BASIC course

Basic Assessment and Support in Intensive Care

The BASIC course is designed to teach the practical management of critically ill patients. It consists of lectures, skill stations and interactive tutorials covering many aspects of the care of critically ill patients, with an emphasis on supportive management, particularly mechanical ventilation.

2025 BASIC course dates are:

  • 19 - 21 February
  • 26 - 28 March
  • 30 April - 2 May
  • 27 - 29 August 
  • 24 - 26 September
  • 8 - 10 October

All courses start at 5pm on the first day and finish at 5pm on the final day.

The course is suited to practitioners from all disciplines who provide care to the intensive care patients, but has particular application to those practitioners from smaller units. Staff who would benefit from the course include:

  • House officers, senior house officers and registrars in intensive care, anaesthesia, general medicine, surgery and emergency medicine
  • Senior intensive care nursing staff (and nurses from other acute care areas) who provide care for critically ill patients, and wish to develop advanced nursing practice
  • Senior medical officers without vocational registration in intensive care medicine, who maintain a service commitment to and an interest in intensive care
  • ICU and anaesthetic  are: technicians

Numbers of participants is strictly limited for this course. There is a waitlist due to high demand.

Topics include:

  • Assessment of the seriously ill patient
  • Mechanical ventilation: modes, strategies for optimising ventilators, troubleshooting
  • Diagnosis and management of: airway management and airway obstruction; acute respiratory failure
  • Severe trauma
  • Severe sepsis and septic shock
  • Interpretation of arterial blood gases
  • Sedation and analgesia

Skill stations include:

  • Airway management
  • Vascular access
  • Mechanical ventilation in the Intensive Care Unit 
  • Trauma Defibrillation and pacing