Dear Members of the APLS Community, 

As we approach the end of what has been another remarkable year (and not for the good reasons!), I am currently feeling a great sense of gratitude. 

I am very thankful that we seem to have fared pretty well during the pandemic (compared to many other countries) and I look forward to the greater freedoms that will be coming to most of us over the next few weeks to months. I am also very grateful that the scientific community has been able to so rapidly develop & produce effective vaccines against COVID-19. I say this despite the mild ache I have in my arm after receiving my COVAX booster shot yesterday – I certainly feel a lot safer than I did 18 months ago! 

APLS Australia will emerge from the pandemic intact but not unscathed. As a not-for-profit organisation, our margins are very small and the large number of courses that we have had to cancel this year has resulted in our previously strong financial position becoming more precarious. What will save us next year, is the strong ongoing demand for our courses – the recent release of our course calendar was hugely popular! And we plan to open up even more places on courses and even more courses as the travel situation becomes clearer. 

The safety of our staff, our instructors, and our learners remains our greatest concern. We will continue to employ our current risk minimisation strategies and will be asking that all instructors and learners are fully vaccinated before coming onto our courses. 

I have been very heartened also by the great response we have had from our instructors to our call for help. Our instructors remain our greatest resource and we have really appreciated the commitment and loyalty of so many instructors who have responded by taking on extra courses for 2022. Cancelling courses due to a shortage of faculty is very disappointing for candidates, chews through our remaining financial reserves, and is our option of last resort.  

If you haven’t already done so, please log on to the APLS website and choose your courses for next year. We still advise that you choose mainly local courses in your own state, but we hope to be arranging more interstate travel in the second half of 2022. 

Updated ANZCOR Paediatric Life Support Guidelines 

Updates to the ANZCOR Paediatric Life Support guideline set (ANZCOR guidelines 12.1-12.5) have now been finalised.

I made a short video to summarise the changes in the guidelines. If you are interested, you can view the video here:

And the guidelines can be downloaded from the following links:

ANZCOR Guideline 12.1 - Paediatric Basic Life Support (PBLS) for health professionals - November 2021

ANZCOR Guideline 12.2 - Paediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) - November 2021

ANZCOR Guideline 12.3 - Management of other (non-arrest) arrhythmias in infants and children - November 2021

ANZCOR Guideline 12.4 - Paediatric resuscitation in special circumstances - November 2021

ANZCOR Guideline 12.5 - Management after Return of Spontaneous Circulation (ROSC) - November 2021

These guidelines are based upon the evidence from the ILCOR Consensus on Science with Treatment Recommendations (CoSTR) statements, were created by the ANZCOR Paediatric Advanced Life Support Sub-committee and will be the basis of our APLS life support curriculum.

Thanks to all of those in the APLS Community who took the time to provide feedback on the drafts. The guidelines have now been endorsed by both Australian and New Zealand Resuscitation Councils and have been published on their respective websites.

APLS 7th Edition Manual 

Jacquie Schutz and I have been working with other clinicians from around the world to finalise the 7th Edition of our International APLS Manual. The pandemic situation in Europe has resulted in some delays and I expect that the updated manual will now be released in the second half of 2022. Our local ANZ version will then follow soon after. 

Bring on 2022! 

So, despite what has certainly been a challenging 18 months, APLS Australia remains in a good position – largely due to the loyalty and efforts of our instructors and the ongoing strong demand by our learners. I am confident that together, we will rebound over the next year. As an organisation, we continue to improve and continue to make a positive impact on our communities. 

I thank you all for your ongoing efforts and your commitment. 

Please stay safe. 

Jason Acworth
President & Board Chair 
jason.acworth@apls.org.au   

We're delighted to announce 55 APLS courses for 2022 as part of our initial release, with courses across Australia in a range of metropolitan, regional and remote locations. 

You can search our 2022 calendar here. 

Introducing Instructor Development, a brand new e-learning course developed by the APLS education team. 

This e-learning package is available free of charge to every APLS and PLS instructor, and you can access via learning.apls.org.au or My APLS. 

