"A timeout can look like a tick the box, or it can be a really valuable reset and circuit breaker for everybody."

Have you ever walked away from a clinical procedure where the patient was technically "fine," but the room felt like a chaotic mess? Why is it that some high-pressure moments leave us feeling like a synchronized team, while others leave us drained, confused, and questioning our own competence? In this episode of Better Every Shift, we dive into a "tale of two intubations" to uncover the invisible forces that dictate clinical success: communication clarity, emotional regulation, and the power of the routine debrief.

Welcome to Better Every Shift, the podcast for healthcare professionals who believe curiosity is a clinical superpower. I’m Naomi, a clinician who recently stepped back into the ICU trenches to see these theories in practice, and I’m joined by Tubi, an expert in reflective practice who isn't afraid to ask the hard questions about how we treat each other in the heat of the moment.

The problem we are exploring today is clinical reactivity. When we treat debriefing as a "special event" reserved only for failures, we make it a source of anxiety rather than a tool for growth. This matters to you because carrying the "biochemistry of stress" home after a shift isn't just exhausting—it’s a recipe for burnout. If you stick around, you’ll learn how to move from "fixing today’s fire" to being two steps ahead of the next crisis by mastering self-regulation and inclusive leadership.

Key Discussion Points

• Normalising the Debrief: Tubi and Naomi discuss why debriefing must happen "all the time" to become a valuable part of a healthy team culture rather than a dreaded "special event."
• Emotional Contagion & Self-Regulation: How to recognize your own anxiety in the moment and use "internalized self-talk" to maintain your capacity for clear thinking.
• Completing the Stress Cycle: Practical tips for letting your body process a stressful shift—from running your hands under water to the insights of Emily and Amelia Nagoski.
• Appreciative Inquiry: Using curiosity as a tool to improve critical thinking and clinical reasoning in your team.

What You’ll Learn in This Shift

1. How to lead from the floor: Discover how a clear leader uses inclusive language to ensure medications and plans are understood by everyone, from the consultant to the student nurse.
2. The importance of 'Familiarizing the Unfamiliar': Strategies for working effectively with a team you may not know well by relying on protocolized clarity rather than just "niceness."
3. The traits of a critical thinker: Why curiosity and openness to new ideas are not just "soft skills" but essential traits for improving patient outcomes.
4. Practical Regulation: How to name your feelings in the moment to downregulate the "messy" tension that hinders the prefrontal cortex.

Resources Mentioned

• Jenny Rudolph’s Podcast: On Appreciative Inquiry and feedback rubrics.
• Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski: A guide to completing the stress cycle and managing the physiological impacts of nursing.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review. Your curiosity and lived experience are what make this community credible. Join us next week as we continue to explore how to make every shift a little better than the last.

#BetterEveryShift #NursingPodcast #ClinicalExcellence #NurseLife #ICU #HealthcareLeadership #Debriefing #SelfRegulation

This episode of the Better Every Shift for Nurses dives deep into the high-stakes world of critical care, comparing two strikingly different intubation scenarios that occurred just one week apart. Through these stories, we explore how communication, clarity, and emotional regulation act as the "make or break" factors in clinical excellence.

Episode Summary

In this shift, Naomi reflects on a recent stint back on the clinical floor, where she witnessed the profound difference that inclusive leadership and role clarity can make. In the first scenario, a distressed patient in respiratory failure was met with a room full of "too many people," confusing medication orders, and a lack of clear plan A or B. The atmosphere was one of "messy" tension, where role creep led five different people to drop their tasks to perform the same secondary action.

Contrast this with the second scenario: a different consultant walked in and called a 50-second timeout. This short pause allowed the team to check drugs, confirm dosages, assign roles, and ensure everyone was inclusive and ready. Even when equipment failed, the room remained "cool, calm, and collected" because the team had a shared mental model and clear closed-loop communication.

Key Discussion Points

• The Power of the 50-Second Timeout: Learn why a brief strategic pause is not a waste of time, but a strategic strength that prevents errors before they happen.

• Role Creep and Muddying the Waters: We discuss how a lack of clear instructions causes teams to "swim out of their lanes," leading to unintended chaos in emergency situations.

• Emotional Contagion in the Room: Understand how a leader's nervousness or calm can infect the entire team, and why self-regulation is as important as clinical skill.

• Followership Responsibility: Leadership isn't just for the person at the head of the bed; discover how followers can improve the outcome by being clear about what they are responding to or confirming.

• Familiarity with the Unfamiliar: How to work effectively in a team where you don't know everyone's name or capabilities by relying on protocolized communication rather than just "nice" interactions.

What’s In It For You?

If you stick around for this episode, you will gain practical strategies to lead from the floor, regardless of your official role. You’ll learn how to identify "pockets of chaos" before they escalate and how to use tools like closed-loop communication to ensure your instructions are heard, understood, and executed safely. Whether you are a student nurse or a veteran consultant, this episode provides a roadmap for turning a high-pressure shift into a masterclass in clinical coordination

How are you going to make 2026 Better Every Shift?

Join us on Friday 10th January to set your intentions. This will be a great exercise to set you up for a great year.

Book via our website www.bettereveryshift.com.au

What happens when we stop treating “data” like a spreadsheet… and start treating it like a story?

In this conversation with Emily and Fiona from the Health Roundtable, we explore how data can become a steady compass for safer care, healthier teams, and smarter decisions — without slipping into judgement, blame, or noise. We talk data literacy (why so many of us left uni without the “so what?”), the quiet power of benchmarking done well, and the small, practical moves that help leaders and clinicians stay anchored inside their circle of control.

There’s also a tender, confronting story about what workforce strain can look like at the bedside — and why patient outcomes and staff wellbeing are never separate for long.

In this episode, we unpack:

• Why data is only useful when it becomes action
• Building data literacy in everyday clinical life (not just in research units)
• Benchmarking as learning, not punishment
• “Be the emotional scientist, not the judge” — curiosity that leads to better solutions
• The pebble in the shoe: small irritations that signal bigger system issues
• A simple way to reset: circle of control thinking for overwhelmed teams

Your next-shift action (60 seconds)

At handover, ask:
“What’s one pebble we can remove this week — and what tiny change will we trial for 7 days?”
Then check back in a week. Small experiments. Clear learning. Real movement.

👉 Tea Room Notes: Here
📩 Share this episode: If it helped you name a pebble, send it to a colleague who’s carrying one too.

Better Every Shift — less noise, more signal, and a little delight along the way.

Join us for our Intention setting workshop this Friday - register here

How are you going to make 2026 Better Every Shift?

Join us on Friday 10th January to set your intentions. This will be a great exercise to set you up for a great year.

Book via our website www.bettereveryshift.com.au