Free download from The Purposeful Doctor
Built by a practicing pulmonary and critical care physician for physicians, nurses, APPs, respiratory therapists, and everyone else in healthcare. Each reset takes between 30 seconds and 5 minutes, and most of them work at a workstation, in a supply room, or in your car without anyone noticing.
Download it now. A copy is on its way to your inbox too.
Download the ICU Reset (PDF)One more thing that takes two minutes: the free Purpose Quiz shows which of five areas is draining you most, and the first step to take.
Take the Purpose QuizWhat is inside
The ICU Reset is a free five-page guide of short, evidence-informed resets for healthcare workers. Pick the one that matches the moment you keep running into, practice it once on a calm day, and use it on your next hard shift.
90 seconds
Stop, breathe four counts in and six out, ground your feet, and pick one word for the next room. Use it between patients or before a hard conversation.
2 minutes
For after a death, a code, or a withdrawal of care when there is no debrief. Ten seconds of stillness, a longer exhale, one true sentence, and one colleague.
30 seconds
A hand on the door frame and one slow breath out, so the last room stays in the last room and the next patient gets a fresh start.
3 minutes
Between the parking lot and the front door: name what is still open, decide where it lives, find one thing that went right, and arrive.
5 minutes
For when the shift is replaying and sleep will not come. Turn the clock away, slow your breathing, and hand the shift off until morning.
Why a reset this small
“From 2013 to 2020 I worked pulmonary and ICU together, close to 80 hours a week. The advice I kept hearing was to take care of myself on my days off. The problem was that the damage happened during the shift: a code that went badly, a family meeting with no good news, the next admission arriving before I had taken a breath.
These five resets are what I use in those moments. They will not fix staffing or charting, and they are not meant to. They are meant to stop one hard hour from becoming a hard day, and a hard day from following you home.”
Dr. Mousab Almusaddy, MD, FCCP
Pulmonary and critical care physician and certified high performance coach. More about Dr. Mousab
Questions
The ICU Reset is a free five-page PDF from The Purposeful Doctor with five short resets for the hardest moments of a healthcare shift: the 90-Second Reset, the Post-Code Reset, the Doorway Reset, the Handoff Home, and the 3 am Reset. It ends with a printable pocket card.
No. It was built in the ICU by a critical care physician, and it works anywhere in healthcare: emergency departments, hospital floors, clinics, operating rooms, and home health. Physicians, nurses, APPs, respiratory therapists, residents, and students all use it.
Between 30 seconds and 5 minutes. None of them need a quiet room or an app, and most can be done at a workstation, in a supply room, or in your car.
No. The resets are education and self-care tools. They are not medical or mental health treatment. If you are in crisis, call or text 988 in the US, or call the Physician Support Line at 1-888-409-0141.
You can download the PDF right away, and a copy arrives by email. Over the next week you get three short emails from Dr. Mousab with ways to use the resets on real shifts. You can unsubscribe at any time.
No. The ICU Reset is free.
Ready when you are
Use one on your next shift and see what changes.
