By Dr. Jimmy Lee
Why did you do the course?
Like many Irish EM trainees, I have a special interest in Pre-hospital EM and Disaster Medicine, though don’t get much opportunity to do it as a relatively junior trainee. This course gave me the opportunity to gain more knowledge and skills before I set off to do the real thing.
Who is the course aimed at?
Anyone with an interest in Pre-Hospital EM. First responders from nearly all realms were well represented classroom, with Paramedics, Nurses, and Firemen all present. From the Docs, Interns to Senior Registrar levels attended the course.
Give a brief overview of the course
The course is 2 days, with the first day covering the majority of the course book materials. Like most ALS courses these days, you are required to do the online pre-course work beforehand to better in-person classroom experience. You cover everything from radio communication, to major incident preparation, and management. Each skill was covered again through a practical session as well, using maps and models. Of particular value to doctors was the rapid triage (sieve and sort) of casualties.
Finally, the second day of the course was largely spent at Dublin Airport’s major incident training facility where we learned about the DAA’s specific prep and management priorities, as well running a scenario ourselves using our new major incident skills.
Would you recommend the course?
Absolutely, the faculty was incredible, with the experience level through the roof. Especially interesting was having the lead for the NHS Emergency Planning there. Discussion around some of his experiences with some of the major incidents in the UK was of particular value. Despite using maps and models only, the scenarios felt very real and you really got a sense of how a major incident would be run, from first responder to hospital.
When is the course usually run and how much did it cost?
My course was run in February, and as far as I know it is only run in Ireland once a year. It cost 850 euro and was unfortunately recently taken off the HSE’s course remuneration scheme.
Where can we find more information?
The course was run by Code Blue (codeblue.ie) and they can be contacted at info@codeblue.ie.
Submitted on November 30, 2015. Published online on 01/01/2016.
Jimmy Lee is a Year 2 Core Specialist Trainee in Emergency Medicine, Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland.
