Basic Assessment & Support in Intensive Care (BASIC)

This two-day course is suitable as introduction to Intensive Care Medicine or as a refresher

About the course

Target group:

• ACCS and CTs in anaesthesia, medicine, surgery and emergency medicine

• FY doctors

• Trust Doctors

• Senior intensive care nurses and AHPs

The best time for trainees to attend is either just prior to, or at an early stage of, their ICU placement. Being able to put the course content into practice straight away consolidates the newly acquired knowledge and skills and allows candidates to get the most out of the course.

Course structure:

The course consists of

• a printed manual

• an app for smartphones / tablets

• lectures

• skill stations

Thorough preparation with manual and app is essential. In order to pass the course candidates must attend both days, complete an online pre-course MCQ and pass a post-course test.

Course content

This is a selection of the topics we cover :

• Hands on mechanical ventilation & NIV

• Assessment of the critically ill patient

• Management of acute respiratory failure

• Airway management in the critically ill

• Shock & basic haemodynamic monitoring

• Management of oliguria and acute kidney injury

• Sepsis

• Severe trauma

• Neurological emergencies

Origins and Wessex centre

BASIC was developed by the Hong Kong based BASIC collaboration and is run in over 40 countries worldwide. It has been endorsed by the UK Intensive Care Society, the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine and the College of Intensive Care Medicine of Australia and New Zealand. In Oz and NZ an introductory intensive care course is compulsory during ICM training and BASIC fulfils those requirements.

We have been running BASIC courses in Wessex since 2010, and the feedback from candidates and instructors has been consistently excellent. Our local group of instructors has extensive experience in teaching junior and senior intensivists.

We use venues centrally located in Wessex in order to make the course accessible to all trainees in the region as a non-residential event.

All Wessex ICM tutors should be aware of the course, and candidates are advised to apply for study leave early.