What kind of anaesthetist are you?

That’s where this started. The world of anaesthesia, particularly when it comes to those who anaesthetise little kids, is made up of very different people. As much as we all learn a lot of medicine before we get handed the funky drugs there is more to giving an anaesthetic than just dialling up the rocket fuel. At least we hope there is.

It’s not all about the medicines. A lot about the individual anaesthetist becomes part of the day for that kid. And that’s where some of the art comes in.

So some anaesthetists start with a song. And some start with a story.

Which are you?

This started because a bunch of paediatric anaesthetists decided they wanted to chat even more about quite liking paediatric anaesthesia. And most of us feel that some of our best learning doesn’t come from reading books, but from tapping into the insights of our colleagues. It’s all those discussions you’ve had in the corridor, where the evidence gets filtered through experience that prove the most valuable.

Well what if we could start a corridor conversation with a lot more colleagues? That’s what this site is about.

Most of us first met at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead but we’re aiming to have contributors from all over. And hopefully some of our contributors will be the readers. Because we’d like to hear how you do it too.

The original group setting this site up includes Dr Andrew Weatherall, Dr Justin Skowno, Dr Hillel Hope, Dr Su-May Koh and Dr Ian Miles. All posts will have their author identified.

Oh, and if you think that author could be you, please get in touch at songsorstories@gmail.com or you can follow us on Twitter via @SongsOrStories.

We’ve also added a podcast option. You could check out the iTunes option here.

The Disclaimers Bit

The team listed above who have set up this site do so entirely in their spare time as anaesthetists with an interest in paediatric care sharing reflections on practice. While obviously contributors work at hospitals, they write as themselves. Anything they write is not necessarily a policy of their hospital and all topics need to be interpreted through the eye of a clever health professional. It all has to be evaluated on its merits and then placed in the context of their own practice or the case they are dealing with. We rely on contributors to make sure they are complying with any work social media policies that apply to them.

Rules of the Game

We don’t ask much of people who drop by. We’d love it if you said hello. We are all very friendly. It’s worth remembering this is a public site. That means every discussion is happening in a big room where everyone else can hear you. We’re hoping lots of clever people will come to visit. It would be great if they can share some different viewpoints and have the sort of enjoyable chat that would be worth a stop for coffee. We reserve the right to remove any inappropriate comments.

There’s also some rules we’d like to live up to as the team running the site. We’ll always try to provide the back up evidence for stuff being discussed. We’ll also try to be clear where authors are drawing heavily on their personal experience. Anecdote doesn’t become anecdata when you use more of it, but it still informs the way clinicians go about things. It has its place, but we’ll try to make it clear when it’s that sort of discussion.

We’ll respect patient privacy and confidentiality. If there’s a case in the discussion, it will be altered in a way to make it unidentifiable, or we’ll obtain consent in advance.

We won’t be accepting sponsorships from any medical, pharmaceutical or device companies. If there’s a chance a contributor has any affiliation or relationship with such a company, we’ll ask them to disclose that. If you’re commenting, please do the same.

Lastly, please correct us. Any factual flaws pointed out will be addressed with an open edit.

That should do it.