Stephen Hearns - Peak Performance Under Pressure

Dr Stephen Hearns chats to us about the critical importance of how we perform when the pressure is on; he draws on his huge experience in Pre-Hospital medicine to show that staying at the peak of performance at a job is a trait that can be learnt and improves outcomes for the team and patient. He shares practical hints and tips on preparation, communications, controlling your stress and regaining your composure when the frazzle hits.

Key points from this podcast:

3 key points to improve performance under pressure-

• Drilling through turning predictable tasks into automatic actions and freeing up cognitive ’space’ for decision making
• Using cognitive aids (checklists, guidelines)
• Using ‘rally points’ to share and update your mental model

Resources related to this podcast:

For more information on Stephen and his publications, visit https://corecognition.co.uk/

About Stephen

Stephen is a consultant in emergency and aeromedical retrieval medicine. He works with Scotland’s Emergency Medical Retrieval Service (EMRS). This aeromedical retrieval service delivers pre-hospital critical care for major trauma patients, rural hospital secondary retrievals and major incident responses. Inspired by experience gained working on London’s air ambulance and in Queensland Australia, Stephen led the establishment of this team from a small voluntary service in 2004 to what is now a fully government funded aeromedical retrieval organisation with an international reputation. Stephen has published a number of papers and book chapters relating to emergency medicine and pre-hospital care.