Throughout my career, I have got out of more trouble, and probably saved more lives, through meticulous attention to the ABCs than through high-acuity, low-occurrence procedures. That is not to diminish the importance of the difficult things we occasionally have to do. HALO procedures matter precisely because, when they are needed, they may be lifesaving. We teach many of them at ResusPro and will continue to do so.

But they are not what most often determines whether a resuscitation goes well.

Much more commonly, the difference is made by doing the ordinary things exceptionally well: recognising deterioration early, positioning a patient properly, delivering oxygen effectively, ventilating well with a bag and mask, getting good vascular access, preparing properly before a procedure, anticipating what might go wrong and making sure the whole team knows the plan.

We have now been running courses at ResusPro for a year. During that time we have taught on our own courses, hosted regional training days and worked with doctors and nurses across a wide range of Emergency Medicine experience and training. The feedback has been enormously encouraging, but it has also reinforced something that I have increasingly felt for some time.

There is a real need for focused, immersive training in the fundamentals of resuscitation.

That is not simply an observation from simulation.

Over many years of after-action reviews, case discussions and incident reviews, the same lessons recur. When things become difficult, the problem is often not that somebody lacked knowledge of an exotic procedure. More often, something fundamental was missed, delayed or not done reliably enough. A technically successful intervention can still sit within a poorly managed resuscitation.

There is little point in sophisticated damage-control resuscitation if we have not first achieved effective oxygenation and ventilation. There is little point in achieving an excellent laryngoscopic view if the patient has not been adequately prepared for the physiological consequences of anaesthesia and positive-pressure ventilation. And getting a tube through the cords is not the end of airway management if nobody then thinks carefully about sedation, ventilation, haemodynamics and what happens next.

So we have decided to pilot some courses that focus more deliberately on these core elements of resuscitation.

And where better to start than with A?

View our Airway+ courses here and secure your place.