Coaching in MedEd #10: The mind creates the team's success!

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Coach Woodenism for the Week: "Practice self control and keep emotions under control - good judgement and commonsense are essential."

In this series, we're applying Coach John Wooden's Pyramid of Success to medical education. We began by discussing the foundation of Attitude and Effort, followed by Friendship, Loyalty, and Cooperation. To Coach Wooden, this foundation develops from the heart and the spirit. But the second row focuses on the mind, particularly the next building block of success, Self Control.

Self Control is fundamental to the practice of medicine, particularly in the Emergency Department. A clinician may walk out of one room after repairing a simple laceration, then walk into a cardiac arrest in the next.

In dynamic environments, the clinician demonstrating self control is always proactive, not reactive. Although "Be proactive..." is the first of Covey's Seven Habits, the term was best defined by Victor Frankl, an Austrian Neuropsychiatrist and existentialist. For Victor, a proactive person purposely chooses their own response to life, never blaming others, instead always acting with courage and perseverance. This theory helped Victor survive a concentration camp and then lead a life of service.

My best coaches taught by example that the more challenging the situation, the more focused and calm a clinician needed to become. We must mentally step out of the chaos, directing the team's attention completely toward the patient. So when entering your next code, breath, and focus. Look around the room, find the clinician just losing their cool, and give them an easy task to complete. If you can not find this clinician, then it just may be you! So keep breathing and ask your team team what the patient needs, then jump in.

Make it a great week!

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