At the last SMACC, I yet again taught the surgical airway station of the airway workshop. I was joined with amazing faculty and together we taught 160 people our method of performing cricothyrotomy. We've been doing this for 4 years, but this past session was the first time it really felt just right. In this podcast, I want to go over some of the lessons learned and how they may contribute to your own self-training on surgical airway.

Models

Each participant had their own 3-d printed model. This was absolutely crucial and a big difference from prior sessions.

We have found models to offer a more realistic experience than animal parts​1​

Who Gets a Cric & Mental Prep

including a discussion of CricCon2

see this prior episode for more on CricCon

Finding the Membrane/Cut Site

Start Low, feel high

Laryngeal Handshake

We teach Rich's choke hold as a backup method​2–4​

* Practice_of_Ultrasound_Guided_Palpation_of_Neck

Build the Model

We used the same steps as in my how to practice crics video

Teaching the participants to build their own was hopefully encouragement to get their own model and practice each month.

All they need is:

* the 3D-printed model* Good gaffers tape* 4x4s* Plastic Bags

We had a few of the frova cric trainer holders, which would have been nice to use, but we didn't have enough for everybody, so we left them in the box.

Rapid Cycle Deliberate Practice (RCDP)

I learned about this teaching method from Alia Dharamsi at the amazing ResusTO conference. I also used the a modified version of her delphi-derived steps as a handout taped to each station.

Hear more from Alia

* Alia Dharamsi on Delphi-Study and RCDP

Alia Dharamsi

Steps of RCDP​5​

* Splitting Cases/Procedures into small segments* Micro-Debrief after each one* Add progressive challengesfrom Taras & Everett

* EMCrit-Modified Cric Steps* The Original Delphi Article

Iterations

* Step-by-Step through the Procedure * Dominant Side Palpable Anatomy* Look-Up* Non-Dominant Side* Non-Palpable Anatomy / Cut and then spread to air* Under Stress

I was demonstrating up front with a video camera--this was huge as it allowed real-time correction with a much lower instructor to participant ratio.