What happened?
Carole is on call during a busy December evening. The unit has been particularly busy and there are bed shortages.
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Carole was told the Transport team are bringing in a patient from a a general hospital to the region.
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Carole admitted the patient to PCC. The patient was extremely sick and staff worked hard to rush the child into theatre.
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The anaesthetist phoned Carole to inform her that the patient had died in theatre.
And then?
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The anaesthetist told Carole she did all that she could to save the patient.
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Carole took some time out by walking to the canteen. She bumped into her PCC colleague, Anika, on the way.
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Anika asked if Carole was OK, and Carole burst into tears.
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Anika took Carole to the canteen and they had a hot drink.
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Carole felt uneasy crying in front of Anika, a much younger and more junior colleague.
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Anika reassured Carole that it is okay to show emotion, and proceeded to listen to Carole.
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Carole went back to the unit, feeling cared for after talking things over with Anika.
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Carole was then able to complete her shift calmly. When she got home, she was able to tell her husband about it, and had a good night's sleep.
How to improve
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PCC Staff could run debriefs to help them work through challenging and upsetting events. It’s important that all those involved in challenging events get an opportunity to reflect on them and understand what happened.
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It’s important that everyone feels able to share their emotions. Support can come from any member of the PCC team, regardless of their role or age.
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It can be really helpful to everyone on the unit when more senior colleagues show their vulnerability in this way.
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Listening without judgement can make all the difference.
How we created the SWell Avatars
All characters, scenarios and events have been developed from data gathered as part of the SWell Birmingham research project. The scenarios and events have been altered from the versions provided by research participants to protect their anonymity.
How to use the SWell Avatars
We know from our research and our own experiences that when we are under pressure at work, sometimes we behave out of character, interactions with colleagues or with patients or their parents can be challenging, and sometimes things happen that are beyond our control. For example, unexpected patient deaths, which might lead to unpredictable reactions. Working in paediatric critical care is a high-pressure environment and so we know it is important to become self-aware, to prepare ourselves with the skills to manage those challenges, and to be able to navigate the unexpected.
We have created a set of Swell Avatars in different scenarios to highlight some of these kinds of situations and to make suggestions about how they might be managed successfully. We’re keen for our SWell Avatars to respect equality, diversity and inclusion principles and for them to represent the workforce. To achieve this, when creating the SWell Avatars, we have been mindful of the intersectionality between staff members and their protected characteristics (e.g., age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation).
We have created a number of scenarios, developed from real-life stories participants told us in our research. We have changed important details to protect their anonymity. We have identified potential solutions to the issues raised in the scenarios to help individuals find appropriate support and to help them reflect on and learn from the SWell Avatar scenarios. The SWell Avatars can be used to help facilitate a reflective conversation between colleagues, they might be used in mentoring, they could help teams identify new wellbeing initiatives or identify needs for staff training and development.
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