Cast & Curious

Tag: education

  • Wheels of Willpower: How To Get Better at (Advising) Self-Control

    [su_pullquote align=”right”]Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of
    passion.- Alexander Hamilton[/su_pullquote]

    During one badminton break, one friend asked my advice regarding his lingering knee pain while playing badminton. I advise him to stop playing badminton temporarily, seek medical consult for his knee injury and only resume playing when his doctor tells him so. On our next badminton game, I saw my knee pained friend still playing badminton and hasn’t consulted any doctor yet. I cautioned him again, but was really intrigued why he hasn’t followed my advice. His reply floored me. “We are almost of the same age. You also complain of occasional knee pain just like me. Yet you continue to play badminton. I guess this knee pain will just go away!”

    As someone who has tried (and failed) some of my own advices, I ask friends and colleagues how my “hardheadedness” affect their chances of “following” my advice. It seems for many of us health workers, advising self control seem easy yet we all had our share of self control struggles, and these have implications of our advising particularly with health issues.

    Of course there are many behavioral and social drivers when it comes to influencing health outcomes. Healthcare recommendations is just one of these, albeit an important one. We may not recognize this but when healthcare worker “self control” is out of control, the implications to our patients are as just as mind boggling. This is the topic of our #HealthXPh chat this Saturday October 15, 2022 9:00 PM Manila time.

    • T1. As a healthcare professional, have you advised a patient on a medical concern yet you struggle following the very same advise?

    When we talk of self control, the word “will power” comes to mind. Although there are many behavioral and social drivers to self control, we usually equate self control with “mind over body”, mind over flesh or simply the “will” to do things- will power. Many studies have already pointed the uncomforting truth that will power is often beyond our own “will”. Yet, we quixotically believe we have will power on so many things.

    • T2. Can you recommend a specific strategy to reinforce self control when advising patients on health concerns?

    One thing that comes to mind of course is avoiding too many self control habits at once or at the same time. There were studies now that prove that willpower is finite and our cognitive capacity is severely affected when its loaded all at the same time.

    • T3. What other behavioral, social strategies do you advise in addition to self control when influencing a health outcome in a patient?

    In the medical community our mantra for advising is “walk the talk”. This is easier said than done and I’m very interested in knowing how to improve our self control advises particularly when we try to improve our patients achieving a better health outcome! See you all in the #HealthXPh chat!

    Image by stockking on Freepik

  • Nurturing Safe and Braves Spaces on Social Media

    Social media has been a “comfortable” space ever since I joined most of these platforms. This is not just because I’m comfortable with computers and the internet, but mainly because I tend to gravitate and collaborate with people that allow me to grow in this space. In other words, I felt psychologically safe to grow in some groups I am with in social media.

    Two presidential elections and a pandemic drastically changed that “comfortable, safe” social media space. Sometimes, social media is so toxic I had to belabor curating my feed. Add to the difficulty is the changing algorithm of social media feeds, which is getting out of our control more than ever. Now I have to really do social media sabbaticals just to save my sanity from the milee.

    I (and I guess a number of others) wanted at east to reclaim this safe space on social media. And we cannot do it alone. I remember my coach telling me, “if you want a safe space, make one for others first”. This is the topic of our #HealthXPh chat this Saturday June 11, 2022 9PM Manila time.

    Psychological safety is defined as the

    belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. A shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking

    -Edmonson 1999

    Today we will be revisiting the safe and brave spaces #HealthXPH as well as other #HCSM group started for other healthcare professionals to grow their networks on social media. We would seek advice from our colleagues on social media how they did make “safe and brave’ spaces t grow on social media.

    According to Clarke (2020) there are four stages of psychological safety in an environment- Inclusion Safety, Learner safety, Contributor safety and Challenger Safety. Let’s discuss how you can contribute to creating these stages of safe spaces.

    T1. How can you promote inclusion safety on social media?

