🎙️ Behind the Uniform | Episode 6I Backing Your Own Corner: Learning to Trust Yourself in Healthcare

"Something doesn't feel right..."Most healthcare professionals have had that feeling. You might not immediately be able to explain it. The observations might not look particularly worrying. Nothing is screaming emergency.But something has changed.And sometimes the hardest part isn't recognising it.It's trusting yourself enough to say it out loud.In Episode 6 of Behind the Uniform, Josie and Gemma explore confidence, self-doubt, clinical intuition and what it really means to back your own corner when you work in healthcare.We talk about:🧠 Why clinical intuition isn't simply "gut instinct"🩺 Patricia Benner's Novice to Expert model and how experience changes the way clinicians recognise situations🔎 How experienced professionals develop pattern recognition💭 Why very capable people can still struggle with self-doubt🗣️ The importance of trusting yourself enough to speak up🤝 Why asking for help is a sign of professional judgement — not a lack of confidence🌱 Gemma's 3 Cs: Connection, Competence and Choice💙 How confidence develops quietly through experience, reflection, feedback and all those moments when you think "I've got this."Sometimes patient safety depends on somebody having enough confidence to say:"Can we just stop for a second? Something doesn't feel right."Because behind every uniform is a human being. 💙Benner's work explores how clinical competence develops through education and experience.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6917683/Gary Klein's Recognition-Primed Decision model helps explain how experienced professionals can make rapid judgements through pattern recognition and previous experience, Oxford Academic – Why Intuition Often Gets It Right: Recognition-Primed Decision-Makinghttps://academic.oup.com/book/45545/chapter/394671102NHS England identifies supportive, psychologically safe teamwork and enabling people to speak up as important characteristics of a positive patient safety culture.https://www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/patient-safety-culture/safety-culture/A practical guide covering teamwork, communication, psychological safety, just culture, civility and creating environments where people feel able to ask questions and raise concerns.https://www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/patient-safety-culture/improving-patient-safety-culture-a-practical-guide/NHS England's work on spoken communication and patient safety highlights how communication failures commonly feature in serious incident investigations https://www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/improving-safety-critical-spoken-communication/The NMC Code sets out professional expectations around practising effectively, preserving safety, working within competence and taking action when patient safety may be compromised.https://www.nmc.org.uk/code/NMC guidance reinforces the professional responsibility to raise and, where necessary, escalate concerns about patient safety https://www.nmc.org.uk/standards/guidance/raising-concerns-guidance-for-nurses-and-midwives/read-raising-concerns-online/GMC professional standards require medical professionals to work within their competence, act promptly where patient safety may be compromised.https://www.gmc-uk.org/professional-standards/the-professional-standards/good-medical-practice/the-duties-of-medical-professionals-registered-with-the-gmcBehind the Uniform is intended for education, professional reflection and general discussion.The conversations shared are based on professional experience, current evidence and our respective areas of practice, but should not replace individual clinical judgement, organisational policies and procedures, professional guidance or personalised healthcare or psychological advice.If anything discussed in an episode raises concerns about your own wellbeing, please seek appropriate support from your GP, occupational health service, employee assistance programme or another suitably qualified professional.