One of 2021's biggest projects from our education team, Instructor Development is a skills refresher for all APLS instructors. It offers practical tips, key concepts and thought-provoking exercises to support you as a medical educator. 

In the excerpt above, Linda, an APLS director talks about the culture of curiosity that makes APLS instructors so special. 

Exploring the fundamentals of the structured approach to teaching as used on APLS courses, the e-learning package brings ideas from the GIC and ESDC courses for faculty to complete at their own pace. 

Available modules currently include Scenario Teaching, and Debriefing using the Learning Conversation. We will shortly be adding modules on Discussion Groups, Skills Teaching and Skills Assessment, which will be available in the new year. 

The package is particularly aimed at PLS provider instructors - APLS graduates who teach on PLS courses but haven't had chance to complete a full GIC - but there's something in there for everyone. 

Together with the GIC course for new instructors, the ESDC course for experienced instructors and coaching available on many APLS courses, Instructor Development is a fantastic addition to our suite of instructor resources. 

Try it out via APLS online learning and let us know your thoughts! 

"The refresher course is aimed at learners who have already done an APLS provider course, who are looking for something a bit different," says APLS Clinical Officer Noel Roberts who, as a member of the Course Development Committee was involved with the development of the new course.

"Candidates told us they were looking for potentially more complex scenarios, something a bit more challenging and outside of their comfort zone, as well as working with a group of learners who'd also all done the course before, so starting at a comparative clinical level. And no doubt they were hopefully looking to get it done in two days! Being busy clinicians who are time poor, two days is very attractive."

The concept for a refresher course came from our Big Survey back in 2017, when both a two-day version of APLS and a refresher course came out as the most popular options across our membership for the development of a brand new course offering.

The enforced COVID-19 break gave our course development and education teams a chance to really consider what a refresher course would look like – a significant job.

"It's impossible to fit the full provider program into two days," says Noel. "The Course Development Committee started discussing it seriously in October 2020, with lots of debate on what to leave in or out, writing new scenarios, two days or three days, and what a potential format might look like."

Over time, the 2 Day Refresher course will be available for general registration to any candidate who has completed an APLS course in the last 10 years. For the moment it is by invitation only as we continue to roll out the course. For the seven courses slated for 2022, we will invite you directly via email when you're eligible to register. APLS accreditation lasts five years, so we will invite candidates whose accreditation is within a year of expiry, with the emphasis on local candidates due to COVID-19 considerations.

For instructors, at this early stage faculty have been selected who usually have over five years' experience teaching on provider courses and some further education experience - including GIC, ESDC or other significant simulation teaching experience. You can nominate as usual via Choose your Courses.

The 2 Day Refresher packs a lot into a short space of time, but as ever, it's our learners that make the course worthwhile.

"People really enjoyed the experience and I think enjoyed the peer-facilitated culture around it," says Noel. "It's been a very collegial, learner centred approach - which is a trademark of the three-day course, but for refreshers, because you've got experienced participants, they contribute a lot to discussions and often run quite a lot of the feedback themselves, which is great."

"Especially for instructors, because we can watch and learn as well!"

So, at the beginning of September initial discussions with Srilal, Sharmila, Bhiruntha (Sri Lanka) & Swati (IT support in India) and Mike Sheppard (NZ) as the link, took place to see if there was anything we could do as a collaborative with the Sri Lankan faculty. With Jane Stanford “heading bush” Jane Cichero took on the lead for planning. 

Planning

Within a week of our first meeting (idea inception!) we had drafted a program – The Online Educational Skills Development Course (ESDC) – Sri Lanka. Over the following weeks we held almost weekly meetings with Sri Lanka & our IT support in India to deliver the course on the 15^th, 16^th & 17^th October. The course was a half day course (5 1/2hrs), repeated each day with a faculty of 8 (pairs of 1 x Sri Lankan + 1 x Australian) and 16 participants (4 groups of 4). Start times were 0830 hrs Sri Lankan time, 1045 hrs Perth time & 1345 hrs EST (Melbourne & Sydney).

