"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

In this episode of Better Every Shift for Nurses we speak with Fiona Fitzgerald and Emily Daley. From their small gesture of connecting two people a new friendship, collaboration and podcast has grown.

Fiona and Emily celebrate the value of connection, collaborating and conversation about doing things better. Their work is about helping leaders and teams explore what they do, what is working and what needs to change.

They sit outside of the daily grind and this perspective allows them to step back from the dustbin fires so many of us are trying to put out, to see the bigger picture - that many of the fires we are fighting will put themselves out, but we may be missing other activity that we should develop and grow.

In this episode we explore part A of our two part conversation. We hope you are just as delighted as we are.

Grab the Tea Room Notes 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

This shift is a bit like that Early shift you arrive to only to find out you are actually rostered for the afternoon.

Some technical difficulties has delayed production of the next episode. We had a lot of fun recording, this is some of our fun.

This episode uncovers the real cost of avoiding feedback, how “being nice” can sabotage growth, and why clear conversations—however uncomfortable—are the greatest kindness. This episode dives into the messy, human side of feedback in healthcare, exploring what happens when we sidestep tough conversations and the ripple effects on individuals and teams, and the care they provide

Through candid stories and practical wisdom, we unpack why feedback often fails to land, how emotions shape our willingness to speak up, and the consequences of letting patterns persist. You’ll hear how clarity, curiosity, and a touch of light-heartedness can transform feedback from a dreaded task into a powerful tool for learning and trust.

We invite you to join us and review your approach, so you can build a culture where feedback is a gift, not a threat.

Everyone who enters health care wants to do the best they can - for their patients, their colleagues, and themselves. But wanting to do your best is only the beginning. True excellence isn’t a fixed point; it’s a process of personal and professional growth, reflection, and transformation.

At Better Every Shift, we dive into real stories that reveal how our “best” is something that evolves as we learn, stretch, and allow ourselves to mature. Together we explore the messy, inspiring, and sometimes uncomfortable moments that shape us into more effective clinicians and leaders.

Connect with us further at our website www.bettereveryshift.com.au and grab the Tea Room Notes 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

Some patients leave our shift; others stay in our bodies for years.
In this episode of Better Every Shift, Naomi and Tubi explore the legacies that nursing leaves in us – the patients we still carry, the smells and sounds that transport us back in an instant, and the way our bodies react long after the event is over.

Naomi and Tubi unpack why certain patients stay with us, how “first times” and “people who look like our own” land differently, and what happens when we never quite process those moments.

Together they explore:

• How nursing experiences are stored in the body as learned reactions and triggers
• Why emotional granularity (finding the right word for what you feel) can calm both brain and body
• The difference between hot debriefs, cold debriefs and reflective clinical supervision – and when each helps
• The role of nurses in crisis resource management and speaking up in ways others can actually hear
• Practical strategies to gently process “your people”: breathing, writing, naming emotions, and regular check-ins

This conversation is for any nurse, midwife or health professional who has ever found themselves back in a resus bay while standing in a supermarket aisle, or who has wondered, “Why is this patient still with me?”

🎧 By the end of this episode, you’ll have:

• Language for talking about the patients and moments that stay with you
• A simple writing practice you can use after tough shifts
• Ideas for making debriefs safer, kinder and more useful
• Small, repeatable habits to protect your future self from today’s work

🔗 Explore more from Better Every Shift

• Grab the Tea Room Notes Here
• Share this episode with a colleague who “gets it” and start a conversation about the legacies you both carry.

#BetterEveryShift #NursingLegacies #NurseWellbeing #Debriefing #ReflectivePractice #NurseLeadership

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

“Interviews, Mindset and Missed Opportunities: What Panels Really Look For”

You’ve done the acting stints. You’ve put in the extra hours. You’ve sat through interview after interview… and still missed out.
In this episode of Better Every Shift, Naomi shares the story of applying twice for the same leadership role — and only getting it the second time. Together, Naomi and Tubi pull back the curtain on how interviews really work in health services, and what both panels and candidates often get wrong.

We explore how to prepare beyond “Googling common questions”, how to stop assuming “they already know me”, and how to find the people who can help you translate feedback into real career movement.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why a “failed” interview can set you up for the next one
• The difference between knowing the job exists and understanding what the service is trying to fix
• Practical ways to prepare: conversations, mock interviews, and mindset rituals
• The trap of assuming your panel knows your history, budget responsibilities or leadership experience
• Why traditional interviews are biased and imperfect — and how good panels try to do it better
• What to focus on if you’ve had serial acting roles or repeated knock-backs
• The skills that are easy to teach vs the relational skills panels are really hunting for

This week’s action:
Pick one role you’re curious about and book a 20–30 minute conversation with your manager, a mentor or someone currently in the job. Ask them:

• “What does great look like in this role?”
• “What gaps do you see for me over the next 6–12 months?”

One honest conversation. One step closer.

Grab the Tea Room Notes 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