    This stage simply meant all people in your social media group felt welcomed and included. I remember when we first formed #Healthxph, it was so informal and I felt very much welcomed even though we’re miles apart and very diverse persons at that. Some of us don’t know a thing about social media platforms. We included them first then helped them along the way. And we tried all platforms first to see what worked for all of us!

    T2. How can you promote learner safety on social media?

    Learner safety means “being able to ask questions, give and receive feedback, experiment, and make mistakes”. #HealthXPh is a very learning group. We assured each other we’ll help in everyone’s learning “the ropes” in social media. We have been doing this with our various summits and workshops since 2015. Here every time I speak in front of summit attendees, I often ask “what if I’m wrong”? One would answer, well we will know and learn together. Just go and do it”

    T3. How can you promote Contributor safety on social media?

    Contributor safety means “being able to participate as a member of the team, contribute ideas and suggestions, and raise threats and risks using members’ individual talents and abilities to contribute to the team without fear”. At #HealthXPh, each one contributes his or her best abilities. And even in areas where you have very minimal abilities, your contribution builds the overall program of the group. And since none were mainly an expert on everything in social media, we tried to contribute what we learned along our journey.

    T4. How can you promote challenger safety on social media?

    Challenger safety meant “being able to challenge the way the team works, come up with new ways of working, behaviours, and challenge the ideas of others – even the ideas of senior members” . We had some very controversial discussions at #HealthXPh, and even on twitter. We provide and hosted topics that were rather unpopular or divisive. #HealthXPh in some ways been able to diffuse the tension and made the discussion safe for everyone to contribute or challenge. This is what I later learned as increasing the ” academic tension but decreasing the social tension”. Social media feedbacking is very important here and we have tackled that in so many tweetchats before.

    Psychologically safe space is the “underpinning of high performing teams, bringing out creativity and innovation in teams” says Amy Edmonson in Fearless Organization. In one recent workshop I attended I heard one speaker mention ‘bravespace” for safe space. Indeed, if in the last stage of Psychological safety meant we are “safe” to challenge status quo in social media, then “brave space” would be an apt term.

    I am inviting you once again to join #HealthXPh tweetchat this Saturday June 11, 2022 9PM Manila time. See you all!

  • Rebuilding social connections, learning and finding purpose in the new, “post pandemic normal”.

    Rebuilding social connections, learning and finding purpose in the new, “post pandemic normal”.

    Two days ago we operated a fully vaccinated, asymptomatic RT-PCR + patient for a totally unrelated injury. Two years ago, treating a SARS COV 2 (+) patient is too risky and dangerous. Treatment is necessarily delayed until patient is deemed non infective. That could take weeks or even a month if the patient luckily survives COVID. Now, with vaccination, precautionary protocols and PPEs, we can proceed with the treatment with little delay. And I felt rather dull, apprehensive and weird. After struggling to adapt to this pandemic, I am once again witnessing another disruption. One that more is desirable but not necessarily easier, than its predecessor- adapting to the new, post pandemic normal.

    We all bear witness to our struggles in the new pandemic normal. We all prosletized that the “new pandemic normal” of COVID 19 restrictions will be the “new normal”. We painstakingly used and adapted to digital and electronic communications to carry us through this pandemic. When vaccines and safety protocols came minimizing the risks of COVID among us, we’re now looking at a face to face interactions soon. And there’s anything but the “old normal” in what I saw. A blended lecture, a new weird looking OR with all spacesuits, or dining with friends al fresco (but wet by the heavy rains), I felt weird. And now, I have this conundrum (albeit a lot desirable than its pandemic predecessor) on how to adapt to this emerging, post pandemic normal.

    COVID-19 severely disrupted the way we connect socially. Almost all of our social connections were built and maintained digitally during the pandemic. “I lost a few good people this pandemic and all I can say is RIP over the internet” said Dr. M. “That’s too damn shameful for my standards”! Now that we are emerging from this pandemic, I’m still apprehensive about physically, socially mingling even with my family. The mask-less, physical hugging I’m used too is a bit awkward now. I still avoid family dinners for fear of spreading the virus!

