ICU Education

The JHH ICU provides a comprehensive teaching program for the CICM primary exam. The CICM Primary Teaching sessions run on every week Thursday evenings at 1730 and cover the syllabus over the course of ~ 3months. Each year we have 2-6 trainees sitting the CICM Primary, which benefit from studying together as a cohort of colleagues and friends.

Most trainees attend for the 12 months prior to their exam, and benefit from a spiral learning approach to the exam. This also enables new trainees wishing to start studying for the exam to join the tutorials at any stage.

Formal mock viva sessions and practice written exams are held every 6 months, and John Hunter Hospital ICU trainees have enjoyed a high success rate at the primary exam over the past decade.

We recognise that our staff are our greatest asset, and we invest in their education. The John Hunter Intensive Care Unit uses simulation training as an integral part of our education program. We are supported in delivering this training by the HNE Simulation Centre team.

Each term we run the following specialised intensive care simulation courses for medical and nursing staff working in the ICU (a total of 12 courses per year):

• Intensive Care Crisis Team Training
  This course provides scenario based team training on the types of adult emergencies that staff may encounter within the ICU or during a rapid response call.

• ICU Difficult Airway Management
  This course focuses on the management and process of dealing with a difficult airway in the adult patient. The course comprises airway skills stations and scenario based team training.

• Intensive Care Paediatric Crisis Team Training
  This course provides scenario based team training on the types of paediatric emergencies that staff may encounter within the paediatric ICU or during a rapid response call.

These inter-professional team training courses are specifically designed to provide participants with specialised skills training and allow them to practice their communication, leadership, decision-making and resource management skills.

There is no cost to John Hunter ICU staff to attend these courses – they are funded by the Department of Intensive Care to ensure our medical and nursing staff have access to the best training and professional development opportunities available.

Our unit enjoys working collaboratively with the HNE Simulation Centre. This is a state-of-the-art educational facility that delivers training to several thousand participants each year. The centre is supported by a team of specialist doctors and senior nurses who are trained simulation instructors and clinically active in the specialty areas of anaesthesia, intensive care (adult, paediatric & neonatal) and emergency medicine.

A comprehensive weekly teaching program is run to cover the educational requirements of our doctors and nurses.

• Tuesday 12pm - PICU Case Discussion - Lvl 3 PICU
• Tuesday 2pm – Core ICU Practical Skills
  • In-situ simulation and practical skills multidisciplinary teaching for junior doctors and nursing staff
  Wednesday 7am – Core Knowledge Teaching for Junior Doctors in ICU (SRMO/Junior Registrar level, and open for all JHH RMO's to attend)
• Wednesday 9-11am - Fellowship Teaching for Advanced Trainees with written exam and hot case practice weekly
• Wednesday 12:30pm Journal Club or ECHO teaching
• Wednesday 2pm ICU Grand Rounds
• Thursday 7am Neurocritical Care Grand Rounds Multidisclipinary Team Meeting - Lvl 4 PICU
• Thursday 2pm  Core PICU Practical Skills
  • In-situ Paediatric ICU simulation and practical skills multidisciplinary teaching for junior doctors and nursing staff (open to all ICU staff and all John Hunter Children's Hospital staff)
• Friday 7am Trauma Forum - Lvl 3 RNC Lecture Theatre

The John Hunter ICU has a well-established and comprehensive teaching program for the CICM fellowship examinations which has seen high pass rates over the past decade.

Our staff are highly trained, skilled and motivated and able to practice across the entire domain of Intensive Care medicine.  To compliment the broad clinical experience ICU trainees receive at JHH, we provide weekly protected teaching sessions focused on preparation for all three components of the fellowship examination: written, hot cases and vivas.

The John Hunter Hospital ICU is able to provide regular hot cases in General ICU, Neurosurgery, Cardiothoracic, Trauma, ECMO, ENT, Maxillary-Facial Surgery, Severe Respiratory Failure, General Surgery, Interventional Neurology, and candidates are able to undertake Haematology/Oncology cases at the nearby Calvary Mater Hospital ICU.

Additionally there are formal mock exam days every 6 months. This gives candidates the opportunity to perform written, viva and hot cases all under exam conditions with individualised candidate feedback.

We usually have between 2-7 candidates sitting the fellowship exam each year, and they benefit from being able to study together as a group.

There is an active echocardiography teaching program in the John Hunter Hospital Intensive Care Unit.

Our Basic Critical Care Echocardiography Course is accredited by the CICM and a number of our staff specialists are CICM accredited Critical Care Echocardiography Assessors.

Trainees who stay with us for a longer period of time are encouraged to achieve internal accreditation in basic echocardiographic haemodynamic assessment (Level 1).

In brief, this process involves attending our course, performing and reporting targeted critical care echoes, and participating in second weekly echo meetings. Trainees are provided with regular teaching with patients as well as a transthoracic and transoesophageal simulation manikin. A number of staff specialists are keen sonographers, so there are many teaching opportunities available.