We had the pleasure of hosting 10 delegates for a College of Paramedics CPD event this week - the topic was Paediatric Resuscitation. The morning started with some resuscitation reminders and a short discussion on clinical human factors. Of the 10, there was a good mix of students and registrants from a variety of different NHS Trusts. All worked on frontline for the ambulance service. A couple of interesting findings from the mornings discussion:
Our intention for the day was for delegates to leave with increased confidence in managing paediatric emergencies, this would be achieved using our immersive interactive classrooms. From a human factors point of view, it was beneficial to understand from the beginning that none of the group have done any paediatric assessment or post-registration courses. It meant that there were no assumptions made about abilities within the group, so that they could enter each scenario knowing that there skill levels were fairly similar. This left us somewhat confused...
With lots of emphasis on ALS assessments to gain employment (usually, if not always on adults) we should, and so, expect Paramedics to be very good at it. For the most part, we are (for adults) but two reports (Jewkes, 2001 and Houston & Pearson, 2010) highlighted some years ago that paediatric education was lacking and that it was highly likely an ambulance person with no specific paediatric training could attend a child. And so in 2016, it seems that those findings may still be the case. Now we just had a snapshot of 10 people, so I would be interested to understand what happens where you work. Please comment on the blog posts, but I'd like to survey the College membership later this year to get a more significant picture from across the country. Will Broughton Academy Director and Paramedic References Jewkes F. Current topic: Prehospital emergency care for children. Arch Dis Child [Internet]. 2001 Feb 1 [cited 2015 Jul 13];84(2):103–5. Available from: http://adc.bmj.com/content/84/2/103.full Houston R, Pearson GA. Ambulance provision for children: a UK national survey. Emerg Med J [Internet]. 2010 Aug 1 [cited 2015 May 2];27(8):631–6. Available from: http://emj.bmj.com/content/early/2010/05/31/emj.2009.088880
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The Academy team have returned from a fantastic weekend in Oxford at the inaugural Student Paramedic International Rally of Emergency Simulations (SPIRES) event, organised by Oxford Brookes University in association with the College of Paramedics. 12 teams took part and were made up of student paramedics from Turkey, Australia and the UK, who competed against each other in 8 challenging simulations over an intensive day. I delivered the paediatric scenario, which was great fun (I had fun anyway!!) The setting was Nottinghill Carnival in London, a 6 year old child in status epilepticus. The team were working on foot with limited equipment available. It was as much a human factors sim as it was about clinical interventions - the environment was dark, loud music played throughout and confined spaces were created to fully immerse the teams into the situation. All teams did very well under challenging circumstances, with variations in clinical practice seen from the international teams. Also, some teams realised why your kit should always be kept nearby - some naughty bystanders 'removed' it from the scene!!!
Other scenarios included a confused older adult, major trauma, mass casualty, obstetric emergency all designed and supported by conference sponsors and the team at Oxford Brookes. All were challenging and required a team approach to manage each situation - I was hugely impressed with the standard of care on display from all the teams that took part. At the end of the evening, I had the pleasure of presenting the final award, on behalf of the College of Paramedics, to the Plymouth A team (below)! Over the course of the day this team showed true teamwork, dedication and clinical excellence to score the highest mark overall. Very well done team! An exciting conference programme followed on day 2, with local and international speakers giving their perspective on the profession and clinical practice. Some truly inspiring talks were given over the course of the day, which I have no doubt will have broadened the horizons of those students in attendance.
Finally, I want to give a huge thank you to Georgette, Antonia and the team of staff and student volunteers that created this event and made it such a huge success. And thanks also to the College of Paramedics and event sponsors for their support, without which the weekend would not have been possible. Students were engaged, enthusiastic and focussed - and most of all they enjoyed it and have key learning points to take back to their own practice. Meducation at its finest! Oh, and no pressure team, but I can't wait for SPIRES 2017, I've already started thinking of a new paediatric simulation......!!! By Will Broughton, Academy Director and Paramedic Educator (@WilBroughton / @AcademyProDev) A short piece on what I have taken away from day 1 at #smaccDUB.
What a day! First visit to SMACC and I was not disappointed! The conference opened with a laser / smoke / visual effects display leading straight into session 1 - the John Hinds plenary. The morning session provided a very fitting tribute to Dr John Hinds (aka Delta 7). Dr Victoria Brazil opened with a session dedicated to feedback methods, her take-home messages:
From the memory of Dr John Hinds came the following the quote: 'Make your intentions honourable, the patient is at the centre of everything' This was met with #WhatWouldJohnDo, food for thought next time you encounter a challenging situation. Tribute was given from Dr Hinds partner and mentor and a video showcasing his life was concluded with a standing ovation - demonstrating the impact this amazing doc has had on the medical community. Next up for me:
My final thought for the day came from an Australian Army video in the last session - it was quite simple: 'The standard YOU walk past is the standard YOU are willing to accept.' 'If you're not willing to uphold those basic standards, then get out!' By Will Broughton, Academy Director and Paramedic (@WilBroughton) Too often we practice clinical skills in the relative comfort of the clinical skills lab. The walls are usually white with blue wipe clean floors and good lighting. I have asked many Paramedics if they have ever attended a resuscitation call in a clinical skills lab - so far the answer has always been no.
That being the case, why do we practice for this event in the lab? The human factors of resuscitation are frequently discussed, with recent inventions like the ‘pit crew’ approach and identifying a team leader beginning to assist us with a standardised resus attempt. Why then, do we learn to manage the human factors in the skills lab? If we are truly going to prepare clinicians to operate to the best of their ability, surely we must train and educate them in the right environment. We should run simulation with noise, at different temperatures and with different levels of light. We should use environments to challenge and shape behaviour at an early stage, to adequately prepare students for the clinical practice settings they go into. The Academy of Professional Development uses fully interactive immersive classrooms to challenge student behaviour. We control smell, temperature, light and noise and use video debriefing technology to promote student learning. We are running a series of confidence builder courses in June and July,https://www.academyprodev.com/confidence-builders.html using immersive simulation to increase your clinical confidence. Contact wb@academyprodev.com to discuss how we could work with your team to immersify and enhance your continuing medical education. |
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