Emergency Medicine Group

Name of the activity: Emergency Medicine Group

Country/NMO: Norway (NMSA)

Program: Teaching Medical Skills

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Capacity Building (Training or Workshop). Teaching and develop knowledge, skills and techniques in a particular field. While training can have any form, workshops are more formal and also include exchange of information between participants.

General description:

Emergency Medicine is one of the study areas where the practical skills are need most. However, Norwegian medical students studying abroad have few chances to practice their skills, especially those following guidelines from Norwegian Resuscitation Council (NRR). Emergency Medicine Group (EMG) aims to provide Norwegian medical students abroad with proper, practical education following guidelines from NRR and arrange weekend courses 2-3 times per semester. EMG offers currently six different courses, 20-30 instructors and a storage full of apparatus for the courses. EMG gathers students in one place in Europe according to survey and history. EMG is constantly working on improvements and has evaluation forms for different courses. The forms are sent to both individual instructor and the EMG. EMG has been a huge success so far since its founding in 2006, with around 100 participants per course and good qualitative feedbacks.

Focus area:

First Aid/CPR/BLS

Problem statement:

A number of Norwegian students are studying medicine outside Norway, accounting for the biggest local committee for Norwegian Medical Students’ Associations (NMSA), NMSA Abroad. It has been made clear that there is insufficient teaching when it comes to emergency medicine, and there is a great need for practical courses. Our courses follow Norwegian guidelines, the main focus being Norwegian students. This is proved by the fact that our previous courses had around 100 participants per course.

Target groups:

Medical students, Healthcare Students

Beneficiaries:

Medical students, Healthcare Students

Objectives and indicators of success:

Our objective is to promote emergency medical knowledge and skills among Norwegian medical students studying outside Norway, 2-3 times per semester. Every year we travel to various European cities where Norwegian medical students are gathered, to offer our practical courses. The goal is to strengthen the individual young doctor’s prerequisites for coping with situations that are perceived as stressful and unclear when they meet the clinical everyday life.

Each course has an evaluation form that all participants are asked to fill out, after the courses. This form can be found on our website, with a password. For us, it is about constantly fulfilling the demands of the students. It is important for us to be up to date, and we know it is the feedback from the participants that gives us much of this information. So far, we have received only good feedback.

Another factor that we consider an indicator of success is that we see an increase in the waiting lists on our courses. When the registration starts, several of the courses are filled up after a short time. We are working to offer the courses to several students, but are limited by resources and equipment.

Methodology:

We arrange two or three weekends with our courses every semester. We receive applications from different cities with Norwegian medical students before each semester, and we choose based on previous attendance and new cities, to ensure a roll over where we go.

Since our students are studying all over Europe, we have to gather the courses for a weekend. It is also possible for other students in nearby cities to participate. Public transport in Europe by bus and train is generally good.

Participants are required to take an internet course beforehand, and during the course there Our equipment is stored in Warsaw, where two or three instructors meet ahead of the weekend. Here, the equipment is loaded into a van before heading to the city. The equipment travels many kilometers. For example, from Warsaw to Riga in the north or Prague in the south, it is about 700 km – one way!

The course activity starts on Friday afternoon and ends Sunday afternoon, before we return the equipment to Warsaw.

Plans for evaluation:

As mentioned earlier, we evaluate our courses constantly. This is done through an evaluation form developed for each course and instructor, as well as feedback from participants during the courses. The evaluation form consists of questions about the content, quality and the practices during the course.

Two of our courses are made by the Norwegian Resuscitation Council (NRR). Here we follow their course concept, but we do not hesitate to send them feedback. This applies to the AHLR (ACLS: Advanced Cardiac Life Support) and HHLR (Cardiac Life Support for healthcare professionals) courses.

When it comes to our own concepts, such as IV / IO and the Emergency course, we appreciate the feedback from the participants and our own instructors who hold the courses. We always evaluate the course day together after completing the course day.