As professionals, we all need to undertake CPD every year to make sure our knowledge and skills are up to date. For me this includes both aspects of my work – hospital medicine and mountain medicine. In April 2022 I attended a 2 day ‘Mountain Emergency Medicine’ CPD course organised by Dr Mike & Dr Karen Greene of Mountain and Expedition Emergency Medicine. Find out more about the course details and my thoughts in this review.
Company Overview
Mike and Karen Greene set up and run Mountain and Expedition Emergency Medicine to support learning in the mountain and wilderness medicine community. They provide a personal approach, tailoring learning events to your needs and provide expert education based on their wealth of mountain medicine experience and extensive teaching experience. They provide continuing professional development for anyone involved in mountain medicine. As mountain medicine needs to be practiced in the context of the outdoor environment, most of their teaching takes place in the outdoors.
Course Details
MEE Medicine run several courses throughout the year. I attended the Mountain Emergency Medicine Course in April 2022 in Snowdonia National Park, North Wales, UK. Group size varies but are generally small. There were 4 delegates on the course I did in April.
Cost
£260 includes the two day course, bunkhouse accommodation for two nights plus all food (a bargain!)
Prerequisite Specific Skills
All delegates had previously completed (or were completing) mountain medicine courses or qualifications to a high level e.g. the International Diploma in Mountain Medicine IDiMM). All but one were medical doctors. Mike and Karen are happy to discuss the suitability of their courses with people on an individual basis so if you haven’t completed the DiMM or you’re not a doctor, it’s worth getting in touch with them directly rather than assuming that you don’t meet the prerequisites. Useful pre-reading material was supplied.
Course Accreditation
Delegates received a Certificate of Attendance and 11 CPD points awarded by Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh.
The Faculty
The courses are taught by a team of highly experienced faculty – doctors with years of experience in mountain medicine as well as being experienced medical educators. The course I attended was taught by Dr Mike Greene, Dr Karen Green and Dr Jon Daillimore.
Course Overview & My Review
This two day course in the beautiful mountains of Snowdonia covered various mountain emergency and trauma topics including:
- chest trauma
- shock
- limb splintage
- brain injury
- multiple injured patient
- spinal injury
- hypothermia
- hyperthermia
- casualty evacuation.
We headed into the mountains on both days and did short mountain journeys making lots of stops along the way to discuss topics and get hands on with practical skills and scenario practice. The weekend started with practical skills sessions and lots of simple scenarios and worked up to larger scale more complex cases over the course of the two days. There was so much packed into the two days but it never felt rushed, it was excellently planned and organised.
This is not the first time I’ve been taught by Mike, Karen and Jon, and as always, the level of teaching was brilliant and right up to date with the latest evidence based medicine. Their highly realistic scenarios aimed to challenge and stretch us whilst supporting us and providing useful feedback. Group discussion was encouraged and there was plenty of time for questions and reflection on route. The faculty used a variety of teaching styles which complemented each other well, including practical demonstrations, practical assessment, laminated handouts to aid decision making on the hill, group discussion and filmed scenarios to facilitate deeper reflective practice and chance to improve on the most complex scenarios.
The accommodation was a well equipped and spacious bunk house only a short drive away from the mountains. Food was provided – tasty home cooked food and plenty of it! Delegates made their own way to and from the course in cars with lift shares and each day we shared transport into the mountains and back.
My Verdict
I would absolutely recommend this course for anyone needing a mountain medicine refresher. It was excellent and left me feeling more confident, competent and energised for further learning, teaching and practising mountain medicine. It is also such good value for money! I will definitely be signing up to more CPD courses with Mountain and Expedition Emergency Medicine in the future!
On the back of this course I have applied to join my local mountain rescue team after thinking about it for years and being inspired by Mike and Karen’s passion – a huge thank you to them!
