The Art of Conscious Practice: Mastering Medicine

It is said that about 90% of what people routinely perform daily, stems from the subconscious mind. This can be comparable to the state of unconscious competence (provided you have achieved competence). For the more junior professionals who may not have achieved this, there may then be a need to make them more focused and conscious in their practice. This may need to involve behavioural change. Behavioural change is linked to three different elements: motivation, ability and a trigger. The conscious mind is logical. It is able to think, reason, select, discriminate, plan and perform many more functions. The important thing to note is that the conscious mind can only perform one thing at a time. It cannot do two things simultaneously. The subconscious mind on the other hand, is the “feeling” mind and thus the source of love, hatred, fear, jealousy, anger, fear, and other emotions. Doing anything with the conscious mind requires energy and effort. Learning to do something for the first time takes effort but as it becomes a habit, the task can be relegated to the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind can perform all the task without mental effort. This article discusses how to attempt to make medical personnel more conscious of their actions in order to reduce the chances of errors happening. This is in the context of an Emergency Department which is fast paced and busy 24 hours a day. The suggested strategic framework is shared.