Mastering Intensive Care

Assoc Prof Charlie Corke from Geelong, Australia outlines the importance of optimal communication in helping us arrive at the best decisions for our patients. Charlie is one of Australia’s leading intensivists and has been teaching communication and high quality end of life decision-making since before it was even fashionable. Charlie reflects on how we can communicate effectively, telling us that communication begins with caring, requires deep respect for others, is mostly about addressing the needs of others, and most importantly involves finding out what the patient truly wants. In a wide-ranging interview, Charlie tells us that intensive care is not a place we can “mess up”, that good intensivists are like the Sherlock Holmes of the hospital, that delegation of authority can never be vague, that we need to look after our selves as well as we do others, how bullying can be so counterproductive, and how much better it is to work in an intensive care unit which favours consistency of practice over individual