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Dr Dave Caesar on Purpose & Mindset

By August 10, 2017November 14th, 2023No Comments

Dr Dave Caesar, Consultant in Emergency Medicine & National Clinical Advisor to CMO recently provided EMERGE with a thought piece;

Nelson Mandela once said:
“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is the difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”

So what does that mean to us in the Emergency Department? How can we make a difference?

There are two factors that I think are really important: purpose and mindset.

As clinicians, our purpose is to improve the health and wellbeing of our patients. We all know that this can be harder than it sounds, and that looking after ourselves is also important. Getting the right balance is extremely rewarding, and often requires a degree of support as well as “stretch”. It also requires understanding the effects our decisions, our care, and our treatments have on our patients. How do we really know if something has worked? Could we do this any better?

This is where we need the right mindset.
The mindset of learners.
The GROWTH mindset.

Teams with the growth mindset embrace challenges, learn from feedback, persist in the face of setbacks, learn from failure and are inspired by successes, are persistent and want to keep learning. These teams GROW, and individuals develop within them. Teams like this ask the right questions to fulfil their purpose, to improve their understanding and further their knowledge to make a bigger difference to the lives of others and themselves. EMERGE help us in the ED to do this. They help drive our curiosity, stimulate our thinking, stretch our perspectives, and contribute to our growth mindset.

There is a Maori saying:
“Learning brings greater knowledge,
Knowledge brings greater understanding,
Understanding brings greater wisdom,
Wisdom brings greater wellbeing.”
Learning is good for us all.