    T1. How will you rebuild social connections in the new post pandemic normal?

    As a distance education student, I am very much comfortable teaching and learning “from a distance” . Yet, I miss giving out face to face talks and the “hands on” teaching at the clinics. At a recent training workshop, I had this awkward dilemma – I don’t know how to talk to a camera and a face to face audience at the same time. I ended up talking to myself.

    T2. How will you continue teaching and learning in the new post pandemic normal?

    “I’m thinking about retiring early or maybe another less risky career” said one colleague. “I lost my purpose right there when I was gasping for air at the COVID ICU” he lamented. I can empathize with him. My mom died not of COVID but her healthcare needs was severely limited by this pandemic. And I not once blamed my inability to provide all her needs even if I am busy taking care of others. That, tested my career purpose. Finding your purpose in the new post pandemic normal would be difficult for many of us.

    T3. How will find or continue your purpose in the new post pandemic normal?

    Experiencing how we lived through this pandemic and hopefully soon, a post pandemic world, I had so many questions and realizations. In all these, adaptation has been our greatest ally in rebuilding in the post pandemic normal. The concept is easy to understand but is much harder to implement. This will be the topic of the #HealthXPh tweetchat this March 12, 2022, 9PM Manila time. Join us and share your thoughts!

    Image by pressfoto on Freepik

  • How health workers learn and take care of patients in the new normal.

    COVID 19 pandemic forever changed the way humans live. Healthcare it seems, has to bear the burden of fighting this pandemic (and all other enemies of health ) while continually learning about this little known enemy. These we have to do at the same time and at a speed unheard of in the past.

    An Unknown Enemy

    The hardest enemy to fight is the enemy you knew little or nothing at all. In medicine, our chances of neutralising a disease weighs heavily on knowing the disease and its behaviour. That is, if there is literature about that disease and if we have time digesting this literature. Unfortunately, this novel coronavirus caught us all unprepared and there is, but little time for most front liners to learn this disease. Our knowledge of this pandemic is rapidly increasing per science’s standard, but we are still a long way to go for a standardised prevention and treatment modality.

    Learn, We Must.

    COVID-19 is far from over and the we may be looking already at the new normal. Nonetheless, we must learn and treat patients at the same time or we’d be repeating mistakes made in the past. Fortunately, I see beacons of hope from stories frontline on how health workers continue to learn and treat patients in unique ways. There’s an outpouring of collaboration and sharing of ideas and a healthy dose of criticisms too. I have seen learning technologies taking front and center of this effort. Suddenly, alternative ways of learning went mainstream in a matter of months.

    Alternative ways of learning.

    As an educator, I am interested in how our health front liners continue learning amidst this pandemic. More importantly, I’m interested in making the process of learning more efficient, adaptive and more impactful to our current scenario. This way, we might be able to unburden our front liners and increase our chances of neutralising this enemy as well as the other diseases we’ve been fighting for years. This will be the topic of our discussion at #HealthXPh twitter chat August 1 9-10 PM Manila time.

    T1. How do you continue learning in the new normal?

    What changes- knowledge, skills or behaviour you had to acquire or change to do this? What was your top objective? What was your strategy or approach if any?What resources, technologies did you use? How do you balance your time learning and serving in the frontlines? What were your difficulties?

    T2.What are your metrics for measuring learning success?

    Metrics are a way of knowing we actually achieved the objectives we set earlier- that we learned something and that learning is what we aimed for in the beginning. For example, I usually set an objective of ” to learn diagnosing COVID-19 at the end of this 45 minute Zoom teleconference”. My key metric will be ” to get 75% of the correct answers on the post lecture online assessment related to diagnosing COVID-19″. Im usually dead tired after hospital work, so I use very specific metrics to have an impactful, realistic learning success.

