This innovative set of protocols lead by Joel Dunning and a team representing the 9 Cardiological and Cardiothoracic Surgical organisations in the UK is the first of its kind and furthermore presents a new way of metabolic manipulation during arrest using physiological measures of tissue perfusion, etc.

Great job Joel !!!

BARRIER^® drapes for cardiovascular surgery offer effective fluid control for a dry working area. 

Our range includes single drapes and sets developed for cardiothoracic surgery, including heart valve replacements, pacemaker surgery, thoracotomy  and coronary artery bypass grafting, as well as emergency chest reopening .

Made from an impermeable material, BARRIER drapes help to prevent microbial transfer. Where necessary, our drapes have integrated fluid collection pouches and high absorbency for a dry working area.

• Apertures with integrated incise film in different sizes to meet different draping needs.
• Integrated transparent instrument bags to create an organised working area
• Impermeable material to prevent strikethrough and help protect against infection
• Folded and packaged for easy, aseptic application by one person
• Can be included in Mölnlycke^® ProcedurePak® Trays to support operating room/emergency procedure efficiency.

For more information contact us via our website

Please see this one person application of the Mölnlycke Acute Thoracic Draping system demonstrated in this video

Imagine the time  that can be saved by including surgical instruments and components – along with procedure-specific surgical drapes and staff gowns – in one convenient package, ready for quick operating room set-up. Visit Molnlycke to find out more

The 9 module eLearning course follows his very succesful international ECG Webinars.

Kevin has a long career as an AHCP in the UK running nurse led arrhythmia clinics. He was one of the first AHCPs in the UK to run DC Cardioversion lists.

Check it out here and ensure that you can quickly 'work out' any ECG !

The University of Tasmania’s postgraduate nursing program is designed for practicing Registered Nurses who would like to specialise in a particular area of clinical practice. The courses are delivered part-time and online, providing you with the flexibility required to balance work, study and family life. Over 20 specialist nursing streams are available to study, see our website for our Nursing study options https://www.utas.edu.au/study/nursing-postgraduate. In partnership with Cardiac Advanced Resuscitation Education C.A.R.E., on completion of the Nursing Advanced Course you will be eligible for recognition of prior learning for CNA772 Interpreting Patient Deterioration. To receive the credit, you will be required to provide evidence of course completion (including all assessment tasks) in 2022, 2023 or 2024.

Mr Ahmed Emadeldeen Ghoneim trained in CALS in the UK and at Waikato Hospital (New Zealand). Since returning to Egypt and taking up a position as Consultant Cardiac Surgeon (and Lecturer) at Tanta University Hospital it has been his wish to start CALS training in Egypt. After a years hard work he has managed to make it happen! CALS will be taught for the first time in Cairo later in the year.

To contact Ahmed email him on the link on his name and become one of the first people taught CALS in Egypt.

This great project (headed up by Dr Christian Karcher) has had considerable input from others across Australia and New Zealand including Dr Tim Southwood, Amy Rogers, Dr Craig Jurisevic, and Dr David McCormack.

Great work ladies and gentleman !

Thanks for all your help on this project Graham, Alison, Tim and Kelly

Despite a lockdown the hospital realised the critical necessity of the training and allowed the course to go ahead with a mixture of webinars (from the UK), socially distanced lecturing (in a very large auditorium) and some great practicals in the Cath labs.

Great job Amy, Mary, Shinu, James, Christian, Sherri and not forgetting Leeanne

Well done Adrian, Yolanda, Amy and Christian!!

Congratulations to Peter and all the crew who made it such a great day.

Great job Gavin and Catherine !

Well done Cristy and everyone else who made the course a success

Great job James and the team.

Great work Savio, Joel, Kathrin, Cristina and Nicki

Furthermore it did not allow Mr Levine to travel to Australia to lecture (where he wants to emigrate to !).

Again great job Steve and Andrew

There next REACT course will be on November 14th

Great work lads and ladettes!!

It was a great weekend and we look forward to Policlinico Gemelli becoming a CALS Centre of Excellence and partnering with the Italian Resuscitation Council in spreading CALS through Italy

Well done Amy!

Good job Christian, Tim, David, Craig and Amy

Up until 2 weeks ago I was a CardioThoracic surgeon in this trust but as I write this, I am starting an ICU nursing nightshift looking after ventilated patients covering sickness on the nursing  rota in the cardiac intensive care unit. But I am far from a qualified ICU nurse although I have some distant experience as a registrar coming into our ICU until 2012 when I pretty much stopped spending any time here. So how did I get trained to do this ?  On the 19th of March I paired up with the senior nurse trainer in our ICU for a 12 hour shift and basically did exactly what he said and watched the routine, including taking blood gases, drawing up of propofol and fentanyl, 4 hourly turning of the patient, mouthcare, giving of medications via the NG tube and of course how to look after the ventilator and ET Tube. I was more hinderance than help that day.. and Jim my trainer will agree !! On the 23rd of March I did another 12 hour shift with second trainer and this time I felt much more confident and I would say that I could do 60% of the work required to look after the ventilated patient safely.. although I will admit to wrecking the chart with a few bad mistakes! Then on the 24th of March due to staff shortages I stopped being supernumary and took part in the numbers to keep beds open with Jim looking after the patient next to me, and that went fairly well. Then yesterday I did a fully independent shift looking after a ventilated patient on CPAP with Pressure support who was starting to wean and I felt that went fairly well too. Tonight will be my 3rd nursing shift and they need a 12 hour night shift as we have 20 nurses off due to the coronavirus out of our normal complement of 76. The Trust is planning to increase our provision of ventilated beds from the usual 25 beds to 104 beds in the next 10 days. The predicted peak of the influx to our trust is going to be the Easter Bank holiday weekend. The hospital will during this time have ventilated patients in ICU, in PACU, in HDU and in our theatres – probably 3 patients per theatre, and we don’t currrently have the staff with the skills to care for these patients. There will also be many wards all full of patients with respiratory compromise who will require care from people with some knowledge of how to look after them. I believe that we have 14 days to pair up with skilled people who can teach us the skills to get us safely though the next 2 months. I would encourage everyone to think about where they could be of most use and discuss with their clinical directors or line managers where you would like to go for training in these 14 days before we all don full PPE and training will become more difficult. Thank you for all the leadership and support shown by our ICU and their enthusiasm to provide training to all who are already asking for it, and if I have one piece of advice if you chose to help care for ventilated patients… be prepared for the surprise poo when you roll a patient as I had to learn that the hard way !!