Ultrasound.. the way to go..

I am fortunate that i am able to attend courses organized by the WINFOCUS group. I went for the Trauma Life Support a month ago and currently attending the one focussed on echocardiography. Its a structured simple course organized for critical care use and I am thankful that I've been blessed to take up this opportunity.Besides regional anaesthesia, this would be the other new thing i've really learnt recently.

Ultrasound usage for critical care is essential for my everyday clinical practice. This is more so during oncall. I've had few cases previously where i thought having the necessary skill in ultrasound imaging could give me advantage in determining the most possible diagnosis for me to proceed with the management.

I've been blindly using the ultrasound machine in ICU for the last one year. (blind as in no formal teaching telling my how to do it properly).I did not have too much difficulty to handle the machine as I'm quite used to it with my blocks and IV access. Its just when it comes to echo, you just learn it as you see how your consultant doing it. The results? i was only able to see whether the heart is contracting or not.. or the contraction is good or otherwise.. hahahaha but at least its better than nothing right?
I'm very impressed with how they came up with the syllabus as it was easy to understand and brings a whole new spectrum to my future practice. Understanding concepts and answering why and how certainly satisfied my intellectual hunger. Having the world expert to teach is a plus point and i must thank WINFOCUS Malaysia to initiate such a wonderful project. Of course the highlight of the day was doing the simulation training and having an all anaesthetist team (Hady, Shahnaz) & cardiac surgeon(Adli) is not as easy to handle as you think it is! hahahaha