    T3. How did this learning approach impacted your practice of healthcare?

    This pandemic already wreak havoc on everything we know existed, more so in healthcare. Guess were I learned about donning and doffing PPEs before actually attending a formal training on doing so? I also had to invest time, finances to alternative ways of learning. I also had to redo health processes inside the hospital and clinics to incorporate learning I got from these alternative pathways.

    Log in to your twitter account and don’t forget to join our discussion at #HealthXPh twitter chat August 1, 2020 9-10 PM Manila time. Append #HealthXPh to all your tweets around these three questions:

    • T1. How do you continue learning in the new normal?
    • T2. What are your metrics for measuring learning success?
    • T3. How did this learning approach impacted your practice of healthcare ?

    Change does not happen overnight in healthcare but this pandemic pushed us to disrupt healthcare in scale and speed un heard of in the past. This include learning how to learn.

    Image by Freepik

  • Strategies and technologies healthcare professionals use for learning

    Why are you still studying? Are the years of medical school and training not enough?

    Barely an hour before writing this post, a neighbour knocked on my door asking if I could look at his 9 months old nephew. His nephew is weak, have an on and off fever for a week, and is vomiting since this morning. “Your nephew is dehydrated” I said. “Bring him to the nearest hospital now. ” I couldn’t remember the last time I managed a pediatric acute gastroenteritis. As an orthopedic surgeon, I rarely deal with such cases unless one of my family member contracts the disease. Even then, I rarely manage pediatric AGE.

    This is why healthcare professionals need to continually learn even after med school and training. You’ll never know what disease or which patient will come “knocking” on your door. Besides, many of us tend to forget clinical skills we haven’t use for some time. Society also expect us to be competent practitioners, irregardless of the specialised field you’re into. My neighbour for example, believed I’m competent in managing pediatric AGE, despite him knowing I’m an orthopedic surgeon for years!

    Learning also benefits us and our patients even in our narrow fields of practice. Learning is a moral and ethical responsibility embedded in the many oaths we took entering this profession.
    The ever changing landscape of diseases, research findings, healthcare issues and clinical management skills favours health professionals who consistently learn or upgrade their knowledge and skills. The information explosion and affordances of new technologies might also help us cure some disease, alleviate the ills or empathise with our patients. Simply put, we need to continually learn for our patients.

    T1. What inspires you to learn?

    We learn for our patients, but we are the learner. Society expects healthcare professionals to be lifelong learners- perpetually proficient and competent in the medical field. In practice, our learning environment shifts from formal school to include, informal, out of school, face to face, at a distance or a mix of all these. Different environments have varying nuances for learning. Some strategies work best for a certain learning environment. Most of us couldn’t simply drop our professional practice to go back to formal school. We have to find other ways learning befitting four learning or practice context.

    T2. What is your strategy for learning?

    While we use many similar technologies for learning across these different contexts, recent technologies afforded us newer non traditional ways of learning. Online technologies for example allowed us to learn without leaving our practice. With appropriate technologies, we can now choose when, how and where to learn. Feedly for example allows me to aggregate, curate and organize medical information efficiently.

    T3. What technologies do you use for learning?

    As healthcare professionals, patients inspire us most to continuously learn. When our learning shifts from formal school alone to include many other environments, we must be able to examine and employ strategies and then find appropriate technologies to maximize learning. It is then that “we direct ” or take control of our own learning.

    In this November 10, 2018 9PM Manila time #HealthXPh chat, we will explore paradigms and technologies by which healthcare professionals learn today. By paradigm I mean a theory, a strategy, a method or “lens” by which we anchor what and how we learn. Technologies refer to any tool, mainstream or emergent that you use to learn or maximize learning. These are our guide questions:

    • T1. What inspires you to learn?
    • T2. What is your strategy for learning?
    • T3. What technologies do you use for learning?

    (If you want to learn more about my paradigm of learning and technologies I use to support it, read this article)