Sydney Professional Certificate
Intensive Care Medicine
Graduates of this Professional Certificate will have specialised knowledge in intensive care medicine.
Graduates will be able to:
- Explain the rationale for oxygen therapy and mechanical ventilation, including its effects on human physiology
- Appropriately initiate, monitor and escalate respiratory support consisting of oxygen therapy, non-invasive ventilation and invasive mechanical ventilation
- Describe medical gas supply systems, common ventilator systems, respiratory circuits and humidifier equipment, including their safety features and limitations
- Manipulate a mechanical ventilator and interpret data, including ventilator waveforms
- Analyse common ventilator data and problems and apply evidence-based solutions to routine and complex patient care scenarios
- Modify ventilator therapies and apply non-ventilator strategies to minimise complications and maximise effectiveness from mechanical ventilation
- Explain the components, rationale and indications for various extracorporeal life support (ECLS) modalities and their effects on human physiology
- Manipulate user-controlled variables via an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) console, predict the physiological consequences of the resulting changes
- Analyse common ECMO troubleshooting scenarios
- Apply evidence-based solutions to routine and complex patient care scenarios requiring ECLS, including weaning.
| Unit of study | Credit points | A: Assumed knowledge P: Prerequisites C: Corequisites N: Prohibition | Session |
|---|---|---|---|
Sydney Professional Certificate in Intensive Care Medicine |
|||
| Students must complete: | |||
| (a) 12 credit points of 5000-level units of study | |||
| CRIT5012 Mechanical Ventilation |
6 | A This unit of study is only available to medical graduates. Students who have not completed CRIT5004 Physiology for Critical Care may need to undertake some revision. This unit is available to Clinical Neurophysiology students by special permission. |
Semester 1 |
| CRIT5015 Extracorporeal Life Support |
6 | A This unit of study is only available to medical graduates. |
Semester 2 |
Sydney Professional Certificate in Intensive Care Medicine
Students must complete:
(a) 12 credit points of 5000-level units of study
CRIT5012 Mechanical Ventilation
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alex Yartsev Session: Semester 1 Classes: online lectures and case discussions. Assumed knowledge: This unit of study is only available to medical graduates. Assessment: online quizzes (20%); generation and peer review of assessment items (10%); case-based discussion boards (30%); final exam (40%) Mode of delivery: Online
Note: Students who have not completed CRIT5004 Physiology for Critical Care may need to undertake some revision. This unit is available to Clinical Neurophysiology students by special permission.
Mechanical ventilation is a common supportive therapy in the critical care environment. Students in this unit of study will become familiar with mechanical ventilator design and function, learn to interpret ventilator waveforms and measured data, and develop an understanding of the physiological consequences of mechanical ventilation. Commonly used models of mechanical ventilators are discussed and students will have the opportunity to become acquainted with their performance characteristics. Case-based discussions will be used to explore common strategies for ventilation in different clinical scenarios, including the operating theatre, the emergency department, and in the ICU.
Textbooks
Pilbeam's Mechanical Ventilation: Physiological and Clinical Applications; Mosby (2012)
CRIT5015 Extracorporeal Life Support
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr. Sean Scott, Dr. Steve Morgan, Dr Peter McCanny Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x day compulsory face-to-face workshop plus self-directed online learning, online lectures and tutorials. Assumed knowledge: This unit of study is only available to medical graduates. Assessment: case based discussion boards (15%), 1500 word essay (25%), workshop skills assessment (20%), online exam 40% Mode of delivery: Distance education/intensive on campus
Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS) is a rapidly developing field with applications in prehospital and retrieval medicine, emergency medicine, anaesthesia and intensive care. It has an expanding set of indications including cardiac arrest, cardiogenic shock, severe respiratory failure and organ support for high-risk procedures. Students will gain an understanding of extracorporeal support modalities including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), extracorporeal CO2 removal (ECCO2R), ventricular assist devices (VAD) and Impella. The learning modules will introduce essential aspects of the management of ECLS patients including common indications, contraindications, ECLS physiology and technology. A compulsory face-to-face workshop will provide hands on familiarisation with ECLS equipment, procedures and troubleshooting.
Textbooks
ECMO in the Adult Patient (Core Critical Care) A Vuylsteke, D Brodie, A Combes, J Fowles and G Peek. Cambridge University Press (2016). Extracorporeal Life Support for Adults. G Schmidt Ed. Humana Press (2015). Extracorporeal Life Support: The ELSO Red Book 5th edition. T Brogan, L Lequier, R Lorusso, G MacLaren, G Peek (2017).