Airway Matters

Develop safe airway management strategies for your patients

The safe management of a patient’s airway is one of the most challenging and complex tasks undertaken by a health professional in both hospital and pre-hospital settings - complications can result in devastating outcomes.

On this six-week course, you’ll learn how to improve safety, prevent complications and be prepared to manage difficulties in airway management. You’ll also discover techniques that can be applied to a number of hospital and pre-hospital settings.

Understand airway assessment and safety

You’ll start this course by discussing the meaning of safe airway management. Then, you’ll explore how to assess an airway and what kind of equipment to use in elective and emergency airway management.

In difficult or stressful situations, guidelines and cognitive aids can help with decision-making and human factors, so you’ll also take a look at some key examples.

You’ll also discuss the importance of involving patients in decision-making and how to develop safe strategies for more complex cases.

Explore airway management in specific scenarios

Airway management differs between children and adults, while factors such as pregnancy, obesity, or having a tracheostomy demand we adapt our techniques.

You will explore how airway management follows different practices around the globe, from high resource to low resource settings.

Discover the challenges and standards of pre-hospital airway management

In the pre-hospital setting, airway management presents its own challenges. You’ll be guided through governance, safety, and demonstrations of pre-hospital airway management techniques by the Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex.

You’ll cover topics ranging from pre-hospital anaesthesia and Rapid Sequence Induction to pre-oxygenation techniques and intra-arrest airway management.

This course, endorsed by the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Difficult Airway Society, is for all members of the multidisciplinary team who provide airway support to patients or care for patients with a compromised airway. This includes anaesthetists, anaesthesia associates, operating department practitioners, prehospital and emergency medicine physicians, paramedics, nurses, physiotherapists, adult and paediatric intensivists, head and neck surgeons and members of the cardiac arrest team.

Health professionals might find the Certificate of Achievement for this course useful for providing evidence of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) or commitment to their career.

This course, endorsed by the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Difficult Airway Society, is for all members of the multidisciplinary team who provide airway support to patients or care for patients with a compromised airway. This includes anaesthetists, anaesthesia associates, operating department practitioners, prehospital and emergency medicine physicians, paramedics, nurses, physiotherapists, adult and paediatric intensivists, head and neck surgeons and members of the cardiac arrest team.

Health professionals might find the Certificate of Achievement for this course useful for providing evidence of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) or commitment to their career.

• Improve your strategies to deal with the unexpected difficult airway and explore guidelines to use in special circumstances.
• Identify the key learning points and recommendations from the 4th National Audit Project (NAP4) on major complications of airway management in the UK.
• Apply the principles of multidisciplinary planning, communication and teamwork in shared airways interventions.
• Describe the technical and non-technical aspects of safe airway management for patients undergoing elective or emergency surgery, and the critically ill.
• Engage in a global discussion on airway matters with health professionals from around the world.
• Explore challenges and safe practices in managing airways in the pre-hospital setting.