Being part of the ER environment can be very demanding, with critical patients flowing through the hospital doors and the triage of the patient being more often than not inaccurate and inefficient.

What does it mean to be part of the ER team? How physically and emotionally draining can the work get?

How does the medical triage in the ER occur and how can it be optimized?

What does life outside the hospital look like?

When referring to off duty emergencies, how frequent are the interventions of the ER doctors to these kinds of events?

Join this Roundtable event and get the answers to all your curiosities! Assist. Prof Silvia Nica, MD, PhD  will guide an open discussion about both the challenges and the personal satisfaction which come with being part of the ER environment. Having graduated from the Faculty of General Medicine of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, she then pursued a residency program in Emergency Medicine and, later on, she completed a second speciality in Anesthesiology Intensive Therapy. She is currently the Head of Emergency Department at the University Emergency Hospital of Bucharest (UEHB). Keeping in mind the physical and emotional impact of her career, she decides to keep a healthy balance between work and inner peace by pursuing her great passion of playing the violin and, therefore, performing within the Romanian Doctors Orchestra ‘Ermil Nichifor’.

Health is without a doubt a basic human need and the access to health services should be equal to all human beings, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, wealth. Unfortunately, more often than not, we see such determinants making their way to add to the already existing inequity and favouritism, to the extent of poisoning our entire system of moral values. Moreover, we see injustice not only amongst the beneficiaries of the health system, but also amongst the providers of medical services and we wonder whether the meritocracy behind the process of selecting the medical personnel is being fully preserved.

 From the patients’ perspective, what does inequity in the medical sphere look like? What could make the determinants of such unequal treatment?

From the doctors’ perspective, what does injustice within the workplace look like? Is the principle of meritocracy being undermined?

Where do the struggles with achieving promotion at the workplace begin?

In an effort to overcome the inequity amongst the field of health and not only, we see spokespersons of multiple organizations which strongly advocate for equal rights of minority groups. One of such promoters is Assoc. Prof. Gelu Duminica of the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work of the University of Bucharest. Being a Romanian sociologist and activist of Roma ethnicity, for the past 23 years his work means the “Impreuna” Agency Foundation for Community and Development, which extends its openness towards all kinds of people, including ‘Roma, Romanians, Hungarians, people from LGBTQIA+ community, boys, girls, students, parents, people from the rural areas, people from both small towns and urban agglomerations, Christians, atheists…voices from everywhere, who desire to make the world a friendlier place, easier to go about one’s day’.

A delicate part of the doctors’ job is delivering bad news to both the patients and their families. Keeping in mind that bad news mean any kind of news that would negatively alter how the patients view themselves and their future, the nuances of such news extend to not only the life-ending illnesses, but also to the diagnosis of a new chronic affliction or the worsening of an already existing one or the failure of a certain approach of treatment, whether through medication or nonpharmacologic interventions. Breaking bad news is a multifaceted task and its successful management resides in following certain steps in order to achieve the empathy that is needed within the communication between the healthcare providers and the suffering patients.

What can be considered bad news? What’s the key to becoming an attentive healthcare worker?

What are the right circumstances for delivering bad news to the patient?

What is the SPIKES protocol? What are the steps of the protocol and how do they ensure the correctness of breaking bad news?

Join this Roundtable in order to find out more about the SPIKES protocol in an open discussion guided by Assoc. Prof. Emilian Mihailov of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Bucharest. He is the Director of the Research Centre in Applied Ethics (CCEA) and he is developing projects with the Uehiro Center for Practical Ethics of the University of Oxford and the Institute of Biomedical Ethics of the University of Basel. He contributed to the foundation of a new field of research – experimental bioethics – which uses experimental methods from psychology and cognitive sciences to confront bioethical problems. Moreover, Emilian Mihailov has a great interest in the dark side of morality and held the TEDx conference called ‘Brain of villains –  Brain of saints’. Being well known for his success in the field of philosophy and communication, Assoc. Prof Emilian Mihailov will bring essential perspective on the ethical and human aspects of medical communication, to the utmost extent of delivering challenging news.

Alongside Assoc. Prof Emilian Mihailov we have Senior Lect. Silviu Voinea, MD, PhD, who is a general surgeon, specialized in Surgical Oncology and Gynecological Oncology, working at the “Prof. Dr. Alexandru Trestioreanu” Oncology Institute of Bucharest. He is a member of multiple associations, including the European Society of Surgical Oncology, the European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists and the Union for International Cancer Control. Having a valuable expertise in tumor excisions, Senior Lect. Silviu Voinea will contribute to understanding the adaptation and implementation of the SPIKES protocol in the context of surgical interventions and the management of patients with serious conditions.