Overview

• Welcome Letter
• Faculty

Dear Students,

Welcome to the Fundamentals of Acute Care Course. The goal of the course is to provide you with an understanding of advanced life support and acute care skills that will be useful in any field of medicine that you subsequently enter. Course material is based on the American Heart Association's Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Course and the principles and techniques of airway management/ventilation, and acute management of the trauma victim.

The Week

The lecture discussions will cover the basics of ACLS and acute care, including airway management, hemodynamic instability and monitoring, dysrhythmias, shock, respiratory failure and monitoring, fluid management, neurologic failure and trauma. Workshops will include exposure to the techniques of intravenous access and mechanical ventilation, and exposure to critical care procedures in the operating room.

The human patient simulator is a novel approach to the teaching of critical care in a life-like manner on a full-scale simulated manikin. This manikin is unique because it has a hybrid lung model that actually consumes oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide. It also has pulses, breath sound, heart tones, reactive pupils and it reacts to the administration of medications with an appropriate response. It has scenarios that include management of a difficult airway, trauma, respiratory events such as pneumothorax, bronchospasm and pulmonary edema, and a series of scenarios with shock of various etiologies. Only a few of these simulators are being used in the 3rd year curriculum in the United States, and we are fortunate at UNC to have a new model of the latest generation. Our extensive use of this type of simulator in the FAC course has proven to be a highly valuable adjunct to learning.

OR Experience

During the week, students are assigned to an operating room for a total of 6 1/2 hours over two days. In the OR, you will have the opportunity to perform basic and advanced airway management techniques which may include bag-mask ventilation, placement of a laryngeal mask airway and endotracheal intubation. In addition, you may be able to insert IV’s and assist with placement of arterial lines.

You will also be exposed to pain management techniques and the use of hypnotic agents for sedation. These skills will be useful to you in the future regardless of which field of medical practice you enter.

Course Text

Course reading materials consist of algorithms which outline the acute management of cardiac arrest, symptomatic bradycardias and tachycardias, stroke, ACS, submersion and hypothermia. Other course materials include drugs used in treatment of acute cardiac events. The American Heart Association text for ACLS is available for loan to FAC students. This text supplies the scientific rationale underpinning the acute care algorithms. The text is also available in the Health Affairs Bookstore, if any student would prefer to own a copy.

We hope that this course will provide an enjoyable and interesting approach to learning intensive care and advanced life support skills. We are enthusiastic about this course and we are glad that you selected it. Please contact Robert Kyle, DO, Charles Murphy, MS or Marietta Wagner, coordinator for FAC at 966-5136, or by e-mail at mwagner@aims.unc.edu if you have any questions or problems with the scheduling of the course.