RCEM conference places health and wellbeing of clinicians at heart of sessions

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) Annual Scientific Symposium was a 3-day event held at the Manchester Central Convention Centre at the end of September. The conference was aimed predominantly at emergency department physicians, although many sessions were relevant and applicable to the pre-hospital setting. With over 30 sessions delivered, this report will highlight just some of the key points and messages that were pertinent to paramedics.

After being welcomed to the conference by the RCEM President Dr Clifford Mann, we were treated to the keynote address by Dr Scot Weingart, a name that social media users may well have heard. Focusing on the human factors that are involved with emergency medicine decision-making, he spoke of key issues that will resonate with all ambulance staff, including a term known as ‘decision fatigue’. Here, he suggested that we only have a limited number of good decisions, and related this to some evidence of prison parole hearings whereby as the day progressed, people were less likely to receive parole. Interestingly, after a lunch break more parole was granted. It then began to wane as more decisions were made over an afternoon, highlighting the importance of food and a break, something many ambulance personal will understand. Weingart summed this up by stating: ‘When the hour's late, it admits their fate.’