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Get Your Hands On!

Februrary 27, 2009

Roy Dubash, MD Image “First, you make an incision over the fifth intercostal space, then blunt dissect superiorly…then push firmly. That POP tells you you’re in the pleural space.” That was this physician’s first chest tube, and his patient is certain NOT to survive!

This is our idea of a good time, and so it was with the physicians in our first graduate training program class who attended the Emergency Medicine Procedures Course in November. Participants got to relive their gross anatomy days of medical school while practicing hands-on skills so critical to the practice of emergency medicine.

“These doctors have a vast array of experiences but are new to emergency medicine. We want to give them the skill set necessary to practice high-quality patient care in the emergency department environment,” says Dr. Kas Oganowski, Associate Director of the Graduate Training Program. “This is the first year for our program, and I would say it’s been a very positive experience so far for Premier and for our participants,” he says. The curriculum includes a didactic review of emergency medicine core content, skills training, and mentoring by board certified emergency physicians in the emergency department.

The Emergency Medicine Procedures Course is offered annually by Premier Health Care Services in conjunction with the Wright State University. Dr. Frank Nagy, Director of the Anatomical Gift Program at WSU serves as faculty for this course. “I always enjoy teaching anatomy to anyone who is willing to listen. It’s not so different if you’re a first year medical student or a practicing physician. There is a lot of satisfaction in getting hands on practice of life-saving skills in a non-threatening environment of the anatomy lab. You get to learn and have fun at the same time!”

Jerry Voit, MD Image The didactic session of the Procedures Course is based on patient cases that are designed to introduce the procedures and review the steps necessary to perform each procedure successfully. The afternoon session moves into the lab, where each physician performs a set of skills, ranging from endotracheal intubation to cranial trephination. Some of the skills that are taught are outdated, such as diagnostic peritoneal lavage. But this is a great review of the anatomy of the abdominal wall and peritoneum, so the procedures are used to teach much more than just the skills. Each participant completes a check list of procedures performed under the direct supervision of an instructor.

“When we first developed this course, our thoughts were that physicians in our busiest EDs would need these skills every day. What we’ve found is that it is in the most rural departments where these skills are the most useful” says Dr. John Lyman, instructor. These are also the most difficult locations in which to recruit board-certified emergency physicians. Thus arose the concept for training our own physicians. By making sure that each physician who practices with our company has exactly the same knowledge base and skills set, we can raise the standard of patient care through the company to a consistently very high level. “It’s the procedures that we use the least that need to be practiced the most,” says Lyman. “We all need to sharpen our manual skills from time to time because we never know when were going to be called to use them.”

The Emergency Medicine Procedures Course is conducted in November of each year by the Education Division of PHCS. For registration information please contact Wanda Blackford at wblackford@phcsday.com or 937-312-3640. For information regarding the Graduate Training Program, contact:

Kas Oganowski, MD
Associate Director, Graduate Training Program
800-726-3627 ext. 3468
e-mail: koganowski@phcsday.com

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Premier Health Care Services, Inc.
332 Congress Park Drive
Dayton, OH 45459
800-726-3627