‘You can make change happen’: Experiences of emergency medicine leadership in the Pacific

Abstract

Objective: We sought to explore the activities, responsibilities and experience of leadership from Pacific emergency medicine (EM) doctors. Additionally, we explored knowledge, attitudes, leadership gaps and training insights for individual clinicians, and from a Pacific regional perspective. Methods: This was a qualitative study using in-depth, semi-structured interviews of invited Pacific EM doctargeted leadership training and contribute to building Pacific regional networks for career sustainability and specialty advancement.

Multimodal learning for emergency department triage implementation: experiences from Papua New Guinea during the COVID-19 pandemic

“… 36 , 37 Recent research has demonstrated the importance of regional collaboration in effective emergency care development, and the value of enduring mentoring relationships between Pacific and global colleagues. 16 , 38 , 39 , 40 Long-term partnerships are essential to building trust and cross-cultural understanding, and can provide a foundation for the type of training program described here.…”

Lessons from the frontline: Leadership and governance experiences in the COVID-19 pandemic response across the Pacific region

“…This is consistent with what we know of Pacific EC leaders prior to the pandemic who demonstrated maturity and vision despite relative youth and inexperience, and their pre-pandemic ability to mobilise teams through leveraging goodwill, solidarity and regional support. 12 Before and during the COVID-19 outbreak, EC clinician leadership is sustained and enhanced through regional networks of professional and personal support, such as the Pacific online EC support network which underpinned stage one of this research. 22…”

“…Health leadership is also essential to creating cultures of safety to improve quality patient and community outcomes, in EC specifically 12 , 23 and in emergency and disaster contexts generally. 24 This is important to note given the disproportionate number of natural emergencies and disasters that the Pacific Island region annually experiences compared to other global regions.…”

“… 7 At the individual level, however, young EC doctors were stepping into leadership roles in their home countries to advance EC systems and lead clinical care. 12 Since March 2020, our research group have been collecting data from Pacific regional EC clinicians and stakeholders about their COVID-19 experience and insights as part of an extensive qualitative research project. The context and broader findings are reported in accompanying publications, but this paper explores the leadership and governance themes, enablers, barriers and lessons learnt in the pandemic response from frontline health care workers (HCWs) across the Pacific region.…”

“When all else fails you have to come to the emergency department”: Overarching lessons about emergency care resilience from frontline clinicians in Pacific Island countries and territories during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The COVID-19 pandemic has turned spotlights on both the strengths and weaknesses of EC systems in the Pacific region: the lack of coordination and capacity in many countries, the need for well organised and adequately-resourced facility-based EC, and the dedication, skills and leadership of EC clinicians. 23 This study's findings further demonstrate that EC clinicians are assets to health systems and leaders in emergency preparedness and surge responses. 24,25 As one explained, EC clinicians are "the frontliners of the frontliners in the hospital"; the emergence of COVID-19 meant their roles were more valued because "it made a difference to the rest of the hospital who we allowed in and who we didn't".…”