onlincourse

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Paediatric Perioperative Medicine

Explore the perioperative journey, from preoperative assessment to postoperative recovery, to improve paediatric care with the University College in London.

Duration

5 weeks

Weekly study

4 hours

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How it works

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Improve paediatrics with a multidisciplinary approach to perioperative medicine

Surgery can be an overwhelming experience for any patient, let alone a child. However providing compassionate and individualised perioperative paediatric care ensures comfort, manages well-being, and helps optimise patient outcomes.

This five-week course from the University College London (UCL) takes a multidisciplinary approach and applies it to paediatric care, helping healthcare professionals make young patients and their families feel supported throughout their perioperative journey.

Gain essential preoperative planning strategies

A child’s journey to surgery includes careful preoperative planning and tailored postoperative management. On this course, you’ll gain tools and expert insights to deliver successful patient outcomes.

First, you’ll understand an adolescent surgical patient’s unique anatomical, physiological, psychological and social needs.

This will help aid in your completion of preoperative assessments and assist with communicating risks and consent to their guardians.

Support your medical team during paediatric surgery and postoperative recovery

Next, you’ll focus on surgical best practices like safe anaesthesia administration and adolescent airway management.

During the course you’ll equip yourself with the tools to oversee postoperative care by identifying complications, aiding with analgesia and pain management, and responding to emergencies.

Make a difference in specialised paediatric medicine

This course also offers additional training in specialised areas of paediatric care, including trauma, neonatal, cardiac, neuro, and transplant surgery.

By the end of this course, you’ll feel confident in your ability to navigate the complexities of paediatric perioperative care, ensuring optimal outcomes for young patients and their families.

Week 1
Introduction
- Welcome
  Meet our course creators
- Introducing the child
  Understanding anatomical, physiological and emotional needs of the paediatric patient.
- Introducing anaesthetic equipment
  An introduction to the basis of anaesthetic equipment and airway management.
- Different age categories
  Exploring the physical and psychological differences between neonates, infants, toddlers, children and adolescents.
- Special considerations in children
  Discussing children with extra needs.
- Final considerations and summary
  Takeaway messages and testing your knowledge from week 1.
Week 2
Pre-operative
- Preoperative assessment
  Delving into the world of preoperative assessment and the unique areas in paediatric practice.
- Perioperative anxiety
  Understanding and identifying perioperative anxiolysis and ways to prevent and tackle the matter.
- Consent
  Consent in children, challenges and what it is all about.
- Following the child through to theatres
  In this section we follow the child through the beginning of their perioperative journey.
- Meet the team and the environment
  Meet the key players in the theatre team, understanding human factors and preparing the environment for the child requiring intervention.
- Final considerations and summary
  Takeaway messages and testing your knowledge from week 2.
Week 3
Intra-operative
- Induction and maintenance of anaesthesia
  Induction and maintenance of anaesthesia. In this section we discuss inhalation and total intravenous anaesthesia techniques and understanding their respective benefits and risks.
- The paediatric airway
  Understanding the paediatric airway. We explore basic to advanced airway techniques.
- Drugs, regional anaesthesia and intra-operative emergencies
  Here we discuss anaesthetic drugs, regional anaesthesia and anaesthetic emergencies.
- Paediatric surgery
  We discuss elective and emergency surgery. Here we meet the surgeons and they tell us their experiences.
- Final considerations and summary
  Takeaway messages and testing your knowledge from week 3.
Week 4
Post-operative
- Recovery
  Meet our recovery team and the importance of training. What determines daycase vs inpatient stay.
- Recovery issues
  Recovery problems and finding solutions.
- Analgesia
  Exploring the analgesic ladder, acute vs chronic pain.
- Surgical complications
  We discuss surgical complications, the surgeons perceptive, and the psychological impact it has on the child. We discuss rehabilitation and introduce the idea of transitioning from paediatric to adult services.
- Remote site
  Exploring remote site anaesthesia and its challenges.
- Final considerations and summary
  Takeaway messages and testing your knowledge from week 4.
Week 5
Special circumstances
- ED & Trauma
  We explore emergency medicine and trauma in the paediatric patient.
- The Neonate
  Understanding the neonatal anatomical and physiological differences. We look at emergency situations for the neonate, anaesthesia and surgical considerations for this patient group.
- Cardiac surgery
  We discuss cardiac conditions in the child and anaesthetic management for this patient subgroup.
- Neurosurgery
  Understanding children with neurological conditions. We look at children subjected to head trauma and discuss neurosurgical emergencies.
- Transplant surgery
  Considerations of children after transplant surgery.
- Final considerations and summary
  Takeaway messages and testing your knowledge from week 5.