Thinking: Agitation

The Thinking Series is where Ginger Locke talks with some of the sharpest minds in Emergency Medicine about how they think through chief complaints. In this episode, one of the country’s few flight doctors, Dr. Cynthia Griffin, shares how she sorts through patients with the chief complaint of agitation. She works both in-hospital and out-of-hospital, so her perspective is truly unique. What you will quickly hear is that she is relatable, smart, and happy to share what she knows with medics because she was one for many years before becoming an Emergency Medicine doctor. She makes a point to describe how she actually leans into the patients who are the most salty because she knows, like all of us, we can be biased when confronted with the agitated patient.