Scott Brennan discusses key performance concepts from the sporting world and how they intersect with medicine, gleaned from observing champions performing at their peak, practiced while finding his own path to Olympic Gold while completing his medical studies and subsequently consolidated through mentoring other athletes on their own journey to the top.

When the moment of performance comes, the coach cannot stand alongside their athlete. They must step back and trust that their preparation has equipped the athletes to execute their skill to the highest standard, under pressure, and with consequence.  

Beyond teaching a skill or training a capability, coaches are invested in helping athletes understand themselves as performers. The coaching relationship is characterised by trust, curiosity, comfortable discomfort, shared growth and a focus on future ability. As coaches of future emergency physicians, high performance sport offers a paradigm to help us prepare our medical athletes for their future moments of critical performance.  

When striving towards high performance, either as an individual or as a team, it is essential that we understand the role of culture, context and cognition that occurs when we are working either in parallel or collaboratively with others. 

There is overwhelming evidence that high performance is consistently found in multidisciplinary teams that demonstrate strong psychological safety and trust, and where the collective is prioritised over the individual. This talk will explore the practicalities of how we make psychological safety and high performance a reality in the context of a complex patients and a deprivation of resources.