It is never easy to be an adult learner; during the past 12 months, there have been so many competing interests for busy clinicians to try juggle: heavy clinical workloads, added to by low staffing levels due to high rates of sick leave amongst colleagues, allied with work-life balance, family demands, and trying to exercise and keep healthy.

Training can often understandably slip down the ladder of such priorities. It is in this context that the need for quality, credible and practical courses, locally available for doctors working in Emergency Medicine has never been more necessary in Ireland. It is also a testament to physicians working in Ireland that we have seen such interest in our CPD support scheme courses in RCSI. I am very grateful to our coordinators and admin staff, and to our simulation technicians for their fabulous efforts over the year that have allowed us to cover challenging scenarios including resuscitative hysterotomies, lateral canthotomies, chest drains, surgical airways, and thoracotomies, amongst many other topics. 

The potential strength of interactive workshops and simulation exercise requires good engagement and participation by candidates and is one of the pleasures that I enjoy in being part of this academic programme. It is humbling to reflect on the number of physicians that have engaged so positively in our courses over the last 12 months, and I would like to give a sincere thank you for your participation and look forward to hosting you again with our 2022/23 programme. 

Nigel Salter – Emergency Medicine lead faculty

It has been a pleasure to lead on the surgical technical skills offering for the Continuous Professional Development Support Scheme (CPDSS) for the last ten years. The course choices have expanded over the years ranging both in specialty and complexity. The types of skills taught, and courses developed have been inspired by the participants from the CPDSS programme and the experienced and generous faculty teaching with us.

The aim is to enable the CPDSS participants to learn and practice new surgical skills, use medical instrumentation and medical devices in a simulated environment and ultimately increase patient safety when back in the hospital setting.

The administration team Paula Mansell, Adina Orac, and Samantha Henson have been instrumental in enabling the scheme to expand. Miroslav Voborsky has taken on simulation challenges and technical support with open hands. It is really the enthusiasm and the sheer interest the participants who take part in the courses that make this programme a pleasure to teach and develop for the faculty and I on this programme.

Thank you and looking forward to our exciting new programme in 2022-2023.

Leonie Heskin - Technical Skills lead faculty