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Course Format

Online course – freely available to all anaesthetists.

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About the North West London Obstetric Anaesthesia Education Project

Labour ward can be a high-risk isolated environment and is often the first time a junior anaesthetist is working with distant supervision out of hours. A robust understanding of the management of common and uncommon clinical situations is vital to maintain the delivery of safe patient care.

The North West London Obstetric Anaesthesia Education Project has been designed to cover the key curriculum areas for Stage 1 and 2 Obstetric Anaesthesia. The content has been developed to provide practically useful information to support you on labour ward whether you are brand new to obstetric anaesthesia or you need to re-familiarise yourself with labour ward after time away or this is your first time working on labour ward in the UK. We hope the material will make obstetric anaesthesia on-calls less daunting as well as help you to achieve the required competencies to progress in your training programme. 

The video podcasts have been recorded by anaesthetists working in obstetric units across North West London and we would like to thank all those that have contributed to this material.

Our course content has been devised to familiarise you with the essential knowledge, drugs, equipment, and skills necessary to provide safe anaesthetic care to patients. You will be expected to be familiar with these basics within weeks of starting your Anaesthesia rotation. The course content will support you to attain the Initial Assessment of Competency which must be obtained within your first 3-6 months of Anaesthesia training.

This course will not only provide you with the very basic knowledge you need to achieve your Initial Assessment of Competency but also a taste of things you should be considering during your everyday practice. We know and understand that to begin with it’s about surviving and getting through the list (both novices and patients alike – we were novices once too and remember how tough some days can be!).

In recognition of the steep learning curve you are facing, the North West London School of Anaesthesia has made our hybrid novice course a regional mandatory requirement for all Core Anaesthesia trainees, all ACCS trainees and all ICM trainees with a rotation in Anaesthesia.

Course Format

Our online course is freely available to all anaesthetists (register here for access). The online course consists of video podcasts and written material that can be viewed at a self-directed pace. Each topic is standalone and approximately 5-15 minutes duration. The content has been divided in this way to allow it to be viewed in easily digestible chunks with a low risk of screen fatigue. Certificates are available following completion of each module. 

The online course is complemented by a face-to-face Pan-London training day on Friday 24th November 2023 at Northwick Park Hospital. The day consists of a variety of talks and small group workshops run by expert, friendly faculty from across the region. 

On behalf of the Course Team*, we wish you a warm welcome to life as The Anaesthetist on Labour Ward! We hope our course makes things a bit easier. Good luck!

*Course Team – Abi Richardson, Claire Ruck, Eoin Harty, Laura Peltola, Mandeep Dhankar, Matt Clayton, Sneh Shah, Northwick Park Obstetric Anaesthesia Fellows (Previous – Urvi Sanganee, James Parry; Present – Icel Souleimanova)

Course Advisor – Nuala Lucas

Course Components

The course components are outlined below:

Online Course

Learners progress through online material at a self-directed pace. The online material is divided into 71 video podcasts and 46 written topics. Each topic is stand-alone and approximately 10 minutes duration. The content has been divided in this way to allow it to be viewed in easily digestible chunks with a low risk of screen fatigue.

The podcasts have been recorded by consultants and trainees from the Imperial School of Anaesthesia hospitals network and we would like to thank all those that have contributed to this material. 

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INTERACTIVE SESSIONS

The online course material will be accompanied by live interactive sessions which will be held once a week for four weeks. During these sessions, the online content will be applied in small-group discussions of case-based scenarios.

February 2022 course interactive session dates are as follows:

  • Wednesday 10th August 2022
  • Thursday 18th August 2022
  • Wednesday 24th August 2022
  • Thursday 1st September 2022

FACE-TO-FACE TRAINING

Practical Skills Workshop Day

Workshops will include airway management, spinals, epidurals, arterial lines and central lines. This will be held on Friday 2nd September 2022.

Simulation 

We will run through a mixture of common and uncommon emergencies you may encounter in your Anaesthetics rotation. For each scenario, we will consider the clinical management as well as the non-technical skills important to managing similar anaesthetic emergencies.

August 2022 course simulation dates will be in held in October 2022 – exact dates TBC.

If you are not a trainee within the North West London School of Anaesthesia but would like to access our course, you would be most welcome, please get in touch with us at info@nwlobsanaesthesia.com

We wish you a warm welcome to the Specialty of Anaesthesia. We hope you enjoy the course. Good luck!

Meet the Directors

Hello and welcome to Anaesthesia training! Please do not hesitate to email us during your novice period or beyond. We will do our best to help you and if we can’t, we’ll be able to point you towards someone who can help with your query.