Mechanical Ventilation: beyond BASIC

Target group:

• trainees that have completed their basic ICM training - usually ST3 or equivalent and above

• experienced specialty doctors in ICU

• consultants with intensive care commitments

• senior intensive care nurses and physiotherapists

Good prior basic ventilation knowledge is essential.

Wessex course:

"Mechanical Ventilation: beyond BASIC" was developed by the BASIC collaboration in Hong Kong and has been run with great success in four continents. Our group of instructors has extensive experience in teaching junior and senior intensivists. In Wessex we have been running BASIC introduction to ICM and other courses since 2010 and ventilation courses since 2014. The feedback from candidates and instructors has been consistently excellent.

Course structure:

The course consists of

• a manual

• an online e-learning programme of narrated lectures and tutorials (similar to the format of some resuscitation courses, total pre-course study approx. 10 - 15 hours)

• a one-day face-to-face event with lectures and hands-on skill stations (09.00 - 18.00 hours).

Content:

MV:BB has been referred to as a "high level" ventilation course. The topics covered are applicable to everyday bedside medicine in all ICUs, from teaching hospitals to small units in DGHs. Mechanical ventilation is one of the cornerstones of intensive care medicine, yet in daily practice as well as in teaching curricula and CPD it is often not given the attention it deserves.

Our aim is to improve our candidates’ understanding and skills in order to give them the confidence to take full control of their ventilators and optimise their patients’ respiratory management.

Candidates will revisit the basics of respiratory and cardiovascular physiology relevant to ventilation and review, in some detail, the concepts behind the most commonly used and some less well-known ventilation modes. 

They will learn how to manage “tight” asthmatics safely, how to adjust the ventilation in ARDS patients and how to monitor respiratory function and interpret ventilator waveforms. Other topics include general troubleshooting, the detection and management of patient-ventilator dyssynchrony, a structured approach to weaning and extubation and non-invasive ventilation. We do not cover oscillation and extracorporeal support.

CPD credits:

• the Royal College of Anaesthetists has awarded previous courses with 6 external CPD points

• additional CPD points can be self-certified for pre-course study

• the course counts towards "Level 3 Intensive Care" on the Royal College of Anaesthetists CPD matrix