Program

The participants were given access to the recently released Instructor Development e-learning prior to the course of which the majority had completed. The principal format of the day was to do some initial work together as a whole group, view a video & then move to “breakout rooms” to reflect and practice skills covered in the previous video. The challenges for faculty in Sri Lanka that Srilal, Sharmila & Bhirutha had identified were debriefing, scenario teaching and discussion groups, so the program focussed on these areas. As per usual format in GIC’s & ESDC’s, peer support, feedback & development were role modelled and peer to peer feedback promoted within the Sri Lankan faculty. See attached Appendix Program. The course was supported by IT expert Felicita from India who works for Laerdal and Pedistar. Pedistar already have a strong relationship with the Sri Lanka simulation community of education.

The current priorities and actions of the IDC include:

• Generic instructor courses have been refined to include videoconferencing and hub-based small group models. During lockdowns this included some courses with one of the three days totally online with a focus on interactive presentations and discussion groups. These courses have been well received and have allowed us to continue to run 6 instructor courses in 2020/21 despite the many obstacles. Thanks to all the instructors involved for their commitment and flexibility. 
  
  
• Continued improvement of the Educational Skills Development Course to offer existing instructors to further develop their teaching skills and develop our future Course Coaches, Directors or ESDC/GIC instructors. In May 2021 the ESDC was followed by the inaugural 2 Day Refresher course with an opportunity for instructors to further practice and develop their teaching skills. 
  
  
• Developing online learning resources for instructors and instructor courses. Scenario teaching, learning conversation and discussion group modules have been developed and are available for PLS and APLS instructors. 
  
  
• The development of “What makes an APLS instructor” - an introduction to the culture of APLS presented by passionate APLS instructors. 
  
  
• The course coaching role has been somewhat constrained in 2020/21 by course scheduling and instructor/coach availability. The IDC is performing an ongoing review of coaching resources and support to hopefully enhance coaching opportunities into the future.
  
  
• Development of an online coaching role and technology to support remote instructor support. This has been successfully trialled at a number of provider courses, GIC and Refresher course.
  
  
• Development of improved processes for instructor course feedback including QR codes. 
  
  
• Review of director support material and selection processes. 
  
  
• Refinement of instructor nomination and selection processes. 

Thanks to all committee members, instructors and staff who have contributed to the Instructor Development Committee’s work in 2021.

• All at APLS would like to send our sincere thanks to Jon Darvill, a longtime instructor and strong advocate for PLS on his recent retirement from all things APLS. Jon has instructed and coordinated extensively both across Australia and internationally, served as a valuable member of the PLS Committee, and volunteered his time to present some of our online modules, so we're delighted that future faculty members will still have the chance to share his wisdom, albeit virtually. All the best for the future Jon. 

• Returning to APLS after some time away? Click 'Update my Details' in My APLS to make sure we've still got your correct job title, place of work and contact info. 

• As mentioned in the earlier article about Sri Lanka, our Generic Instructor Courses (GIC) have looked a little different over the past year, running with a hub-based model with faculties and candidates in different states, connected remotely. Our most recent GIC had faculty members and candidates in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide experiencing the same course, breaking out for small group sessions in their own location and joining together for larger group plenaries. This is together with an expanded suite of pre-course resources. Thanks to all involved for their patience and enthusiasm as we've developed our hub-based model, it's been great to keep the GIC process going despite the restrictions of COVID-19. 

• A reminder of our employee assistance program, EAP Assist: here in the APLS office we talk about our community being a family, and we do mean it. EAP Assist is available, for free and with full confidentiality, to any instructor who might feel they need some extra support. You can contact EAP Assist any time via their website or on 0407 086 000, just use the reference 'APLS'.

• Course feedback: candidate feedback forms after a course are now submitted via QR code rather than the old paper versions. We also just trialled a digital version of candidate assessment forms, which we hope to be able to roll out on more courses next year. 

• And finally... Best wishes of the season from all at APLS HQ to our fantastic community of clinicians. The APLS Head Office will be closed from Fri 17th Dec until Mon 10th Jan for the Christmas break, and emails and calls will not be monitored during that period. Have a safe and happy Christmas and a wonderful new year. See you in 2022!