a Specialist in Palliative Medicine and is also working as a Senior Clinical Advisor at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare. She has worked at the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission developing programs addressing Diagnostic Error and End of Life Care and she has worked as a clinician, educator, and administrator in South Western Sydney.

James talks to Associate Professor Amanda Walker about self-care. Mental illness is very common, particularly in junior doctors. However, it tends to be surrounded by stigma. In this podcast, we'll discuss some tips and tricks for using self care as a way to caring for yourself as a junior doctor.

Summary Writer:  Elizabeth Campbell

Editor:  James Edwards

Interviewee: Amanda Walker

About Amanda Walker

Amanda Walker is a Specialist in Palliative Medicine. She is also working as a Senior Clinical Advisor at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare. Furthermore, Amanda has worked at the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission developing programs addressing diagnostic errors and end of life care. She has previously worked as a clinician, educator, and administrator in South Western Sydney.

James talks to Dr Jon Gatward about tracheostomies.

Summary Writer:  Sam Orton

Editor: Jon Gatward

Interviewee: Jon Gatward

About Dr Jon Gatward

Jon is a dual-trained Anaesthetist/Intensivist from the UK but now works full time as an Intensive Care Specialist at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. He has special interests in medical education, simulation and airway management. He runs the in-situ simulation program at Royal North Shore ICU, where he is also the education coordinator.

Jon heads up the RNSH tracheostomy team, a group of inter-professional clinicians who care for patients with tracheostomy and laryngectomy.  He also runs an airway course (the Critical Care Airway Management Course) in Sydney twice a year. He is also interested in patient safety and quality, and a member of the Intensive Care Services Network Best Practice Working Group at the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation. He is loving being a new Dad to baby Thomas.

James talks to Dr Oliver Flower about the ICU consult. This particular consult is a task that many junior doctors may find daunting.

For example, the ICU consult requires recognition of the sick patient, formulation of an issues list within a complicated and acute scenario, and communication of management priorities to the ICU team. In this podcast, we'll run you through an example case for how to go through the consult.

Summary Writer:  Sam Orton

Editor:  Nhi Nguyen

Interviewee:  Oliver Flower

About Dr Oliver Flower

Oliver Flower, known as Oli, is a staff specialist in Intensive Care Medicine at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney.

He is a believer in the power of the big crit care community in addition to Cadogan’s FOAMed ethos. Moreover, he runs the educational and networking crit care website Intensive Care Network.

As an undergraduate in the UK he attained a 1st class BMedSci from Nottingham University, from where he subsequently received his MBBS. In Australia, he has worked in a variety of critical care areas in New South Wales and the Northern Territory. He completed his intensive care training and was awarded the Don Harrison medal for exam performance in 2009. During a fellowship year concentrating on neuro-intensive care he worked in acute spinal medicine at Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, and at Queen Square Intensive Care in London. Furthermore, he has a particular interest in e-learning initiatives. For example, he created the websites www.neuro-icu.com, www.rnshicu.org, Oli Flower's ICU Podcasts, and the College of Intensive Care Medicine's online journal club. Oli is a co-creator for www.intensivecarenetwork.com and a guest lecturer for www.lifeinthefastlane.com.

James talks to Dr Tim Suharto about postoperative airway concerns.

Summary Writer:  Hayden Alicajic

Editor:  Tim Suharto

Interviewee:  Tim Suharto

Tim is a specialist anaesthetist and one of the supervisors of training at Nepean Hospital. He is involved in the anaesthetic education program and leads the Group for Anaesthetic Simulation (GAS), which delivers in-situ crisis scenarios involving critical care doctors and nurses. Tim is an instructor for the Nepean Difficult Airway course as well as the Nepean Can’t Intubate Can’t Oxygenate (CICO) workshop. He is a strong advocate for innovation in medical education and developing links between sub-specialties in medicine to enhance understanding and collaboration.

Tim’s clinical work encompasses both public and private practice with regular sessions in acute pain medicine, anaesthesia for orthopaedics, ENT, neurosurgery and interventional radiological procedures.