This is an original article written and edited by Dr. Anoop Prathapan and first published on the 7th of August 2022.
I wished to temporarily break free from the mundane monotonicity of my job so badly, that I decided to stop for a breath when it was time for my BLS/ACLS card renewal. KIMS Trivandrum, an American Heart Association (AHA) approved training center, was my only choice of a training centre to renew the card, ever since I first did the course with them in 7/2019.
The course is stretched over three days. Mine, this time, was on the 4th, 5th, and 6th of August 2022.
The first day was dedicated to Basic Life Support (BLS) training. There were demonstrations on mannequins and video lessons for the first 5 hours. Later, there was an examination on the same day, testing theory knowledge and skills.
The next two days were dedicated to ACLS training and evaluation. ACLS is the more complicated fragment where you learn skills to revive a patient from Cardiac arrest, Acute Coronary Syndrome, Stroke, and Arrythmias. It involves procedural skills plus medicines and the know-how of the logical sequence in which these has to be performed. It is not easy for an Indian MBBS degree holder who has never been taught these, the systematic way, (the key word here being 'systematic') to amass the skills the way they want us to, in under 36 hours and complete the practical examination where your skills, knowledge, and adherence to the logical sequence recommended by the AHA will be tested.
The entire course is structured and delivered by the American Heart Association, and I should say that KIMS is an outstanding facilitator. Both courses run video-based and allow time for the trainees to practice on mannequins.
The trainers were all AHA Certified ACLS/BLS instructors, and all were exceptionally stellar. I was astonished by their tenacity and competence – virtues that are so limited these days amongst medical professionals. The team of instructors was led by Dr. Shameem, an emergency physician, who was given generous backing by Dr. Lizy Vincent, a family medicine specialist, Ms. Kanu Dev, Manager- Nursing Quality, Ms. Meera - Nursing Supervisor, Mr. Vineeth and Mr. Lijo – all of whom were equally incredible. Ms. Kanu Dev has remarkable teaching skills, as I found the way she explains, fairly simple, making the content, easy to assimilate.
The course administrator, Mr. Syam S, an extremely helpful guy, needs a special mention as his was the most called out name, on all three days, as I observed.
We were a batch of 28 comprising both doctors and nurses. There was coffee, snacks, and lunch on all three days – included in the package and the food served was pretty decent.
Apart from successfully completing the pre-requisites to renew my BLS/ACLS cards, I got a sneak peek at a hospital that has strict protocols and does not tolerate breaches of such protocols. Further, as I understand, the hospital has appraisal formulations that never allow the underperformers to hang on for long. Moreover, I got to see a hospital that is clean, adequately maintained, with clean washrooms (that require special mention) and has good food outlets at every possible corner(s).
I am glad I got the much-needed break and I feel super-charged to get back to work with the knowledge I gained over these three days.
Thank you Dr. Shameem and team for the wonderful three days.
Thank you KIMS for the wonderful academic environment.
Dr. Anoop Prathapan
09400643477
anoop.prathapan@gmail.com
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