Dr Samantha Bendall1
1CareFlight , Sydney , Australia
Abstract:
Aeromedical services attract passionate, committed team members who are inspired by a learning environment and continuous improvement. Pre-hospital and retrieval medicine is different from hospital practice and carries increased psychosocial risks which, if the team is not well prepared before the fact and well supported after the fact, can result in harm. Education is also required for service accreditation and other mandatory requirements. It is often delegated to those who may have the passion, but who may not have been trained and mentored to implement an education program well. So how do we train our educators to prepare their learners for the reality of the job they will do in a consistent and psychologically safe way, at the same time encouraging reflection and building resilience.
At CareFlight we have developed and implemented an “Educator Course” to give our both our new and experienced educators the foundational components of educating with psychological safety, and the skills and tools to do this. It is essential we train our learners well for the job they will do, and we aim for their first real mission to feel just like what they have done in simulation during their education sessions. In order to achieve this, learners must be taken on a journey of knowledge improvement, skills training, simulation with skilled debriefing, and reflective practice. They must also be shown how to actively adopt a growth mindset and learn to relish feedback as an opportunity to grow. Our Educator Course aims to equip our educators with the skills and tools to help our learners reflect, grow and flourish in the best job in the world!
Biographies:
Dr Sam Bendall is an Emergency Physician, Retrieval Specialist for CareFlight and NSW Ambulance, and a State Retrieval Consultant for NSW Ambulance. She is the Director of Education for CareFlight overseeing and helping to deliver internal education in NSW and the NT, and external education programs across Australia. She is passionate about simulation and debriefing and helping to grow excellent human factors and critical decision making skills in their learners in order for them to operate safely and effectively in the PHRM environment, provide great patient care, and protect their own hearts and heads.