Victoria
Vi Victoria has a rich history of providing high quality airway course such as
the advanced airway management refresher course, Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Dexter
fibreoptic training course and ANZSAC which enhanced airway skills being taught
by leading experts from around Australia and New Zealand. This involves airway
research and lead to several publications on topics such as cognitive aids and
competency based fibreoptics.
There has been an explosion of airway CICO courses since it became a mandated ANZCA requirement. This has led to some confusion about what is primarily a CICO course for CPD purposes compared with a more holistic airway course, which teach a variety of techniques and CRM principles.
The main airway training courses that target trainees to consultants and are available to participants from outside the institutions are the following:
- National Airway Training Course for Anaesthetic Trainees (NATCAT) is the longest running national airway course specifically designed for trainees and approaches its 10 Anniversary and has had overseas guests come to observe it to see how they could implement it in their own countries.
- The Airway course for critical care and emergency (ACE) course is in its sixth year and caters for critical care and emergency staff. It has a degree of overlap with the core anaesthetic principles of NATCAT.
- The Epworth airway course is in its fourth year and is a three hour course which has theatre staff and anaesthetists working together in their own Epworth surrounding. This is complete with all the equipment and airway trollies specific to that environment.
- Critically Ill Airway (CIA) is in its third year and is probably the spiritual successor of AAMRC but to a broader audience of all airway providers, rather than primarily anaesthetists.
Dr Pierre Bradley
Critically Ill Airway Course
The Alfred ICU’s Critically Ill Airway (CIA) course came to light in early 2015. This two-day course aims to address all of the demands of airway management of critically ill patients outside of the operating theatre – understanding critical illness, improving technical airway skills, making effective decisions, and developing the necessary non-technical skills. Airway management is viewed as a team sport, demanding effective leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills beyond mere technical expertise. As such it targets practitioners from all cr
itical care specialties (e.g. intensive care, emergency medicine, anaesthesia, prehospital medicine, and remote practitioners).
Each course is limited to 24 participants, who take part in numerous “hands on” skill stations covering all the essential basic and advanced airway procedures required in critical care from effective ventilation to percutaneous tracheostomy, selective lung intubation, and awake intubation1. The core of the course, however, involves the participants in teams of six, tackling 12 (or more) immersive simulation scenarios covering the emergency department/ trauma, the intensive care unit, and ward/ remote settings. The face-to-face days include few didactic sessions, with the bulk of this material being provided through online readings and videos. The course has both pre-course and post-course assessments and is accredited by all the relevant colleges.
The faculty is truly multidisciplinary, with Alfred intensivists and senior trainees joined by anaesthetists, emergency physicians, retrievalists, and remote practitioners from across Australia. The course is remarkable for the high level participant-driven debriefs and discussions, aided by a quarter of the course participants being consultants. As a result, the faculty and the participants journey together towards greater expertise in the airway management of the critically ill.
Dr Chris Nickson
Intensivist, The Alfred Hospital
Adjunct Lecturer, School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Monash University
Innovation Lead, Australian Centre for Health Innovation, Alfred Health
Reference
1. Brewster DJ, Nickson CP, Gatward JJ. Airway education in intensive care medicine in Australia and New Zealand: What are we doing? Anaesthesia and Intensive Care. 2018 Mar;46(2):240-242.
NATCAT
National Airway Training Course for Anaesthetic Trainees (NATCAT) is the first, largest and longest running national airway course designed specifically for trainees involved in airway management, open to all anaesthetic trainees, ICU trainees, ED trainees and residents in anaesthesia, ICU and ED. It has been running since 2009. It is an excellent grounding course for all trainees.
The aim of the course is to give you a structured approach to airway management – correct thinking applied to proficient technical skills
It is an all-day “hands-on” event, with the participants working in small group and a faculty of 40 anaesthesia and intensive care specialists on each course, meaning an instructor participant ratio of 1:2 or better. It addresses all aspects of airway management from the basic to the advanced.
The faculty consist of specialists from teaching departments throughout Australasia such as The Alfred, Royal Melbourne, Monash and Westmead. It includes the executive and past Chairs of the Airway Management Special Interest Group, department directors, supervisors of training, college examiners and guest overseas faculty, all of who are enthusiastic teachers and mentors. The faculty members have a proven track record in teaching, airway research, development of airway professional standards, curriculum review and have an impressive, practical knowledge of airway management.
Next Course: Saturday 10 November 2018
For further information, please click here
The Airway course for critical care and emergency (ACE)
Now into its sixth year, the Airway course for critical care and emergency (ACE) was one of the first airway courses in Australia to focus solely on airway management in the critical care and emergency settings. Recognising that patient, operator and environmental factors in these settings often give rise to unique factors pertaining to airway management, the core anaesthetic faculty responsible for NATCAT, in conjunction with intensivists and emergency physicians, designed the course specifically for critical care trainees and consultants.
This day-long course has a multi-disciplinary faculty of at least 30 consultants and can accommodate 72 participants. The participants are presented with a suggested airway management plan and through the duration of the day, practice all the technical skills associated with carrying out the plan. A significant portion of the course is spent discussing non-technical and airway team management skills and the participants are given an opportunity to practice all of these skills during the simulation component of the course.
The course is recognised and accredited by the Australian College of Emergency Medicine, the College of Intensive Care medicine and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine. The course is run once a year at the Western Centre for Health, Research and Education at Sunshine Hospital, St Albans.
For further information, please click here