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Watch this drama scene taken from the BBC drama Holby City. It's an interaction between a junior and consultant surgeon.

  • How would you describe this leader's style?
  • Would you like to work for someone like this? Why/why not?
  • What are the potential advantages and drawbacks of this style?
  • What type of culture is he creating?
  • What do you think the impact would be on the member of staff, the wider team and on the service provided?

 

 

Click to reveal transcript

[Consultant surgeon] It must bring back a lot of happy memories for you – concussion, black eyes, not to mention the brain damage. There is a lot of scar tissue though. Are you sure this guy hasn’t had intervention from a cardiologist before? 

[Mr Keating, junior surgeon] No, nothing, why? 

[Consultant surgeon] Get me Mr Connor’s ECG would you? This hole certainly looks isogenic to me. 

 [Junior surgeon] Manmade? 

 [Consultant surgeon] Absolutely. I mean, you’re telling me he’s had no previous ablation treatment when he quite clearly has. I think our pugilist friend here has been a little economical with the very … ah, this would explain it, delta waves. 

 [Junior surgeon] Are there? 

 [Consultant surgeon] Pre-excitation syndrome, meaning precisely what, Mr Keating? 

 [Junior surgeon] WPW. 

 [Consultant surgeon] Well done. 

 [Junior surgeon] Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. 

 [Consultant surgeon] Did you actually look at this thing at all? 

 [Junior surgeon] Yes. 

 [Consultant surgeon] So how do we explain the scar tissue? 

 [Junior surgeon] He must have had laser treatment to prick the WPW. 

 [Consultant surgeon] … and? 

 [Junior surgeon] It’s missed its target, it’s cooked this hole. 

 [Consultant surgeon] More like butchery than surgery. You’d better stitch up the hole and close him up before he arrests on us again. 

 [Junior surgeon] 3-0 Prolene please. 

 [Consultant surgeon] Of course if we’d known about this sooner we would have treated him here and now with cryoablation with a damn sight more skill than the butchers who burned him up in the first place. Would you like to explain to us all why that’s no longer possible, Mr Keating? 

 [Junior surgeon] Are you serious? 

 [Consultant surgeon] If you’d be so kind. 

 [Junior surgeon] In order to perform a cryoablation you need to map the electrical pathways before the operation. 

 [Consultant surgeon] Precisely … because you misread the ECG we now have to insert four pacing wires into Mr Connor until he is ready for surgery. Correct Mr Keating? 

 [Junior surgeon] Correct. 

 [Consultant surgeon] In other words, because of your incompetence this poor bruiser has to undergo another bought of open heart surgery which he could well do without. Correct again Mr Keating? 

 [Junior surgeon] Correct. 

 [Consultant surgeon] Yes.