What is BE WISE?
Anaesthetic emergencies occur relatively infrequently and hence it is easy to forget how to manage them. Also, when they occur, you need to act quickly. Therefore it makes good sense to periodically refamiliarise oneself on how to manage anaesthetic emergencies. The concept called ” BE WISE” can help you be prepared. BE WISE stands for Brief Everyday What If Scenario Exercise. BE WISE is a quick and simple method that can you use every day to mentally rehearse how to manage anaesthetic emergencies. The concept is that if you mentally review one anaesthesia emergency scenario every day, your mind will be better prepared when the real emergency happens.
How to do BE WISE?
You can do BE WISE either by yourself or with another colleague (e.g. trainee, ODP etc).
Think of a patient on your surgical list today. Imagine one emergency scenario that could happen to this patient. (e.g. anaphylaxis after giving antibiotics). Try to choose an emergency that you and your colleague have not reviewed recently. You can use a “menu card” (click here to download a sample) to help choose an emergency to review.
Discuss with your colleague how one would recognise the emergency (i.e. how would it present)
Discuss the immediate management of this emergency with your colleague. Limit your discussion to practical management and leave out theoretical/academic aspects
You can refer to your hospital protocols to guide your discussion.
Regarding drugs needed to manage the emergency, think of where to get them (location), doses and relevant effects/side effects. Regarding equipment needed to manage the emergency, think of where they are located and discuss how they would be used.
It is important to keep BE WISE brief and it should take only a few minutes to do. Keeping it brief makes it possible to do BE WISE every day.
BE WISE is not only for junior staff. Everyone, regardless of experience, needs to be prepared for emergencies!
BE WISE is NOT an examination. It is simply an opportunity for you and your colleague to mentally rehearse emergency management.. Please make sure that you do not make
BE WISE a stressful experience for your colleague, as that would defeat the whole purpose.