If I can be anything - I choose to be a team player in a tough game

My career has been a delightful unplanned adventure, fairly unstructured, whether by accident or design I've been professionally itinerant. From the vantage point of my mid 50's I can now look back with some satisfaction on a variety of roles that have lead me to coordinating aeromedical and road based transfers in two Australian jurisdictions.

I'm forever fielding the question: "so, what is it that you do these days" and as soon as I start to explain, eyes glaze over. I've pondered sticking to the simple, but perhaps self aggrandizing "saving lives".

But there is a long format explanation and I thought I'd have a go here.

At any given time, I've got transport resources - air and road, a certain amount of geography to cover, time, including time of day, weather and a finite number of clinicians able to provide that service, each with their own unique skillset.

And then there is the demand side - a number of patients that need moving in a variety of clinical settings with a variety of clinical conditions!

My colleague and friend, Tim Leeuwenburg describes the role more eloquently than I can:

I provide advice & clinical expertise for patients with critical care needs across rural and regional Australia; this involves coordinating aircraft & other assets as well as direct clinical input for critically unwell people in the outback.

Large parts of the role involve interacting with logisticians, flight teams, pilots and remote area nurses and doctors. Like all jobs, a fair amount of it involves sitting around chewing the fat when the system is well balanced.

Every mission is like doing an unscripted specialist level oral exam, and I've found google to be my best friend on multiple occasions each shift.

A fair part of all of this is routine - metaphorically like stamping license plates. But when the game is on - difficult patients needing non standard solutions - that's where the team shines.

So I land on this: I'm a cog in the machine, playing my part to make the most out of what we've got - to provide the greatest benefit to the greatest number of patients. On occasions that means disadvantaging some to advantage many. On other occasions that means tearing up the planned activity of the network because that one patient needs it.

This week I spent 60 hours in the chair at the Top End Medical Retrieval Service - provided by CareFlight on behalf of the NT government and it was quite a week indeed. Collectively, we had some wins for the week and that brings the satisfaction of a job well done.

What unifies my career - Emergency Physician, Flight Doc, ED Director, Ambulance Medical Director, Aeromedical coordination? I'm aware of the difference between ideal scenarios and being a team player in a tough game. I choose the latter.

My name is Paul Bailey. I manage risk for a living. I used to be the Medical Director of the largest ambulance service in the world. In another life I was a jellyfish hunter. Like or comment on this post if you found it interesting, follow me on Twitter @waambedic, or drop me an InMail if you want to continue the conversation.