ESAIC Advanced Patient Safety Course

Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 

6 – 7 March 2023 

Faculty: 

Dr Daniel Arnal, Madrid, Spain 

Prof. Dr Benedikt Preckel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 

Dr. Maria Lema Tome, Madrid, Spain

In early 2023, we held the second edition of the ESAIC Advanced Patient Safety Course in Amsterdam. For the second time, this course was completely sold out. Amsterdam is an excellent location for this event and is very easy to travel to. Attendees also joined the faculty for a meal on the evening of the first day to have a chance to experience local culture. We had attendees register from all over Europe and even from Australia and Kenya. The APSC remains an extremely popular course for ESAIC members.  

What is the APSC? 

The ESAIC Advanced Patient Safety Course is a live course that teaches patient safety tools for acute settings. We offer modern teaching using interactive group work and innovative 360-degree videos of crucial scenarios, followed by debriefing, to bring examples of critical situations to life.  

It is also important to point out that healthcare professionals attending 100% of the ASPC and who pass the course assessment will hold the ESAIC Advanced Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Patient Safety Certificate. We propose that bearers of this certificate be regarded as patient safety champions within their own institutions.    

Who is this course for?  

The APSC is aimed at all Health care professionals, patients and stakeholders interested in patient safety in acute settings: Intensive Care, Perioperative Care, Anaesthesia, Emergency and other locations where acute patients are treated.  

“Fantastic course, a must for every anesthesiologist. Should be in the basic package of the training.”  

One of the unique aspects of this course is the use of 360 videos. Attendees use special headsets where they can insert their smartphones. This allows them to watch the scenarios in an immersive way, experiencing the clinical; event as if they are in the same room. After watching these videos, they work in small groups to identify different safety aspects. Experienced faculty then give a detailed debriefing to illustrate the crucial points.  

This course is highly interactive from the first introduction sessions. Participants are drawn into discussion and group activities. Experiences are shared, and they can see that colleagues in different countries experience safety issues in unique ways. We regularly receive feedback that this is vital to the interactive work.  

“I highly recommend taking this course as it gives us a condensed perspective on patient safety and allows us to exchange experiences among different healthcare systems and countries.” 

“Excellent course with high-quality education materials – the videos were interesting and well-made, and the manual is superb. Loved the discussion on the course with colleagues from other countries – there was a real sense of openness and honesty from all participants.”  

What makes this course unique? 

• Attendees will understand a fully integrated vision of the patient safety culture during intensive care and anaesthesia, applicable to all acute settings.   
• The programme provides a framework to apply patient safety tools in different situations.   
• Attendees will train in the methodology to learn from errors, the importance of critical incident reporting, system analysis, corrective action implementation and feedback.   
• Attendees will be offered an experience of the importance and relevance of human factors and practice resources to improve resolving crisis situations in acute settings.   
• We encourage attendees to advocate for patient safety in their work environments.   

• We help attendees join patient safety-related networks.    

The course is accompanied by an extensive manual of over 100 pages that can be used as a resource even after the course ends. It provides follow-up reading, connections to resources and critical advice for supporting the learning that took place.