EMCC Course

The goal of the Emergency Medicine Core Competences (EMCC) course is to develop competence in Emergency Medicine through intensive simulation-training and group discussion. The course also promotes checklists as a tool to deliver safe and efficient patient care. Please see dates and registration for more information on when the courses will take place and how to register.

Target Participants

• Residents in Emergency Medicine from Europe and abroad

• Refresher course for European specialists in Emergency Medicine

Instructors

• European specialists in Emergency Medicine

Course Languages

• English

• Depending on the languages mastered by the instructors and the course participants, scenarios may be run in the course participants’ working language

Pedagogical Principles

• Heavy focus on simulation training with scenarios and procedural stations

• Promotion of checklists to avoid incomplete information gathering and premature closure

• Pretest

• Course manual & pocket-size checklist compendium

Duration and Venue

• 3-day course

• Different simulation centers in Europe

Schedule Overview

Day 1:

• Resuscitation station 1

• Differential diagnosis and decision-making station 1

• Acid-base disturbances station

• Procedural station 1:  airway and breathing

Day 2:

• Resuscitation station 2

• Electrocardiogram station

• Neurological deficits station

• Procedural station 2:  circulation and immobilization

Day 3:

• Resuscitation station 3

• Differential diagnosis and decision-making station 2

• Organization and communication station

• Procedural station 3:  pleural procedures and emergency delivery

Participant Groups

• The course participants (24) are divided up into four groups with 6 doctors in each group.

Stations

• Each station lasts 90 minutes.

• There are four stations per day (6 hours of scenario training).

• Prior to some of the stations, there are short lectures and demonstrations.

Group Discussions

• At the end of each day, there is a 30-45 minute group discussion session to answer questions that did not get answered during the day and to delve into pathophysiology.

Checklists

Checklists have been used in the flight industry since 1935 to prevent errors. Checklists are also used in other industries such as the building industry, the military and nuclear power. Within health-care, checklists have been shown to decrease the complication rates relating to procedures (e.g. central venous catheter insertion) and reduced the morbidity and mortality from surgery. One study showed that access to checklists improved patient care during simulated surgical crises. Checklists may also prevent diagnostic errors by minimizing the risk of incomplete information acquisition and enjoining physicians to consciously consider ”don’t miss” diagnoses. As mentioned under the section Education Program / Pedagogic Principles, checklists also promote alignment between education, patient care and assessment.

The EMCC course promotes the use of:

• Resuscitation checklists during the team-management of potentially critical patients, including ”Sign-In”, a generic ABCDE, ”syndrome-checklists” and Sign-Out

• Symptom checklists to decrease diagnostic errors

• Test & procedure checklists

All of the checklists used during the course, with the exception of the syndrome-checklists, feature under the heading CHECKLISTS.