Five minutes with Dr Tim Ritchie

FIVE MINUTES

Dinner by the Punakaiki River

with Dr Tim Ritchie

Dr Tim Ritchie is an Emergency Medicine Specialist at Dunedin Hospital.

What inspired you to get into your field of medicine?

I had the interesting experience during medical school of finding myself in the opposite quadrant of the Myers-Briggs personality test to just about everyone else in my class. Which is probably why nowhere in the hospital felt right until I did my ED run as a trainee intern. Walking into the ED felt like putting on a comfortable old pair of jeans and I never looked back. Ten years later I repeated the Myers-Briggs test during an ACEM fellowship pre-exam course. Most of my fellow course attendees were clustered in the same quadrant as me and my study buddy’s personality type was exactly the same as mine. Inspired? More like self-selected.

What are some of the more challenging aspects of the current health environment?

In my opinion hospital flow is the biggest challenge faced by emergency medicine in Aotearoa. Without decent flow we can’t guarantee quality care for our patients. Unfortunately, many of the determinants of hospital flow are beyond the day-today control of emergency physicians. The spectre of burnout is another big challenge. Working in congested low quality environments undoubtedly contributes to the high levels of burn out consistently measured in Emergency Physicians. The freely flowing hospital of my nirvana would be safe for patients and a great place to work. Let’s figure out how to get there.

What’s your passion?

I think the thing I love most about work is the storytelling. Maybe I should have been a poet. Every patient interaction involves some kind of story. Some are tragic, some are hilarious. You never know what you’re going to hear. I get to tell my own stories too. The best ones are where patients laugh at my own ridiculousness. I love the endless storytelling with colleagues. I have literally cried with laughter at some of the stories I have been told at work. Storytelling in the ED could be seen as a bit like leaning on a shovel, but I think it’s an essential part of how we connect and make things better for our patients and each other.

What keeps you happy outside of work?

The ocean and the mountains are the magic places for my mind. I’d surf all day long if I thought I could get away with it. My favourite places to surf are in the depths of South Westland or other similarly remote and splendid locales, which I dare not mention for fear of word getting out. Marine conservation spins my wheels and I’ve just finished a tenure on a forum tasked with working out where to place a network of marine protected areas around the south-eastern coast of Te Wai Pounamu. Ski mountaineering and tramping are my means of communing with the mountains. Sometimes I just sit and look at them. I do a lot of this stuff with my kids now. Watching them get a buzz from the outdoors makes me happy. My old mate Cog keeps me happy too. He’s 77 and one of the most inspiring people I know. If you’re ever wondering where I’ve disappeared to on an office day, it’s usually for a coffee with Cog.

Why did you become involved with ASMS?

I think that by and large we have very good terms and conditions. Every now and again I get a bit excited though when common sense seems to have gone out the window. Two of my latest projects have involved getting paid for the work we do when we’re on call, and paid recovery time after shift work that finishes in the early hours of the morning. Fortunately, common sense is invariably backed up by a clause in the MECA, and I am ever grateful for the hard work and support of the ASMS. We have a hard and stressful job and it’s good to know that such a strong and professional organisation has got our backs. Cheers ASMS!